Car-Free Streets

On Saturday, ten blocks of the Bedford Avenue retail strip were closed to cars and open to people for Williamsburg Walks, one of the first neighborhood car-free events to partner with DOT's Weekend Walks program. The street was full of people enjoying the sunny weather -- at chairs and tables, listening to live music, playing games, lounging on grass, and stopping in at shops and restaurants along the way.

Because of its proximity to Central Park, you might be forgiven for assuming East Harlem has plenty of open space. But a new report from New Yorkers for Parks argues that the neighborhood is isolated from many of its parks by busy roads and other barriers. Streets and sidewalks, the group says, can play a crucial role in encouraging physical activity as part of the neighborhood's fight against above-average asthma and obesity problems.

We interrupt our post-Sandy coverage to bring you these pictures from Halloween last night at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The Jackson Heights Green Alliance put on the event, "Trick or Treat in the Street," and Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson sent over these photos. This is the kind of thing residents can do in the neighborhood after a successful grassroots campaign to permanently repurpose this block, which used to be a through street for motor vehicle traffic, as a public space.

Jeff Prant sent in this photo from last Sunday's Summer Space, which just wrapped another season, on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Thanks to reader Jeff Prant for sending in these pics from the Midtown section of Saturday's Summer Streets installment. I caught the tail end of the event, and turnout seemed as strong as ever.

Remember way back in 2008, when New York's inaugural Summer Streets dominated the news cycle? By the time August '09 rolled around, even Fox was on board.

"It's just a street. It's asphalt. It doesn't look like anything," said Jackson Heights resident Donovan Finn of the block of 78th Street between Northern Avenue and 34th Avenue. "But it feels like something." Finn's neighbors, it seems, agree.

Summer Streets will return this August.

New Yorkers got an unusual taste of what car-free streets feel like yesterday, thanks to the combination of Occupy Wall Street's May Day march and the New York Police Department.