A summer heat advisory was not enough to prevent the successful kickoff of “Williamsburg Walks” last Saturday, the first of four Saturdays this summer during which Bedford Avenue will be closed to traffic.
Braving the weather, residents flocked to the Northside, where vehicle traffic was prohibited from Metropolitan Avenue to North 9th Street from noon to 7 p.m. Cross-traffic on these streets was permitted, however.
Event organizers see the street closure as a way to encourage residents to re-think the way public space is used.
“Everyone thinks of the streets as a means of conveyance. But we’re trying to get people to see this as more of a public plaza,” said event organizer Jason Jeffries, a Bedford Avenue business owner and purveyor of the community website Billburg.com.
(Jeffries was one of three event organizers, along with Connie Colvin and Teresa Toro.)
Pointing to the open street, Jeffries added: “It’s like we just re-claimed however many acres for the community.”
An ad hoc jungle gym, an open fire hydrant and some street performers were just a few examples of community members availing themselves of the new open space.
Not surprisingly, Transportation Alternatives (TA), the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group, was involved.
TA posted signs to various neighborhood destinations expressed in terms of foot steps, underscoring the viability of walking as a means of transportation.
TA also provided free valet bike parking.
“We’re trying to do a lot of valet parking at events to promote the idea of accessible cycling at events. We want people to come and be able to leave their bike somewhere without worrying about locking it up and keeping an eye on it,” said TA employee and valet parker Matt Montesano.
With the streets exclusively for pedestrian use, Bedford Avenue merchants were allowed to extend their inventories to the edge of the sidewalk.
Jeffries believes the event can be a boon to merchants by making Bedford Avenue a destination point and highlighting the uniqueness of the commercial strip.
“This takes our street and turns it into a destination. This means more people, and more people means more sales,” he said last month.
Jeffries stressed that this first event was more of a test-run for the event, which organizers hope to improve upon in the coming weeks. To this end, Transportation Alternatives gathered suggestions from area residents.
One thing in need of correction was the number of people walking on the sidewalks, and not the street.
As Jeffries pointed out, “It takes a while for people to adjust to not walking on the sidewalk. It’s really a psychological thing – the whole notion of thinking of the street differently takes a lot. That’s why we’re doing this four weeks in a row.”
Williamsburg Walks will run for the next three Saturdays on July 26, August 2 and August 9, from noon to 7 p.m. For more information, go to billburg.com/walks/.
