Car-Free Streets

A few highlights from the fourth year of car-free summer Saturdays on Park Avenue and Lafayette Street, which, despite the threat of rain in the beginning, seemed just as popular as ever:

Get ready to stretch out your legs, New York City. The fourth annual Summer Streets starts tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. -- the first of three car-free Saturdays on Park Avenue.

Clarence put together these highlights from the morning presser with former Mets southpaw John Franco, all-time Knicks overachiever John Starks, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announcing the 2011 season of Summer Streets and Weekend Walks.

This August, Park Avenue will again be closed to motor vehicles for three Saturday mornings as part of the fourth annual Summer Streets event.

The traffic and transportation committee of Brooklyn CB 10 endorsed the concept of a weekend street closure along Bay Ridge's Third Avenue Wednesday night, but due to a large number of unknowns, they held off on voting for the actual proposal. The elected officials supporting the Bay Ridge Summer Streets plan -- State Senator Marty Golden and City Council Member Vincent Gentile -- are now working to find answers to the community board's questions in time for the full board to vote on the plan.

A quick note from Brooklyn Community Board 10 regarding a meeting set for 7:00 tonight:

Should a pedestrian-friendly Times Square serve as a model for other American cities? Who would ask such a thing? Certainly not the real New Yorkers who constitute the city's hard-bitten press corps.

Los Angeles's CicLAvia is more than a seven and a half mile street party with a funny name. In a city so closely associated with cars and car culture, it's one of the many signs that Los Angeles is changing and one's status is not represented by the vehicle one owns.