The liveliest street in Adams Morgan will close to vehicles on select Sundays through the end of the year as part of the District’s “Streets for People” initiative.

The fifth-of-a-mile stretch of 18th Street NW between Kalorama and Columbia road will close between noon and 10 p.m. on August 21, September 4, and October 23. It’s home to restaurants, shops, bars, and nightlife and a popular streatery program during the pandemic where parking spaces were turned into space for outdoor dining. Neighborhood officials are working to have the pedestrian zone on a more regular basis and for entire weekends.

The Adams Morgan Business Improvement District got $525,000 out of a $2.8 million pool for Streets for People, which “seeks to catalyze economic recovery and support local businesses by attracting workers, residents, and visitors to a vibrant area of activated blocks, sidewalks, streets, and parks,” according to the initiative’s website.

The grant pays for infrastructure improvements, programming, and logistical planning.

Kristen Barden, executive director for the BID, said in a statement the neighborhood had success with a similar pedestrian-only event in 2020 and “worked for two years with the community and D.C. government to bring it back.”

“After the Mayor’s pedestrian zone in June 2020, the businesses were thrilled with the increase in pedestrian traffic and sales,” Barden said. “It came at a critical time and our vision since then has been to support this activity as a great way to help with the economic recovery of Adams Morgan from the effects of the pandemic.”

Barden says people can expect pop-up entertainment and programming for people of all ages. “Vendors will not be allowed in the zone, but be on the lookout for other special surprises during each closure,” she says.

Reactions on social media were mixed. Some were excited at the prospect but were concerned about moving Metro bus routes and how neighbors would navigate the closure. Others said they had been waiting for this type of closure for years. Another person said they don’t think it will be enough to revive the neighborhood, which has seen business closures during the pandemic. Some called for year-round closure, with one person saying 18th Street would be “immeasurably better if we never had any cars on it at all, just bus lanes.”

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Adams Morgan is already familiar with street closures because of its annual Adams Morgan Day in September, which turns 18th Street into a street festival. The BID had previously requested to install retractable bollards to make these recurring events easier to do. This time, the street will be closed using dump trucks and police cruisers, but the BID is seeking approval for a street closure system that can be more easily deployed using a “cable barrier that is pulled across the street and connected on either side with a bollard.”

The city actually granted Adams Morgan a fourth date to close the streets (August 28) as part of Streets for People, but WMATA can only move its bus routes one weekend per month, according to the BID.

The Mayor’s order says other streets and alleys around 18th Street NW may also close at the discretion of the District Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Police Department to protect the safety of the public and improve traffic flow.

“Streets for the People builds off the popular and successful Open Streets concept – the idea that we can reimagine how we use public space not only for commuting and playing but also for how we interact with each other and support local businesses,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement when the grant was announced in January. “There has never been a better time to think about how we can activate our business and entertainment corridors in new ways, and I know that Washingtonians will be eager to come out and support these activations.”

In all, five areas received grants including:

• The Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District, with the Open Streets Events.
• The DowntownDC Business Improvement District held a “Pop of Spring” event earlier this year that include live music, video games, anime movies, and more.
• The Dupont Circle Business Improvement District is holding a series of Art Walks and “See You in the Circle” concerts.
• The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District is holding movies, concerts, and workouts in Farragut Square and an outdoor office in James Monroe Park.
• The Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District is hosting “Tunes in the Triangle” concert series.

The program builds on the District’s Open Streets events, which close streets to vehicles and open them for recreation. Those events used to be special one-a-year type events but have happened with more frequency in recent months. Open Streets events happen in all eight wards; the next one is scheduled for 12th Street NE in Brookland on August 22.

This story was updated with comments from the Adams Morgan BID.