On Tuesday, May 31, neighbors gathered together at Jones Park in the West Main Hill neighborhood to celebrate a ribbon cutting and opening of Kalamazoo’s very first play street.

The play street will serve as an extension of Jones Park on Peake Road and Circle Street and will be a car-free zone for children and adults to walk, play, and ride bikes, scooters, or skateboards. The goals of the play street are to create a new place for children and adults to safely play, increase safety from traffic for those playing in Jones Park, and create a joyful activity hub for neighborhood events this summer.

This pilot play street will be in place for four months with pre, mid, and post observations to evaluate the project including speed data, levels of activity at the play street, and a resident survey to gauge interest and sense of safety. If successful, the play street could be made permanent. This pilot street will also serve as a case study to assess if the concept could be applied in other neighborhoods.

Play streets can have several benefits including improving children’s health and wellbeing by giving them space and freedom to play and exercise, encouraging active citizenship by positively changing the way people interact, and building stronger community by helping children and adults to build connections with their neighbors.

Learn more about this project at www.imaginekalamazoo.com/projects/wmhplaystreet