Summer Streets' Car-Free Utopia Takes Manhattan

Christopher Robbins

Published Aug 2, 2015

Modified Aug 8, 2015

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Christian Hansen / Gothamist

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Christopher Robbins

Published Aug 2, 2015

Modified Aug 8, 2015

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For six hours on Saturday, the DOT banned cars from a seven-mile stretch of Manhattan, and New Yorkers rejoiced.

Summer Streets, now in its eighth year, reigned on Park Avenue yesterday, giving us a taste of a less-congested city. (Of course, there's no other way to achieve the goal of easing gridlock on our streets all the time—while simultaneously improving our means of mass transit—otherwise our public servants surely would have embarked on this brave and worthy experiment already.)

The 165-foot zip-line was back, and was complimented by a 270-foot water slide. The DOT billed the slide, which was sponsored by Vita Coco Coconut Water™, as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slide through the streets of New York City on a tube." At least until all the ice sheets melt in a few years.

Team @NYC_DOT conquers #slidethecity at @SummerStreets #foleysquare rest stop! #summerstreets sponsored by @VitaCoco pic.twitter.com/35rUjLy0MM

— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) August 1, 2015

Summer Streets will return the next two Saturdays, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.; cars will be banned along Park Avenue from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. The city's providing a number of rest stops for lucky meanderers, with one uptown at 52nd Street, another in midtown at 25th Street, one at Astor Place, one at Spring and Lafayette Streets, and a final stop at Foley Square downtown. The GIANT WATERSLIDE (270 feet) is at Foley Square.

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Christopher Robbins

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Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.

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