Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue To Become New 'Open Boulevard': Mayor

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slope's Open Street on Fifth Avenue is about to get supercharged, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The mayor announced Wednesday that a new "Open Boulevard" concept is coming to 10 corridors across the city, including on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and Sunset Park.

The new initiative will build off of the city's existing Open Streets and Open Restaurants program, which closes certain blocks to traffic to allow New Yorkers to walk, ride, dine and shop in the roadway. Full details are still to come.

"Open Boulevards takes the concept of Open Streets and supercharges it — multiple blocks in a row filled with restaurants, with performances, with community activities," the mayor said. "Great for the neighborhood, great for tourists too."

The Open Boulevards will include cultural activities, community-based programming, landscaping and art installations, according to the city.

They will include a collaboration with the city's tourism office NYC & Company to promote Open Boulevards and drive citywide, regional, and international tourist activity to each location.

The announcement comes as de Blasio celebrates his annual "Street Week!" initiative, which so far has included plans to lower certain speed limits, set up "bike boulevards" and add new busways and bus lanes.

Brooklyn's Open Boulevards will include along Prospect Heights' Open Street on Vanderbilt Avenue and along nearly all blocks of the Fifth Avenue Open Streets in Park Slope and Sunset Park.

Here are the details:

• Vanderbilt Avenue: between Atlantic Avenue and Park Place
• Fifth Avenue
• Dean Street to Park Place
• Sterling Place to Berkeley Place
• President Street to Third Street
• 10th Street to 13th Street
• 39th Street to 41st Street
• 45th Street to 47th Street
• 55th Street to 59th Street

More information, including days, hours, and operating partners, can be found at www.nyc.gov/openboulevards.