Residents of East Midtown Manhattan call for the approval of a permanent Open Street each April through October for an underused stretch of East 36th alongside the St. Vartan Park playground and athletic field. 

The community's passion for a traffic-free Open Street at the location is strong. One reason: The adjacent park playground, regularly used by hundreds of children, is slated to close for reconstruction starting in 2025 without alternate open space.

Among other needs for opening the East 36th Street stretch between First Avenue to Tunnel Approach Street: East Midtown Manhattan is starved for more open space. This has left residents without such outlets as adequate places to learn to ride a bike, such as on the hard surface that was replaced by turf to become the St. Vartan Park athletic field in 2021. 

History also supports the proposed Open Street. 

An Open Streets trial on the East 36th Street block (color photos) was successful. Presented on multiple weekends in the fall of 2021, the trial featured free family-friendly activities including bike-riding lessons, Fire Department of New York educational sessions, sports instruction and competition, games, musical entertainment, arts and crafts and a Halloween parade.

Years earlier, the stretch was open space as part of New York City's Play Streets program. 

The one shot above and one below from 1939 show a sign on the street that proclaims Play Street and Closed.

Tunnel Approach Street was added for the 1940 opening of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Today, the vast majority of traffic on the west-to-east one-way 36th Street expanse between First and Second Avenues does not enter the segment proposed for the Open Street.

The proposed Open Street block is supported by a Manhattan Community Board 6 resolution passed in 2022. The resolution notes, "a 15-foot-wide lane for emergency access will extend the full Open Street block."