[4th Avenue on July 1]
Yesterday, the city/Citi announced plans for the annual Summer Streets ... coming up on Aug. 5, Aug. 12 and Aug. 19.
Per the Summer Streets site:
Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City’s most valuable public space—our streets. On three consecutive Saturdays in August, nearly seven miles of NYC's streets are opened for people to play, run, walk and bike. Summer Streets provides space for healthy recreation and encourages New Yorkers to use more sustainable forms of transportation. In 2016, nearly 300,000 people took advantage of the open streets.
Summer Streets is modeled on other events from around the world including Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia and the Paris Plage in France and has since inspired other such events around the world such as CicloRecreo Via and London's Regent Street Summer Streets.
Held between 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, Summer Streets extends from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Park Avenue and connecting streets, with easy access from all points in New York City, allowing participants to plan a trip as long or short as they wish. All activities at Summer Streets are free of charge, and designed for people of all ages and ability levels to share the streets respectfully.
As in previous years, the car-free, Street-Festival-Free zone includes Lafayette, Astor Place and Fourth Avenue.
There will be several activities at Astor Place:
To explore all of your senses, the Astor Place Rest Stop will for the first time feature The Citi Experience inviting the public to tap into all of their senses with a 360 degree Mt. Everest VR experience and a New York-centric mini golf course.
And!
Smellmapping Astor Place
DOT Art and the Village Alliance have partnered with designer Kate McLean to produce a Smellmap of the Astor Place neighborhood. Three smellwalks were hosted over the past few months with local residents and stakeholders to gather smell data/information. Participants were asked to explore the environment strictly through their sense of smell by smell catching (receiving smell info), smell hunting (searching for smell info) and lastly free smelling (a mini smell research project). Mclean has collected all the smell data and visualized the findings as a colorful smellmap. McLean will be on-site to lead two walks at 9 am and 11 am to continue building on this research and invites participants to incorporate their findings into a large-scale smellmap available on-site.
Take the #smelltour ( not kidding) at #SummerStreets 2017. Yes, dog poop and garbage is in the list #1010WINS pic.twitter.com/tYxVFxAkww
— Juliet Papa (@winsjuliet) July 11, 2017
Head over to the Summer Streets site for more details.
25 comments:
On the other hand, just one more weekend street closure that translates into no MTA bus service for people who need to use the bus. The lack of bus service will be compounded if any subway-work closures.
And the street closure will mean spillover traffic congestion elsewhere - again impacting on MTA buses.
How about moving Summer Streets to the Bronx instead of Manhattan?
okay where do I begin.... Citi Bank has conned the City into allowing it to have giant advertisement day by encouraging citizens to get on a Citi bike spread the word about Citi Bank. Another corporate takeover of Astor place with touch screens for the kiddies and maybe even face painting, fun. If you head on this day please be away that a lot of people of bikes believe they are training for race in France. Pedestrians are not welcome.
Now the smell New York thing.... really we try not to smell our streets that why most of us walk as quickly as we can.
Smellmap? The whole city reeks of garbage juice and the scent of fried goat anus. Nothing else exists until fall arrives. I cannot wait. 🤢
What there's no urine on that "smell legend"? Shouldn't it be listed under "emissions"?
Something smells and it isn't me....or the rest of the residents of the neighborhood. What smells is the bill of goods the city was sold on this project which is a visual disaster.
What smells is government doing a lousy job as always.
Smellmapping? I have some ideas for authentic EV smells.
Summer Streets is a wonderful idea that has now become a summer tradition. Oh, grow-up. How much are you really inconvenienced Annon@7:33? Get off the "I'm annoyed at everything train!!" The world doesn't revolve around your likes an dislikes. I am thankful that EV Grieve allows space for people like you to vent.
"homeless guy"? Really? And I like my goat pooter sauteed in garlic and butter, thanks.
I'm looking forward to it. Summer Streets is one of the best events of the year. It's like the NY Marthon for non runners. It only lasts a few hours and most of the people who like to complain will probably still be in bed humping their pillows with with a hangover by the time it's all over. So have nice sleep, and don't forget to change those sheets.
Giovanni I disagree, I'm up with the birds and not a pillow humper. After almost getting run down a couple of years ago crossing Lafayette by bikers going at speeds cars would get tickets for, the whole thing sounds good on paper has it problems. I don't care that it inconveniences car traffic, it happens during the slowest few hours of the week but it has become a hectic Death Race 2000 if you are a pedestrian. Pro and semi pro cyclists use this as a training session not the casual pedal in the street it's sold as. I wish the NYPD would issue tickets to speeders for safety reasons.
I totally agree with @11:30am. I hate the mess this event creates for ANY and ALL of us who need to get around by bus, and I hate the fact that I can't cross Fourth Avenue until it's over (b/c it's not worth taking my life in my hands). The bikers are all going hell-for-leather, and the event is absolutely pedestrian-UNFRIENDLY.
IMO, it's a great way to ruin three nice Saturdays in August, and the following weekend is DORM move-in - so that's all the Saturdays in August down the drain.
It's astonishing that we can't just have peaceful summer weekends where there are no events blocking the streets/avenues - and that includes street fairs. Heaven forbid you have errands you need to run, or medical appointments on a Saturday, or just want to go for a quiet walk. Noooo, there has to ALWAYS be something going on, something organized, and something that will require buses to be re-routed and take hours to reach any destination, all b/c apparently people need to be "entertained" when they're not at work.
Agree that Summer Streets is a hardship for people who rely on the bus - particularly elderly and disabled.
This is an ongoing transportation problem due to regular street closures for weekend street fairs.
BTW Summer Streets is so popular now that people are driving in from New Jersey so they can bike in Manhattan. Yes they stick their bikes onto their big SUVs and drive to Manhattan....
Wow, this is really turning into a Major Whine Festival. I didn't hear anyone complaining about the Gay Parade Parade, which is a much bigger event with more noise, crowds and gridlock all day long. Same goes for the Halloween Parade and all the other parades. Oh, but this is really about the bikes from the anti-bike crowds I get it. Still, It's hilarious that all these East Villagers can't wait to go the the West Village on a Saturday morning--isn't that one of the best times of the week to be down here? Grabbing a nice coffee at Mud, or eating outside at Veselka, or hanging out in the park with a bagel from TSB beats schlepping across Lafayette or Broadway any Saturday morning. I know I'll be enjoying the EV before all the Bros invade for their evening debauchery. I'm pretty sure the West Village will still be there at 1PM when this event is over.
@1:08pm: Ah, yes, the B&T crowd wants in on this. I'm sure all their SUV's won't contribute to air pollution or congestion at ALL...
@1:21pm: You are clueless. Yes, older and disabled people ARE allowed to complain about things that prevent them from doing what THEY need to do! For instance, that's 3 Saturdays that I can't get from my home to the Union Square Farmers' Market until after 1pm. No big deal to you, but big deal to ME! You think everything is about getting to the W. Village? WRONG. Again, you are clueless, but maybe someday you'll be old enough to figure it out.
Agree with 11:30 - these are the days I plan to not be able to cross Lafayette. I had a bad experience being mowed down by bikes as a traffic cop stood there an laughed, daring me to cross. Unbelievable.
How about a Smell-Free Zone? Now that would be a novel idea.
@3:50 PM. So you can go to the Farmers Market before 9AM, many vendors are there at the crack of dawn, or go there from 1-6PM. The vegetables won't melt, they are used to beng outdoors in the sun. Or plan ahead and go there on Friday. Or go to the Tompkins Square market on Sunday. Or go to one of the many fruit stands in the neighborhood.. There's even a garden in East River Park where you can pick your own, There are so many options out there to get vegetables from I'm surprised everyone isn't a vegetarian. Summer Streets is enjoyed by thousands of people for a few hours on 3 days out of 365. That gives you 365 days minus 12 hours of Summer Streets to go wherever you want. Apparently we all want to enjoy the streets without cars, unless we are the ones being inconvenienced for a couple of hours.
@3:50pm: It's clear you are not a regular at the Union Sq. Farmers Mkt., and thank you for explaining my life & schedule to me, b/c you know me so well. NOT.
As to your statement "Apparently we all want to enjoy the streets without cars" I don't know who "ALL" is, b/c you are speaking for yourself; *I* want to enjoy streets WITH taxis and buses, including regularly scheduled bus service, not diverted bus service that takes hours to get anywhere.
BTW, I pay taxes here too, including RE taxes, so yes, I get to have an opinion!
EEW..really!
This city is too dense and vehicle oriented to do this stupid nonsense, which is just so ShitiBank and any other vile bank or lousy product can have an advertising integrated block party. I refuse to believe that residents of those nations this shitevent inspired tolerates this also.
Interesting that this attracts out of towners according to posters here. For people from the outer boroughs don't go to this (myself included obviously) and don't want this either. For the fact that this will waste a lot of police time that will be deployed that weekend because of terrorist attack speculations.
I think I finally understand why evgrieve not only tolerates but promotes complaining comments. It's like the strategy of taking the war to the terrorists. If they didn't have this forum, they might keep their hostility pent-up, and just explode one day. This blog is the release valve.
Idk, I have mixed feelings about Summer Streets as well. I did it for the first two years (and biking under Grand Central was a thrill, as was biking over Brooklyn Bridge); however, you have to bike the course and IMMEDIATELY return in order to get the "free" bike rentals back in just one hour or you have to pay GOD KNOWS WHAT. There is no time to even have a drink or bike around Central Park or anything. It's kind of rigorous when it shouldn't be. I agreed, too that senior and people who use buses shouldn't be negatively impacted for the entire (weekend) month of August.
7:40 AM, in the spirit of complaining, your comment doesn't make sense. Are you saying "taking the war to the terrorists" means allowing them to air their gripes with Western civilization? I thought it meant killing them where the live.
Please. I've been living in the EV for 40 years. Just be flexible for chrissakes! So what if an event happens! That's what makes NYC great. I have the feeling all of the whiney responders at EV grieve are also cranky rat bastard fun suckers we see in alphabet city everyday. Move away!!
In the past, crosstown bus service has been halted for the length of summer streets. This is a huge hardship for folks especially for those trying to get to work (hospitals, retail etc).
This is not just about the East Village - it impacts a significant area of Manhattan.
@8:29 - I am a 4th generation New Yorker and not a fan of summer streets because it makes it impossible to get around. Really. If it was just those weekends then probably no big deal. But now, every weekend, street fairs and parades and streets are closed....
The Bloomberg initiated events like Summer Streets and rec development like Governors Island and park improvements in Manhattan were aimed at the affluent, especially the recent college grad demographic and tourists. ( He was clear about his policy focus) Easy to access for folks who live nearby (and great for real estatate value) and who have no responsibilities besides work.Governors Island for example is great if you can just roll out of bed and walk to the ferry. Not so much if you are a low income family living in the Bronx.
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