In 1971, Gwen Verdon wanted a safe, festive way to spend Halloween with her daughter, Nicole. She asked her neighbors on West 69th Street to hand out candy and to help organize a costume parade by Christ and Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church. Penny Shaw, a former block association president, told I Love the Upper West Side that about 30 children came. They paraded in a circle, and there were prizes for the best costumes.
That same outlet reports that the block now draws about 5,000 people each year, some from as far away as New Jersey. This year that crowd gets two hours, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 31. Five other Upper West Side blocks go car-free that same day, each with its own start and end time. Together they make a relay that begins near Cathedral Parkway in the early afternoon and ends on West 69th Street well after dark. Planning the day means planning around those hours.
Six Car-Free Blocks, Six Different Clocks
Trick-or-Streets is the city's Halloween Open Streets program, now in its fifth year. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn announced on September 30 that a record 160 car-free streets and plazas citywide would host Halloween and fall events this October. I Love the Upper West Side reported that eight of those events are on the Upper West Side, and DOT says it is handing out 75,000 pieces of candy across the program. Six of the eight fall on Halloween itself. DOT's official schedule lists them like this:
| Opens | Closes | Block | Organizer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:00 p.m. | 4:00 p.m. | Amsterdam Avenue, Cathedral Parkway to West 106th Street | Columbus Amsterdam BID |
| 3:00 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | West 107th Street, Manhattan Avenue to Central Park West | Manhattan Avenue Tenants Block Association |
| 4:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | West 78th Street, Amsterdam to Columbus Avenue | West 78th Street Museum Block Association |
| 4:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | West 87th Street, Columbus Avenue to Central Park West | West 87th Street Park Garden |
| 4:30 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | West 87th Street, Riverside Drive to West End Avenue | 334 West 87th Building/Residents of the Block |
| 6:00 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | West 69th Street, Broadway to Central Park West | West 69th Street Block Association |
Read top to bottom, the start times get later with every row. The two blocks above 106th Street open first, and Amsterdam Avenue closes first. The two longest windows are in the middle of the neighborhood, at 78th and 87th. The block with the oldest tradition and the biggest crowd opens last and has the least time.
Sunset in New York on October 31, 2026, is at 5:53 p.m., according to timeanddate.com. So every block except 69th opens in daylight, and 69th Street happens entirely in the dark.
The Museum Takes the Morning
The day starts before any street closes. The American Museum of Natural History's Halloween Celebration runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. under the Blue Whale. The museum lists live music, crafts, face painting with InHerBeauty, balloon animals by Ken Romo, a live marine biology experience with Island Fish and Scale, and a trick-or-treat costume parade around the first floor. Costumes are encouraged, but masks should stay home. The event comes with museum admission for October 31, which is pay-what-you-wish for New Yorkers and is sold on-site or at tickets.amnh.org.
The museum event ends at 4 p.m., the same hour West 78th Street opens one block west of the museum's Columbus Avenue side. The West 78th Street Museum Block Association hosts that block. For a family that starts indoors, the museum and 78th Street join up with almost no gap.
Uptown Goes First and Finishes First
The Amsterdam Avenue Open Street runs between Cathedral Parkway and West 106th Street for just two hours, 2 to 4 p.m., hosted by the Columbus Amsterdam BID. West 107th Street, between Manhattan Avenue and Central Park West, opens at 3 p.m. and stays open until 6:30.
These two blocks are a short walk apart, and for one hour, from 3 to 4 p.m., both are open. For households above 100th Street, and for younger children who will be in bed before West 69th Street opens, that overlap is the most practical hour of the day. By the time West 69th Street opens, Amsterdam Avenue has been back to traffic for two hours.
The Long Middle: 78th and 87th
West 78th Street and the Central Park West end of West 87th Street both run from 4 to 9 p.m. Those are the longest windows on the Halloween schedule. Five hours at each lets a family arrive in daylight, leave for dinner, and come back after dark without missing anything.
West 87th Street actually has two separate events. The eastern block, between Columbus and Central Park West, is hosted by the West 87th Street Park Garden. Nearer the river, between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, the residents of 334 West 87th host a second event from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. A household near Riverside can reach a car-free block without crossing Broadway.
Decorated brownstones aren't limited to the closed streets. In a 2022 photo roundup, I Love the Upper West Side highlighted West 94th Street and West 83rd Street between Central Park West and Columbus for their Halloween displays. Those were displays from past years, and every building decides each fall what it will put out, so think of those blocks as worth walking past, with no guarantee.
West 69th Street, After Dark
By 6 p.m., the sun has been down for seven minutes, and West 69th Street closes from Broadway to Central Park West. In 2025, West Side Rag called it the Upper West Side block best known for Halloween. The block association's own account, as reported by I Love the Upper West Side, describes candy giveaways, a haunted house, a Spider-Man or sometimes Superman climbing a facade, and prizes for the best-decorated buildings.
The same report puts the block's candy spending at about $4,000 a year. Some of the older activities, such as bobbing for apples, were dropped as the crowds grew. With 5,000 visitors and two hours, the numbers explain why. The block that started with 30 children and a costume circle is now the most compressed part of the evening.
Families who want both the classic Upper West Side Halloween and a slower pace can split the evening. Spend the late afternoon on 78th or 87th, where the hours are long, and arrive at 69th Street for its two hours after dark.
Along the Route
Several places that opened this fall sit close to the car-free blocks:
- Lucia Pizza, 159 Columbus Avenue between West 67th and 68th Streets, opened October 5. It has standing counters but no seats, which suits a quick slice before West 69th Street opens.
- TALEA Beer Co., 441 Amsterdam Avenue between West 81st and 82nd Streets, opened September 25. It's a short walk from both West 78th and West 87th Streets.
- Velvet Cowboy, 509 Amsterdam Avenue between West 84th and 85th Streets, opened September 29, on the Amsterdam side of the 87th Street stretch.
All three openings were reported by West Side Rag.
The Week Before, and the Morning After
Halloween isn't the first Trick-or-Streets date this season. On Sunday, October 25, Columbus Avenue goes car-free from West 68th to West 77th Street, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., hosted by the Columbus Avenue BID. That nine-hour window is longer than any single Halloween block, and it starts just north of Lucia Pizza and crosses West 69th Street.
Halloween night also runs straight into two schedule changes. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, so clocks go back an hour after the 69th Street crowd has gone home. Later that same Sunday, the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon finishes in Central Park. NYRR notes that event details may change.
Block associations like the ones on West 69th and West 78th Street are a big part of what makes a building and its street feel like a community. If you're thinking about a move that keeps you near the blocks your household returns to every October, Hilary James would be glad to talk it through. Request a confidential consultation.
