Mayor Scuttles Coronavirus 'Open Streets' Experiment

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A hoped-for haven for Brooklynites to stretch their legs with maximum social distance and the absolute minimum of vehicle traffic is no more.

Mayor Bill de Blasio quietly pulled the plug on a program that opened a short stretch of Bushwick Avenue to pedestrians, Streetsblog first reported. Car-free zones along Park Avenue in Manhattan, 34th Avenue in Queens and Grand Concourse in the Bronx are also no more.

De Blasio claimed that the program used too many police officers.

"The problem with the additional street closures is you have to attach enforcement to them," he said Monday. "If don't attach enforcement to them, we're very concerned they become new gathering points and we do not want to seem to be solving one problem by creating a new one."

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A mayor's office spokesperson released a statement to Streetsblog claiming not enough people used the streets.

But Streetsblog and other advocates fired back that the program was too small in scope. The stretch in Brooklyn, for instance, covered just a few blocks between Johnson and Flushing avenues.

They also argued the heavy police presence — 19 cops along the seven-block Bushwick stretch only, Streetsblog reported — was unnecessary and could be bettered handled by local groups or parks workers who no longer have to maintain now-shuttered playgrounds.

The program started after concerns over overcrowding in city parks.

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