Since late April, the block of Hoyt Street between State Street and Atlantic Avenue has closed to cars every Friday evening and for twelve hours each weekend day. City paperwork sets the season's end at Saturday, October 31, 2026. This Saturday, Halloween and the last day of the season fall on the same date.
That overlap shapes the neighborhood's day. The Atlantic Avenue BID bills its Halloween program on Hoyt as "our last Open Street event of the season." Three blocks over, Dean Street stays closed well into the night. At the Atlantic end of Hoyt, a community garden that dates to 1975 runs its own Halloween hours starting in the morning. Taken together, they make Boerum Hill's Halloween a relay, and the timing changed this year.
The season the barriers have been marking since April
NYC DOT's Open Streets schedule lists Hoyt Street from State Street to Atlantic Avenue as a full closure. It runs Fridays from 6 to 11 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., from April 24 through October 31, 2026, with the Atlantic Avenue BID as the partner organization. DOT defines Open Streets as streets temporarily turned into public space for car-free activity, local businesses, and community groups.
The Halloween program is how that run ends. The BID's listing promises spooky beats from MakerPark Radio. Board member and photographer Connie Halporn will take festive photos that visitors get to keep. A district map marks the small businesses handing out sweets, so families can plan a trick-or-treat route from it. Two sponsors will also be on the block. Local orthodontist Dr. Kateryna Huz is bringing what the BID calls "essentials for the post candy blues," and Premier Martial Arts is bringing prizes and moves to try.
"All of our events are free, for all ages, and open to the public." Atlantic Avenue BID
Brooklyn Bridge Parents' 2026 Halloween guide adds that costumes and pets are welcome at the Hoyt event.
The finale moved earlier, and that changes the day
Last year's Hoyt Open Street Halloween ran from 4 to 7 p.m. That was a dusk event, according to a 2025 trick-or-treat guide from Brooklyn Bridge Parents. This year, NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets listing puts it at 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 31.
A household that remembers last year's timing would arrive at Hoyt just as the music ends. The earlier window also lines up with the other two Boerum Hill listings in a way last year's didn't. Hoyt Street Garden Halloween runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the Boerum Hill Association calendar. The Dean Street Halloween Block Closure, run by the Dean Street 5 Association, holds Dean Street car-free from Bond Street to Nevins Street from 1 to 10 p.m. From 2 to 5 p.m., all three are running at once within a few short blocks. At 5 p.m., the garden's hours and the Hoyt program end together. Hoyt itself stays closed to cars under its weekend schedule until 11 p.m., and Dean's closure runs until 10.
DOT notes that all Trick-or-Streets events are subject to delay or cancellation, so check the listings Saturday morning.
Saturday, October 31, by the clock
Using only the published hours, the day lays out like this:
- 10 a.m. Hoyt Street Garden Halloween opens at 100 Hoyt Street. The Boerum Hill Association's listing gives the hours and location but doesn't describe the program.
- 1 p.m. Dean Street closes to cars between Bond and Nevins.
- 2 p.m. The Hoyt Street Open Street Halloween program begins between State Street and Atlantic Avenue. Pick up the district map here before heading out to trick-or-treat.
- 3 p.m. In the next neighborhood over, the Cobble Hill Association Halloween Parade starts on Congress Street between Henry and Clinton streets and runs until 6 p.m.
- 5 p.m. The garden's Halloween hours and the Hoyt program both end. Hoyt Street stays car-free under its regular weekend schedule.
- 10 p.m. The Dean Street closure ends.
- 11 p.m. The Hoyt Street closure ends, and the Open Street season ends with it.
The Cobble Hill parade is the one item outside Boerum Hill. With Hoyt and Dean both open during its run, a family can reach Congress Street and get back to Dean Street before dark. Visit Brooklyn's 2026 Halloween decorations guide points out that Boerum Hill sits close enough to Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens to cover several neighborhoods in one afternoon.
After five, the evening runs on two car-free blocks
Dean Street's closure runs nine hours, from early afternoon until 10 p.m. It's listed under the Dean Street 5 Association, a block group, which makes it the one Boerum Hill Halloween street listing organized by a block and not a business district. The same Visit Brooklyn guide names Dean, Bergen, and Hoyt streets as the blocks to walk for pumpkins, decorated stoops, and festive front doors. After the Hoyt program packs up at 5, the evening runs on car-free Hoyt and Dean and the residential streets around them.
For food between the afternoon and evening legs, Atlantic Avenue sits right between Hoyt and the Bond end of Dean. Sea & Soil, a worker-owned sandwich shop and bakery at 388 Atlantic Avenue between Bond and Hoyt, opened on April 14, 2026, according to Eater NY. A July 2026 profile in the Linewaiters' Gazette reported that the shop bakes its bread in-house. It opened ten days before this Open Street season started, so its first spring, summer, and fall on Atlantic have all overlapped with the Hoyt closures. Sea & Soil is just west of the Bond Street end of the Dean closure, an easy stop between the two.
What stays on Hoyt after the barriers go
When the Open Street season ends at 11 p.m. Saturday, the garden at the top of the block keeps going. According to the Hoyt Street Association, the Hoyt Street Garden started as a rubble-filled vacant lot. In the mid-1970s, a group of neighbors led by Hoyt Street resident Margaret Cusack turned it into a community garden. The association formed in 1970 and created the garden in 1975. Its Annual Plant Sale, which began in the 1980s, has paid for garden maintenance, tree plantings, neighborhood activities, and grants to local schools and organizations for decades.
That makes the garden about half a century older than the Open Street that ends next to it. Its calendar doesn't follow DOT's season, either. The association lists children's story time, book giveaways, and holiday caroling among its community events. The plant sale returns on the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May at the garage of 110 Hoyt Street, on Pacific Street, and the association recruits volunteers by email in late March.
The garden is also open every day, not just on event days. If the door is locked, the association says to borrow a key from GRDN, the garden shop across the street at 103 Hoyt Street. Once the barriers come down Saturday night and the block returns to traffic, that key arrangement is how the top of Hoyt stays open to the public through the winter.
We wrote about how Boerum Hill's activity has shifted toward Atlantic Avenue and Bond Street in our summer read of the neighborhood. Saturday's schedule follows the same streets, with the Hoyt finale at Atlantic, the food stop on Atlantic, and the evening on Dean between Bond and Nevins. More on the blocks themselves is on our Boerum Hill neighborhood page.
The Scott / Robles Team works on these Boerum Hill blocks all year, from Hoyt and Dean to the side streets along Atlantic. If you'd like to talk about the neighborhood once the Open Street season is over, we're glad to hear from you. Contact Us.
