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Like Montague Street last summer, Vanderbilt Avenue will be closed off to car traffic for a few days this year. Every Sunday next month, the avenue will be “transformed into a temporary pedestrian plaza” from Dean Street to Park Place. Summer Streets on Vanderbilt is being organized by the Vanderbilt Avenue Merchants District and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, who say it’s “designed to encourage the community to come together to shop, stroll and socialize. There will be music, art and gardening, face painting, sun and trees, eating and relaxing, biking and performances, people watching – and whatever else you might like to do. Plus a few surprises.” Meanwhile, summer streets will also be returning to a stretch of Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg this year every Saturday from June 6th to July 11th. The avenue went car-free last summer, too, and this year its organizers say that “area non-profits and businesses will be organizing events and activities.”
Summer Streets on Vanderbilt Avenue [StreetsBlog]
Williamsburg Walks [Billburg]
Photo of Vanderbilt Ave by brandonzwa.


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  1. Vanderbilt gets a lot more traffic than Montague Street does – I’ll be interested to see what this does to Flatbush and Washington. Although to be fair, summer Sundays are probably the only time it could work.

  2. i’m all for anything that makes tooling around in a car more of a pain in the ass in this town, i don’t really think it matters if more pedestrians show up. however i will point out that down in the financial district they keep a bunch of street closed to car traffic during the day and it is fairly conducive to attracting foot traffic.

  3. well i did just read some of the responses to the time square thingie and apparently the naked cowboy has quadrupled his income cuz of this and hot dog vendors are making a ton ahhahah.

    maybe the thing is that i just dont like looking at people lounging around outside. i prefer people moving, FAST to and from destinations. not just standing and sitting there. hard to explain. but i shall give it a chance hahah

    *rob*

  4. rob – i can understand why times square is a little silly, but what irks you about this? seriously, enlighten us.

    i am glad the merchants and the phndc are doing something together. i love vanderbilt, and i hope the community supports it – one reason is that i would like to see the merchants, as a group, understand that when things are nice, people come. there are some shops on vandy that are really good about keeping their storefronts, sidewalks, and tree pits clean, but there are others that don’t seem to get that when it looks gross out front, people are less inclined to go inside.