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It’s not breaking news that Bumby Avenue is closed for almost two years for resurfacing, it’s been the talk of the town, we even wrote about it HERE, last week. But it got us thinking …

The rub is, even though the Northern part of the avenue is closed, the City is rehabbing the popular street in segments, leaving large portions of pavement simply empty for long stretches of time. We took a little ride on our bikes through the neighborhood and actually found ourselves delighting in the sans-traffic-ness atmosphere. There were other cyclists, parents with strollers, kids on skateboards – in short, people we’ve never seen on Bumby before. Surely there must be a way to make this a fun process instead of something that stresses us out and gives the City an ulcer.

We think the closure of the avenue lends an opportunity for two years of fun neighborhood events – street parties, games of shinny (pickup/street hockey, sponsored by the Solar Bears?), roller derby games, inflatable bounce house relay games … or even as one of our Instagram readers suggested, “a giant slip and slide.”

What do you wish for?

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Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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3 Comments

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  1. Sorry, still can’t get excited about this as I live one street removed from Bumby. Cars whizzing down my street now at 30mph while my 5 year old tries to ride her bike and I attempt to push my 6 mo. old in a stroller down our street is in fact ulcer inducing.
    Please please I implore you folks to please for all that is scared SLOW DOWN! There are lots of little ones who live on these streets (with no sidewalks) and the thought of your hitting one of them or mine is scary and I’m not particularly looking forward to that possibility for 2 years.

  2. It was an excellent separated bike lane for us all weekend. Let’s keep it closed to vehicles forever.