Board Seeks Shorter 18th Avenue Feast

Community Board 11 has proposed a set of modifications that would shorten the length and duration of the 70-year-runnning Festa di Santa Rosalia, or the 18th Avenue Feast.

Brooklyn Eagle reports:

The community board is asking the city to shorten the route of the Italian-flavored street fair by two blocks, District Manager Marnee Elias-Pavia announced at the board’s Nov. 14 meeting. The board would also like the festival reduced by two days, so that it would run for eight days instead of 10.

Under the community board’s plan, the route of the street fair would run for six blocks along 18th Avenue from Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) to Bay Ridge Avenue (69th Street). In previous years, the festival route stretched for eight blocks, from Bay Ridge Parkway to 67th Street.

The festival, which has always operated for 10 consecutive days, ending on the day before Labor Day, would instead end on the Friday before the holiday under the board’s proposal.

The changes are being recommended to alleviate sanitation issues and parking problems on and around 18th Avenue, according to Elias-Pavia. Shortening the festival’s schedule by two days would ensure than the Department of Sanitation will have enough time to sweep the streets and get them clean before Labor Day, she said.

City officials will review the recommendations and make a decision before next year’s festival.