Open Plans<\/a> in partnership with Neighbors for a Safer Austin Street, took place from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30 between 71st Avenue and 71st Road.<\/p>\nThe initiative will take place at the same time every Sunday through Sept. 20, offering outdoor activities, crafts, games and community resources. A number of local businesses will also participate in the weekly open street.<\/p>\n
Cecil Brooks Jr., senior campaign manager at Open Plans, said the inaugural Austin Street event proved that demand exists for open streets in the Forest Hills community, stating that open and pedestrian-friendly streets should not be confined to \u201cselect enclaves\u201d in Brooklyn or Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Austin Street open street was an incredible demonstration of Queens community and vibrancy,\u201d Brooks said in a statement. \u201cIt was amazing to see so many folks from across the neighborhood and Queens come together to enjoy an open space, bringing more foot traffic to the corridor while patronizing local businesses and supporting one of the area\u2019s most important commercial corridors.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that events such as the Austin Street Open Street can bring more people onto neighborhood streets and support local businesses.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis event proved that demand for, and the benefits of, open and livable streets shouldn\u2019t just be confined to select enclaves of Manhattan or Brooklyn,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cNeighborhoods citywide are eager for more shared spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives for Open Plans said the inaugural Austin Street event had \u201csomething for everyone,\u201d including a back-to-school supplies giveaway, fire safety education and coloring books from FDNY and a youth event hosted by the Forest Hills Green Team and Central Queens Against.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pedestrians walk down Austin Street in Forest Hills on Sunday, Aug. 30. Photo via OpenPlans Instagram Search our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[92273,310,3439,126829,9,24,63,126830,126831,126832,126833,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-337703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-austin-street","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-forest-hills","tag-neighbors-for-a-safer-austin-street","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-open-plans-nyc","tag-open-street","tag-openplans","tag-pedestrianized-street","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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