Open Streets Roslindale: Your Guide to Oct. 18 and What's Next

What does Corinth Street feel like with no cars on it? On Sunday, October 18, Roslindale gets to find out for the first time. Open Streets Boston is coming to Roslindale Square from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the City calls it the first Open Streets event the neighborhood has ever hosted.

The date matters for more than the face painting. The two streets going car-free sit inside the area of a City transportation study that is about to show its first draft designs. This fall, the Boston Transportation Department plans to put concept designs in front of the public for the square, and one of the ideas under study is a new layout for the intersection where Belgrade Avenue, Robert Street and Corinth Street meet. So the street fair comes a few weeks before the drawings.

The route and the hours

The closure covers two blocks. Corinth Street will be car-free from Belgrade Avenue to Washington Street, and Poplar Street from South Street to Washington Street. The City's October 2 traffic advisory bans parking on both sides of each stretch.

The timing is wider than the event itself:

Anyone who parks overnight on Corinth or Poplar should move their car Saturday night. The 6 a.m. start comes well before most people's Sunday coffee.

Roslindale closes out the season

This is the series' fifth year, and Roslindale is the last of four 2026 stops. Jamaica Plain went first on August 2, Mattapan followed on September 12, and Allston-Brighton is today, October 4. The other three were return visits. Roslindale is the only new neighborhood on this year's list.

The City is again producing the events with Shana Bryant's Manifested Events, which says it has run 19 Open Streets Boston events so far. The City says programming varies by neighborhood, but every event will have food trucks, face painting, balloon animals, crafts, interactive games, photo installations and performances. The Roslindale event page adds live music and kids' activities. No list of Roslindale performers or vendors had been posted as of early October.

The storefronts already on the route

The City describes Open Streets as a way for local businesses to expand into the street. These are the businesses that sit right on the car-free blocks:

• The Square Root, 2 Corinth Street, a cafe serving coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch, plus craft beer, wine and live entertainment.
• Fornax Bread Company, 27 Corinth Street, with pastries, coffee, sandwiches, soups and salads.
• The Thrift Shop of Boston, 33 Corinth Street.
• Shaking Seafood, 19 Poplar Street.

None of them had announced Open Streets plans as of early October, so check their hours before you go. The City also says the route has plenty of room for tables and activities, and it invites residents, organizations and businesses from across Boston to take part. Groups that want a table still have about two weeks to ask.

The study area, at walking pace

Open Streets is a separate effort from the Roslindale Square Transportation Action Plan, but they cover much of the same ground. The plan builds on transportation ideas from the City's adopted Squares + Streets plan for Roslindale. The two biggest ideas are making Washington Street two-way along Adams Park and reconfiguring the Belgrade, Robert and Corinth intersection. The City says it may refine, revise or drop some of these ideas as the work goes on.

The project's own timeline makes the October date useful:

1. May 13, 2025: an open house. Almost half of the comments the City received were about safety.
2. May 13, 2026: a virtual project update with 111 registrations.
3. Mid to late fall 2026: a second public meeting to show the first draft of the concept designs.
4. By the end of 2026: a final report with a preliminary engineering feasibility analysis, including cost estimates, traffic modeling and conceptual drawings. The City calls this a roadmap for moving projects forward starting in 2027.

Walking Corinth from Washington Street down to the Belgrade end on October 18 puts you right at the intersection the City is studying for a possible reconfiguration, with time to look at the crossings and corners without traffic. The draft concepts will come out a few weeks later. The project team includes engineers and planners from Bowman, landscape architects from kmdg, and the community engagement firm Openbox. Anyone who wants an alert for the fall meeting can join the project email list on the City's plan page.

Poplar Street reopens at 4 p.m.

A car-free Poplar Street could easily start a rumor, and the City has already answered it in the plan's FAQ:

"Nope. There is no proposal or plan to close Poplar Street to vehicular traffic."

The same FAQ says the City has made no proposals to remove or change parking in the square. The City says it may try a few short-term fixes, such as repaving streets or repainting crosswalks and bike lanes, while the bigger long-term ideas will take a couple of years and several more rounds of public input. Poplar has already had smaller changes. The City added a contraflow bike lane and speed humps between Washington Street and Sycamore Street.

Roslindale has turned a street into public space before. The City describes Birch Street Plaza as a stretch of Birch Street converted from a street for cars into a plaza. That change was permanent. Corinth and Poplar get one Sunday, and then the cars come back.

The rest of the square's fall calendar

Open Streets falls in the middle of a busy stretch for Roslindale Square, and several dates are within walking distance of the route:

• Saturdays through November 21: the Roslindale Village farmers market at Adams Park, 4225 Washington Street, 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. November 21 is the last market of the season.
• Thursday, October 29: the Roslindale Village Main Streets Gala, 7 to 10 p.m. at The Substation, 4228 Washington Street. This year it honors former board president Glenn Williams and former executive director Janice Williams.
• Saturday, October 31: "Wicked Plants: A Botanical Halloween" at the Arnold Arboretum's Hunnewell Lawn, noon to 3 p.m., with a children's storytime at 1 p.m. and a rain date of November 1.
• Sunday, November 1: "Rhythms in the Garden with the Iris Percussion Quartet" in the Arboretum's Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden, noon to 1 p.m. The rain date is November 8.

Roslindale Village Main Streets also lists business trick-or-treating on a Saturday in late October, and Small Business Saturday and the Tree Lighting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Exact 2026 dates weren't posted on its events page as of early October.

The City notes that Roslindale Square was Boston's first Main Streets district. On October 18, two of its streets close to cars for the first time, a few weeks before the City shows how it might redesign them.

If you own a home near Corinth, Poplar or Washington Street, it helps to know what is actually on the table: the two-way Washington Street idea, the intersection reconfiguration under study, and the City's statement that Poplar stays open to cars. That's true whether you plan to stay for years or are starting to think about a sale. Colleen Kelly Homes follows the Roslindale Square plan as it moves forward and can walk you through what the fall concept designs could mean for your block. Schedule a free strategy call.