Want an Open Street on your block in 2027? Applications are open — first deadline Nov. 13

Community groups, schools and merchants who want to close their block to cars next year can now apply. The city Department of Transportation opened applications for the 2027 Open Streets season this week, with the first deadline a month away.

The deadlines

• Nov. 13, 2026: full-closure Open Streets with concession seating, for launch as early as May 2027.
• Dec. 31, 2026: full closures, full closures with limited local access, and Open Street: Schools, for launch as early as May 2027.
• May 7, 2027: Open Street: Schools, for launch as early as September 2027.

DOT says each application needs at least 90 days of review before it is approved or rejected, and some take longer. Returning partners can file a streamlined application using their previously approved application ID; new partners must complete the full application. Eligible partners include block associations, business improvement districts, civic groups, nonprofits, schools, colleges and groups of businesses, according to the DOT Open Streets page, which also lists an informational webinar and help applying in other languages.

What's new

The biggest change is concession seating: an area within a full-closure Open Street set aside for participating restaurants and their customers. Partners who want it need a concession agreement with DOT and must apply by the Nov. 13 deadline. DOT also told Gothamist that next year will bring a simplified payment system and added support for school Open Streets, which let schools use the street outside for recess, outdoor learning, lunch, assemblies and pick-up and drop-off.

This year's application also includes a section where applicants can recommend permanent infrastructure for their street. Sabina Sethi Unni, a schools planner at the advocacy group Open Plans, told Gothamist that features such as permanent swing gates would help schools without staff to move barricades, though she said she wished the process were simpler still.

Money and the program's footprint

DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn told Gothamist the Mamdani administration is committed to growing the program, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic. DOT said funding for Open Streets and other public-space programs that share its budget line rose about $3 million this fiscal year, to $26.6 million, after pandemic-era relief money ran out. A report last year by then-Comptroller Brad Lander found the program had shrunk from its pandemic peak under the Adams administration and was heavily concentrated in Manhattan, Gothamist noted.

The application window opened as DOT finished permanent upgrades to the Avenue B Open Street in the East Village, between East Fourth and East 14th streets, which we covered this week.