Summer Streets Will Stretch From Brooklyn Br. to W. 200th St.

The NYC Department of Transportation’s annual “Summer Streets” program is gearing up, meaning that dedicated stroll-takers and bikers will soon be able to utilize special corridors free from car traffic, at least on certain select days.

Manhattan’s route is longer than it has ever been, stretching for more than 10 miles from the Brooklyn Bridge to Dyckman St., in Inwood, otherwise known as W. 200th St. It will include portions of Lafayette St., Broadway, Park Ave., and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard.

There’s also an option to fork off at W. 110 St. for a fifteen-block alternate route, which will end at W. 125th St. The program will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on three Saturdays next month: August 2, August 9, and August 16.

“You know me, I like to push the envelope,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said at a humid July 1 rally on the subject. It was held at Foley Square, which he pointed out was near the “Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Rodriguez explained that by 2022, after prodding Mayor Eric Adams, he had been able to “take ‘Summer Streets’ [from the Brooklyn Bridge] to 109th St.” Last year, he oversaw the program’s extension to 125th St. However, with this year’s edition making its way all the way to Dyckman, Summer Streets has now credibly conquered most of Manhattan.

Rodriguez hailed the diversity of the crowd gathered behind him, as well as the presence of representatives from faith groups and cultural institutions, saying that it symbolized New York City getting “ready” to be “outside and in the streets.” In fact, as he reminded everybody, it was still officially “We Outside Summer”–which is what Mayor Eric Adams has dubbed a variety of outdoors-oriented initiatives being undertaken by city agencies.

According to Rodriguez, it will be “the largest” corridor of its type in the United States. He also noted that the “Summer Streets” tradition is part of his agency’s larger “Open Streets” project, which involves shutting down individual city streets.

East Side City Council Member Harvey Epstein, who was hours away from being announced the winner of a tight primary race for City Council’s District 2, showed up to lend support to the cause.

“We have this great city, and the way to explore the city is by walking it, biking it, or taking public transportation,” he said. “When we opened some of Broadway last year–in my district–it was a game changer for the community, for businesses, for the neighborhood.”

“Doing [Summer Streets] every year, and expanding the hours and expanding it throughout the borough...it’s really an opportunity for all New Yorkers to maybe go into a neighborhood they haven’t been before,” Epstein added. “This is such a rich part of our tradition. Selfishly, this is the greatest city in the world...but we need to make sure it stays the greatest city in the world.”

Summer Streets began in 2008, after being proposed by then-DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Around 50,000 people showed up to each of its first three iterations, according to a 2009 article in The New York Times. It was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was confined to Manhattan until 2023, when it expanded to all five boroughs.