East Harlem Open Streets Still Thriving As Summer Ends

HARLEM, NY — Temperatures have dipped into the sixties after a scorching, socially-distanced summer, but the organizers behind East Harlem's popular Open Streets program have no plans to slow their roll.

In fact, they're expanding: the existing Open Streets on East 101st and 115th streets were joined last week by a new one on Pleasant Avenue, and community members have weeks' worth of programming lined up through October.

Carey King, director of Uptown Grand Central, a neighborhood nonprofit that serves as the city's official partner for the East 101st and Pleasant Avenue setups, said she has watched since April as each of the Open Streets has taken on its own distinct identity.

"It's based on the neighborhood, the shape of the street, the neighbors, the flow, the age of the residents nearby, the partnering organizations," she told Patch.

Compared to the Open Street on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, the high-profile restaurant row of Central Harlem, the ones in East Harlem "are evolving as these very neighborhoody, low-key streets," King said.

"Families can come and they can eat, and then the kids can come out and play," she added.

Much more is on tap for October. Each Saturday at 7 p.m., films are being screened on 101st Street in partnership with the International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival — a way of celebrating the neighborhood's ethnic heritage, and educating newcomers who may be unaware of it, King said.

This coming Sunday, 101st will play host to a Cash Mob, where residents who buy a $20 ticket earn admission to five nearby restaurants, who will be doling out sizable portions. (Tickets are available online.)

The newest addition, on Pleasant, came after residents from the nearby Wagner Houses pushed the city to add it, with help from the office of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Running from East 118th to 120th streets, it is anchored by the Mexican restaurant Bistro Casa Azul, which will also host pop-ups this month from nearby eateries Mountain Bird and La Fonda Boricua.

This month on Pleasant, kids' activities will be taking place Sundays from 12-3 p.m., courtesy of the organizations Street Lab, playground: NYC and the Police Athletic League.

Pleasant Village Community Garden will also host pick-your-own sales on Saturdays from around 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., and the Wagner Houses' MAP group plans to host Friday movie nights and Saturday health screenings.

King is also aiming to build a staggeringly long community table — composed of 36 folding tables, covered with a 72-foot tablecloth — that will allow visitors to eat communal meals while remaining socially distanced.

The flurry of activity is in keeping with the spirit of Open Streets over the past six months, King said, in which the open-ended program has freed up neighborhoods to constantly experiment with new ways to engage their communities.

"It’s been such a beautiful way to watch the small businesses in the neighborhood get creative, in a way that we’d never been allowed to get creative before," she said.

View more information and a calendar of events at uptowngrandcentral.org.