Sunday Streets is a fun and healthy event that opens up a city's largest public space - its streets - for people to reconnect with each other and their local environment: to play, walk, chat, cycle and to share in other recreational, arts and cultural activities.
Sunday Streets calls for main streets to be opened up for the community on Sundays, by taking cars off those streets for the day.
Local businesses take to the streets by claiming the footpath in front of them. There's live music, arts and culture, and other recreational activities - such as climbing walls, dance, yoga and aerobics classes - staged at various parts of the route. Everyone is able to participate and get some exercise.
Greens MP Jamie Parker has joined the campaign to bring Sunday Streets to Leichhardt, throughout Sydney and in communities across NSW.
"This is a wonderful initiative which reclaims public spaces for people, improving community networks while reducing pollution," Mr Parker said.
The health benefits are enormous. Research published in the Journal of Urban Health found a cost benefit ratio of $2.32 in health benefits from San Francisco's Sunday Streets. It also brings significant economic benefits to local businesses on high streets as thousands of people come out to explore them.
The original Sunday Streets, called Ciclovia, was developed in Bogota, Colombia in the 1970s and there are now over 100 cities around the world that hold Ciclovia regularly including New York City, Chicago, Berlin, San Francisco, Jakarta, Vancouver and even car clogged Los Angeles. In Bogota it spans 120 kilometres and is held every Sunday and public holiday, while in other cities the route is typically up to 15 kilometres long and held a few times a year. The bigger the better!
SBS: Taking back the streets - on Sunday
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