Dead-End Park Slope Street Closed For Social Distancing

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A "new" stretch of Park Slope street to give residents extra room to walk, ride their bicycles and, above all, socially distance isn't so new.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that part of Fourth Street — a dead-end, roughly one-block stretch of street going up to a park — will close to cars.

It's part of 12 new miles of open streets that will open citywide on Thursday, the mayor's office touted in a news release.

But it appears the 0.07-mile portion in Park Slope between Fourth and Fifth avenues already has effectively been closed to traffic for at least a month.

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That's because locals "informally" put up barricades to close it to traffic and open it for social distancing, said Mark Caserta, executive director of Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID, in an email.

"It’s not really officially closed," he wrote.

De Blasio's announcement puts an official seal of approval on the closure. It also allows the city to put 0.07 miles toward the eventual 100 miles of streets officials promise to close to give New Yorkers social distance-friendly outdoor spaces to roam and avoid spreading the new coronavirus.

Hizzoner embarked on the "Open Streets" campaign under pressure from the City Council, which threatened to bypass him. Since then, the announced closures have met with mixed reviews.

Many stretches in Brooklyn are short — even tiny — and, thus, fall short of the long, open thoroughfares dreamed of by advocates. And the Park Slope street was already closed — partly the result of a tussle over teachers using the designated "play street" as a place to park.

But, still, the announcement brings the city closer to its 40 miles by end of May goal.

Safe Streets advocate Doug Gordon, who lives in Park Slope, counted himself pleased to see the dead-end included in the list.

"The city should identify more streets like it in other communities, especially those without easy open space, and hand them over to people and kids who want to get out and enjoy themselves," he wrote in an email.

Going forward, the city should connect the open streets now scattered here and there into a real network to help New Yorkers walking, rolling, and biking through the pandemic, Gordon wrote.

The 12 miles opening up citywide also include portions of streets in nearby neighborhoods like Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill.

The Park Slope closure will be done with help from the Park Slope Business Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District. Police precincts and parks helped with other closures across Brooklyn and the city.

De Blasio also announced that protected bike lanes on Fourth Avenue and Flatbush Avenue will open this month.

Councilman Brad Lander praised the project on Twitter, stating it will extend the protected Fourth Avenue lanes between Flatbush and First Street. The Flatbush Avenue lanes will extend between GAP and Ocean Avenue, he wrote.

"A critical piece of Brooklyn's bike commuting infrastructure," he wrote on Twitter.

Protected bike lane projects, which were long in the works, counted for 9.2 miles in addition to the 12 miles of "open streets" de Blasio announced Wednesday.

The Fourth Avenue closure is effective from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The street dead ends between Old Stone House, Washington Park and Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

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