Handful of New York City streets close Saturday for Car-Free Earth Day
NEW YORK -- A handful of streets across the five boroughs closed on Saturday for Car-Free Earth Day.
Teams worked to transform Avenue B from East 6th Street to East 14th into a green oasis, CBS2's Leah Mishkin reported.
"The whole street is closed to cars, which means it's open to pedestrians, bikers, strollers, skateboarders, whatever you want that's not a car," said Jacob Ford.
Volunteers cut flowers to display and set up an area for the public to grab seeds to take home.
"We're going to have ponies ... They're going to be here with two ponies for free pony rides," volunteer Christopher Batenhorst said. "It's really amazing to see kids in this neighborhood who have never touched a horse, alone ridden one."
Kids could also check out an arts and crafts station further down the block. The goal was to use recycled materials.
"We have hundreds of CDs, which are just junk as far as everybody else is concerned. So these are kind of the templates or the substrates, and we're just going to attach things to them," said Skip Laplante.
There are nine locations across New York City participating in Car-Free Earth Day, including Broadway from East 17th Street all the way to West 42nd.
- Click here for the full list.
"We've got folks from 'Wicked' here today," said Molly Braverman, director of the Broadway Green Alliance.
Braverman said an Earth Day concert in Times Square encouraged fans to get more involved in climate action.
"We're working to make Broadway theaters more sustainable and encourage fans to get involved in climate action," Braverman said.
It was a great day for people to walk and bike, but a much different story for drivers.
"Not easy at all, no. It's a mess here," one driver said.
CBS2 spotted another driver ready to turn onto 42nd Street before realizing it was closed.
"Now I have to go very far to make a turn, go up to Second Avenue," he said.
The events wrap up at 5 p.m.
Some of the locations will close to cars again this summer for the Open Streets program. Click here for the full list of 2022 Open Streets locations.
More weekend Earth Day events
There are more Earth Day events around the Tri-State Area on Saturday, including a community cleanup at Freeport Brookside Preserve in Nassau County. Volunteers should arrive between 10 a.m. and noon.
There's another cleanup in Yonkers. The mayor will lead volunteers through sections of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail at Walnut Street and Yonkers Avenue. That goes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
