Wow, this is pretty neat. Curbed reports that the city is planning to close Georgia Avenue from Missouri Avenue NW to Barry Place NW to vehicle traffic for a day, as part of a new Open Streets DC program. The city describes it like so:
Open Streets is a program that temporarily closes streets to motor-vehicle traffic and opens them to people for healthy activities suitable for all ages and abilities. Open Streets help inspire people to think differently about their streets by encouraging physical activity, creating recreational opportunities, and fostering community building and education.
Sounds pretty neat. Other cities do this as a kind of festival. Bogota, for example, does something called a Ciclovia where people ride bikes on major streets, and it’s very popular. In other places it is more like a street festival with kids events, recreation, performances and so on. New York City’s events attracted 300,000 people, for example.
One block on either side of Georgia are also closed for the event, which will be from 6am-5pm. They are listed here:
Howard Place NW; Euclid Street NW; Fairmont Street NW; Girard Street NW; Gresham Place NW; Harvard Street NW; Hobart Place NW; Columbia Road NW; Irving Street NW; Kenyon Street NW; Keefer Place NW; Lamont Street NW; Morton Street NW; Park Road NW; Newton Place NW; Otis Place NW; Princeton Place NW; Quebec Place NW; New Hampshire Avenue NW; Rock Creek Church Road NW; Quincy Street NW; Randolph Street NW; Shepherd Street NW; Taylor Street NW; Upshur Street NW; Kansas Avenue NW; Iowa Avenue/Varnum Street NW; Webster Street NW; Allison Street NW; Buchanan Street NW; Crittenden Street NW; Decatur Street NW; Delafield Place NW; Emerson Street NW; Farragut Street NW; Arkansas Avenue NW; Gallatin Street NW; Hamilton Street NW; Ingraham Street NW; Jefferson Street NW; Kennedy Street NW; Illinois Avenue NW; Longfellow Street NW; and Madison Street NW.
The city’s order says “All building, health, life safety, and use of public space requirements shall remain applicable to the Special Event Areas designated by this Order.” which I assume means things like emergency vehicles can still go through.
Stay tuned for more details.
