As part of the New York City Department of Transportation’s Open Streets, Plaza and Public Realm programming initiative, Trick or Streets made a reappearance throughout the month of October for the fifth year in a row with over 160 planned events across the five boroughs.

The program aims to bring “arts, culture, fitness, and educational experiences to neighborhoods, focusing primarily on historically underserved areas and populations.”

Halloween should be a time of year where kids go out in creative costumes, trick or treat throughout the neighborhood and take home a lot of candy for their parents to do safety checks on. 

Over the years, however, door-to-door trick or treating has reportedly been at a decline, especially post pandemic.

According to the Mayor’s Office, a way NYC has combatted such a decline is car free zones in various neighborhoods to “celebrate the spooky season safely and together.”

With a large list of events scattered throughout October, it begs the question, did NYC DOT have any way of ensuring kids would be a priority? 

With one of the larger Manhattan events requiring a waitlist, there was no clear way to ensure entry of the youngest generation would be guaranteed. 

Due to general public safety, every event had to have its capacity limits, but there was limited information as to what the capacity would be, and whether or not people would be turned away when trying to enter a busier one.

While the event was marketed to be kid-friendly, they did feature perhaps more adult-geared events such as various free walking tours, a new edition to this year’s celebrations. 

In response to high demand, 20 extra events were added in late October to accommodate more attendees, bringing the total number to 180 participating car-free streets.

Event partners were supplied with 75,000 pieces of candy courtesy of NYC DOT. And despite streets being shut down, businesses seemingly got to function as usual, possibly bringing in even more business as people go to events in places they perhaps previously would not have visited.

Aside from logistical questions, Trick or Streets proved to be a wonderful thing for children across NYC, allowing kids to be kids on Halloween in a safely regulated way.