Atlanta Streets Alive returns to Peachtree on April 7

from Atlanta Intown - April 2019

by Rough Draft Atlanta: Atlanta Intown, Reporter Newspapers

Art on the BeltLine seeks proposals for 10th year

Atlanta Streets Alive returns for its 6th year on April 7 for the first of three events that will close local streets to vehicle traffic and open them up for pedestrians, bicycles, skaters and scooters for the afternoon.

The 2019 kickoff will be held on Peachtree Street from South Downtown to Midtown. A 3.1 mile stretch of the city’s iconic thoroughfare from Mitchell Street to 17th Street will be closed from 2 to 6 p.m.

The fun kicks off in Midtown, at the intersection of Peachtree Street and 16th Street at 1:30 p.m. where you can join in the official opening of the street followed by a parade of the route. The parade will begin at 2 p.m. Free bike decorations will be available while supplies last.

In recent years, the Peachtree Street edition has attracted over 100,000 people, according to the event’s organizers, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.

The most ambitious – and longest – route will happen June 9 when a 10-mile “Cross City” event will open streets from Underwood Hills to Decatur. The event will run from 2 to 8 p.m. along Howell Mill Road, Marietta Street, Decatur Street and DeKalb Avenue.

The season will conclude on Sept. 29 with a new Southwest route that was still being determined at press time.

For more information on all the Atlanta Streets Alive events, visit atlantastreetsalive.com.

Last year’s Atlanta Streets Alive event on Peachtree drew a whopping 100,000 people who walked, biked, skated and scootered down the city’s iconic throughfare. This year’s ASA season kicks off, once again, on Peachtree.

Lonnie C. King Jr., who died March 5 at the age of 82, is being remembered as an icon of the Civil Rights Movement for his efforts to desegregate Atlanta in the 1960s. King was a co-author of the landmark “An Appeal for Human Rights” and was the leader of the Atlanta Student Movement, which led sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters in the city, and remained an activist up until the time of his death from a heart condition.