When the City of Philadelphia reopened MLK Drive as one lane of vehicular traffic in each direction in August 2021, they also noted in their press release that they’d be looking into continuing weekend closures beyond October.
The City is also looking at ways to extend these closures beyond this [pre-pandemic seasonal] pattern and it is committed to:
- Providing training and orientation of partner agencies to support the extension of the closure through to Spring 2022 and to pilot options which include continuous and holiday closures starting in September.
Evaluating the longer-term sustainable options which may involve procurement of additional equipment and or services over the next six months.
In years past, MLK Drive weekend closures ended after October 31st. We are continuing to promote year-long closures of the Drive, something we believe should have been the case for several years.
As winter 2020/2021 proved, people will continue using open streets like MLK Drive, even in the colder months, when it is safe and free of cars.
We have been in contact with the Kenney Administration and Council staff to confirm if MLK will continue to be closed to motor vehicles on weekends through the end of the year and into 2022.
Our understanding is that there are moving parts that are being put into place by City officials to guarantee staffing is in place to open and close the gates and patrol the Drive. We will confirm this information when we have a better sense if and when the weekend closures will resume past October 31st.