Celebrate Halloween by taking over your street
Oct 10, 2024, 5:00 AM
If you’re still looking for a way to make a Halloween impression, why not shut down your street and throw a block party? Seattle is now accepting applications for “Trick or Street” permits.
Seattle has long allowed neighborhoods to shut down streets to throw parties or host events. It’s a fun and safe way to have an event without mixing pedestrians and cars. Trick or Street just has the best name for shutting down a street for Halloween. All you need to do is get a permit from the City of Seattle, and you can close your street any time between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3.
“It’s a really exciting way for anyone in the community to trick or treat or just throw a pre-Halloween party in their neighborhood safely,” the Seattle Department of Transportation’s (SDOT) Mariam Ali said.
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Neighbors can now shut down up to three blocks in a row, as long as cross traffic is allowed to pass.
“We just encourage multi-block closures only where the cross streets are residential streets with no yellow or white lines,” Ali said. “Cross streets must remain to be open to allow cars to pass through.”
Any cross streets with painted traffic markings must remain open. The city will even help you with signs to make sure the event is done safely.
“We also have some suggestions about signs, like the streets closed or informational signs that people can see,” Ali said. “We actually have signs that they can use and borrow from us.”
All of this is free of charge.
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However, closing a street does have some legal restrictions.
“We obviously don’t allow alcohol, but you can have food and music and tons of fun for the kids and stuff for families and communities,” SDOT’s Ali said.
To clarify, you cannot have alcohol in the closed street, but it is certainly allowed on your private property. So no beer garden in the middle of the street.
You can close down the street multiple times during the week-long window. Just make sure to spell everything out in the permit and be sure to tell everyone on the street you are doing this.
It is a bad neighbor move to shut down a street without telling anyone in advance.
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