Summer Streets 2010: Dumpster Diving for the Masses

Summer_Streets_Route_Map_2010.jpgSee the full-size route map.

Here we are, halfway through July, which means Summer Streets are coming around again. NYCDOT announced today that the city’s flagship car-free event will be happening on three Saturdays in August — the 7th, 14th, and 21st.

The route and the times haven’t changed — you’ll need to get an early start to take full advantage of the 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. schedule — but there will be a few more places to stop and switch things up along the way. As the Times reported, three "dumpster pools" will be set up on Park Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, with elevated pool decks attached. The dumpsters have never stored refuse, which might take some of the freegan romance out of swimming in them, but I’m guessing you’ll still have to show up at these things pretty early to beat the massive lines.

Just to take stock for a moment: If you’ll recall, back in 2008, the first Summer Streets attracted a barrage of coverage. Then last year, ho-hum, it already seemed like the new normal. This year, after watching the permanent transformation of Times Square unfold and seeing bold plans emerge to remake 34th Street, Summer Streets feels kinda traditional. Would summer in New York be the same without it?

So it goes with the evolution of our streets.

  • Derby

    Festival transforms autobahn into world’s longest street party
    Apparently, the organizer had the idea while witnessing something similar in New York in the 1980s. So the idea of Summer Streets had to be looped back via Bogota to be rediscovered.

  • Moe

    Reference is probably to the Sunday closings of the Bronx River Pkway in Westchester which has been going on in a low-key way for a long time.

  • Talk about street closings — see http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100718-28583.html for an event in Germany which closed 60 kilometers of the A40 Autobahn!

  • Felix

    It ends much too early.

  • lee

    seriously, 1pm? I saw posted signs and thought they were wrong. I’m barely out of bed at 1pm on the weekends.

  • Ian Turner

    Felix, Lee: Even on Summer Streets, the auto is still king.

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