Weekend Walks bring live music to Southwest Brooklyn streets

July 15, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Audiences at the Summer Stroll on 3rd event last year enjoyed a performance from a Mexican dance troupe. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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Pedestrians will rule the streets in two Southwest Brooklyn communities this weekend as the city’s Weekend Walks program comes to Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, giving residents a chance to stroll down the street, dine at outdoor cafes and enjoy live music.

Weekend Walks is a pedestrian-friendly program run by various business groups and civic organizations around the city under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (DOT). Under the program, cars are banned from commercial thoroughfares for a night or an afternoon so that people can stroll at their leisure in the middle of the street.

In Bay Ridge, the Weekend Walks events are called Summer Stroll on 3rd and are sponsored by the Merchants of Third Avenue. The organization has been hosting Summer Stroll since 2012.

The Fourth Annual Summer Stroll on 3rd event will take place on Third Avenue between 80th and 90th streets on Friday, July 17, from 6 to 10 p.m.

On Sunday, July 19, Bensonhurst will get its chance to hold its first Weekend Walks happening. Billed as “Weekend Walk Marketplace,” the pedestrian mall will be set up on 18th Avenue between 62nd Street and Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) from 1 to 6 p.m.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for residents to come out and celebrate the diversity of our neighborhood,” Community Board 11 District Manager Marnee Elias-Pavia told the Brooklyn Eagle.

Weekend Walk Marketplace is being presented by the 18th Avenue Merchants Association with support from Community Board 11, the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Posters advertising the event are popping up in store windows all over Bensonhurst and not just on 18th Avenue.

The sponsors are seeking to entice visitors by pointing out that on 18th Avenue, one can munch on “the best pizza and pastries in NYC” and enjoy a cappuccino, a cannoli, sushi and Chinese foods all within a few blocks.

The Summer Stroll on 3rd event will feature more music and art than previous incarnations did, according to organizers, who said there will be more music and more painters and photographers selling their work along the avenue.

“This year we have a lot more artists participating,” said Liz Amato, a Community Board 10 member who is helping the Merchants coordinate Summer Stroll.

This year, the Merchants are setting up a main stage between 85th and 86th streets where musical acts ranging from the Regina Opera Company to folk singers will perform.

State Sen. Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-Southwest Brooklyn) and Councilmember Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst) are also Summer Stroll on 3rd sponsors.

On the DOT’s website, the sponsors wrote that Summer Stroll on 3rd “brings you back to a time when the streets were quiet and you could enjoy your neighborhood, stroll with your family and friends without all of the outside noisy interruptions.”

If you can’t make it to either the Bensonhurst or the Bay Ridge event, don’t despair. There are other Weekend Walks scheduled during the summer.

There will be another Weekend Walk Marketplace on Saturday, July 25 on 18th Avenue between Bay Ridge Parkway and 86th Street from 1 to 6 p.m. Elias-Pavia said she hopes the events will strengthen the avenue’s merchants. “It will give the individual merchants a chance to get to know one another,” she told the Eagle.

The Merchants of Third Avenue have three more Summer Strolls planned for Friday nights: July 24 between 80th to 90th streets and August 7 and 14 from Bay Ridge Avenue (69th Street) to 80th Street. The hours for all of the events are 6 to 10 p.m.

When Summer Stroll comes to the northern end of the avenue, the concert stage will be located between 74th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway.