NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets Closed Out October With Car-Free Halloween Events Across All Five Boroughs

NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets, now in its fifth year, ran through the whole of October and wrapped up on Halloween, October 31. The program converts car-free Open Streets, plazas and other corridors in all five boroughs into free, pedestrian-friendly spots with harvest and Halloween activities, from interactive performances to live entertainment.

The idea is to add walking space on and before Halloween, one of the busiest nights of the year for the city's streets. DOT worked with local partners and agencies including the Street Activity Permit Office and the NYPD to make the closures possible.

Five Signature Events anchored the month: Hillel Plaza in Flatbush, Brooklyn (October 22); Water Street on Staten Island (October 24); Austin Street in Forest Hills, Queens (October 25); Canal Street on the Lower East Side (October 28); and James Baldwin Plaza in the Bronx (October 31). DOT teamed up with the Municipal Art Society for free guided walking tours at many of these events, with advance registration. Titles included "Little Monsters, Big City: A Flatbush Creature Hunt," "A Walk Through Forest Hills' Edible Urban Forest" and "Tales from the Urban Forest: A Halloween Tree Walk."

DOT's Street Lab also joined NYC public schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens to run Halloween-themed play and creative activities for kids.

Partner events filled out the calendar. They included the 36th Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade on October 17, the 41st Annual Bronx Halloween Parade on October 24, and on October 31 a long run of block parties, parades and fairs, among them Halloween on Washington Street in Dumbo and the Upper Broadway Fall Fair in Manhattan.