Why Is Summer Streets So Rare?

The forecast for Saturday is bleak — 100 percent chance of rain, lasting just about all day. Tomorrow also happens to be the first Summer Streets event of 2014 (as well as the first during the de Blasio mayoralty). Good thing the main attraction is in a tunnel.

But since there are only two other Summer Streets on the calendar this year, this question is highly relevant:

Since Summer Streets began in 2008, the main obstacle to running it more frequently has reportedly been the pricetag. It shouldn’t cost much just to keep cars off Park Avenue and Lafayette Street, but the heavy NYPD presence adds up. If the traffic was managed by fewer cops — and sources familiar with the event have said this is entirely doable — Summer Streets could happen more often.

Until then, one consolation is that there are several smaller car-free street events around the city each summer. Sunday’s forecast is looking more promising than Saturday’s, and parts of the Grand Concourse, 204th Street in the Bronx, and Astoria’s Shore Boulevard will be open to people and free from traffic.

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Evaluating Summer Streets

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Here's a modest proposal for evaluating the success of a Summer Streets event: Measure the amount of time kids are able to run and play without their parents having to worry about them being hit by a car, the number of friends you bump into and new people you meet, the pounds of automobile exhaust and carbon that aren't being spewed into the hot summer air, the amount of horn-honking, engine-revving and boom stereos you're not hearing, and whether your local merchants are happy about the event and making more money than they usually do on a slow summer weekend.