A stretch of NW 23rd Street – from Western Avenue to Robinson Avenue, to be exact – will be closed off to vehicular traffic but open for people on Sunday, March 30th, as part of Oklahoma City’s first-ever Open Streets event. From 12PM to 4PM, more than 40 businesses and organizations will gather to participate in a celebration of health, wellness and active transportation.As part of a partnership led by the Oklahoma City-County Health Department Wellness Now Coalition, ACOG, alongside the City of Oklahoma City, the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City and the Uptown 23rd Merchants Association, has worked to ensure Open Streets OKC offers a safe, walkable, bike-friendly business corridor.
In addition to the businesses that line the Uptown 23rd corridor, 10 food trucks will be in attendance, all offering healthy options such as grilled fish and fruit smoothies in keeping with Open Streets OKC’s goal. Interactive activities and giveaways will be provided by a variety of businesses and organizations from across Central Oklahoma including Integris, TSET’s Shape Your Future program, the American Heart Association, NewView Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Barons, the Oklahoma City Energy, the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation, Better Block OKC and many, many more.
Open Streets events are common nationwide, taking place in more than 80 cities across at least 33 states. Edmond held the state’s first Open Streets event last November and Tulsa is planning an Open Streets event for May of this year. These events are based on ciclovias, weekly events that began in Bogota, Colombia in the mid-1970s. Every Sunday and public holiday, main streets would be closed to cars to allow citizens to freely enjoy their streets for biking and walking.
For more information about Open Streets OKC, visit the website, follow Open Streets OKC on Twitter or like Open Streets OKC on Facebook.