Car-free Prospect Park Street Theater! (from 2002)
I've been holding on to this as a little surprise once we launched the new Livable Streets site. Get ready to time travel...
Back in 2002 there was a huge push on for a three month trial ban on cars in Prospect Park, Brooklyn (I mean really are we still fighting for this?! Come on Mayor Bloomberg it's time to do a trial!) In any event, Aaron Naparstek (with future wife Joanne) organized a fun Halloween street theater event where we all dressed up as cars and raised some eyebrows Saturday morning at the Grand Army Plaza Green Market. We were even joined by, ahem, yes that was him - Councilman Bill de Blasio!
That's me with a huge cheesehead on. And if you look very carefully you'll see Paul Steely White waving a sign in his pre-T.A. Executive Director reign. Quoth Aaron: "Driving our cars thru the park is our way of life! How can you take that away from us?!" Ah, the good ole days...
what about park patrons who are disabled? There are lots of amenities in the park, such as the ice skating rink, that are hard to access if you're disabled. I agree that the park should be for pedestrians and cyclists, but as long as the park trolley (and other circulators) run infrequently as they do, I think some car traffic should be allowed through. However, there's absolutely no reason that fast traffic should be allowed in the park, and I think that speed bumps and other traffic calming measures should be considered.