By: Erin Clarke for NY1
Link to original article and video
A popular event from the past is being revived that will close the Grand Concourse for three days this summer and turn it into a wide thoroughfare open for recreation. NY1’s Erin Clarke filed the following report.
No vehicles, not even one, will pass along a stretch of the Grand Concourse for three days this summer.
Instead, live performances, music, workshops and more will fill the space as part of Boogie on the Boulevard.
“This idea of being open, inviting community to bring children, bring their families, bring their friends and have fun here,” said Hatuey Ramos-Fermin, curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
The event revives the tradition of car-free Sundays, when nearly the entire length of the Concourse closed every Sunday of the summer. It stopped in the ’90s.
“I remember when I was younger, when the concourse on Sundays was closed and all I would see was bike riders and people walking around, and there was this big sense of community,” said Ed Garcia Conde, a blogger with Welcome2TheBronx.
Several community partners are bringing the idea back as a way to showcase the borough, its people and culture, and to encourage healthy lifestyles.
“It’s good to have it for the community, but they should have been done this a long time ago to all the people that get to see different cultures of everything that is going around this city,” said one member of the community.
Another goal of Boogie on the Boulevard is to start a conversation among community members about the Grand Concourse.
“Folks can reimagine the Grand Concourse, where they can look at how they would improve the Concourse or changes they would make so that they can have it, have better access to it all year-round,” said Jill Guidera, filed organizing manager with Transportation Alternatives.
Organizers hope to open a dialogue about the roadway, especially since Transportation Alternatives found that similarly constructed roadways accounted for 60 percent of fatal crashes or serious injuries citywide.
“It’s still sometimes referred as the Boulevard of Death because the cars are really zooming and racing by,” Conde said. “I really would love to see it be more pedestrian-friendly, also friendly for bikers and rollerbladers like myself to be able to experience that. Do we really need all these lanes for cars?”
They’re questions that will hopefully get the wheels moving in the direction of change.
Boogie on the Boulevard will be held on August 3, August 10 and August 17.
Hatuey Ramos Fermín 