Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and the TCS New York City Marathon starts the next morning, Sunday, November 1. Between the two, the clocks fall back. In most years Halloween and the marathon are separate weekends. This year they share one, and Brooklyn will keep cars off its main streets almost continuously from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. In a few places, the block that closed for trick-or-treaters on Saturday sits on the race course or right beside it on Sunday.
Twelve Hours on Nassau Avenue
You can see the whole weekend on one short stretch of Greenpoint. NYC DOT's Trick-or-Streets list shows Nassau Avenue, from North 15th Street to Lorimer Street, car-free on Saturday, October 31, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. North Brooklyn Open Streets is running it. On Sunday, Nassau Avenue is on the marathon course again. Runners come up Bedford Avenue, turn onto Nassau, and then head up Manhattan Avenue toward the Pulaski Bridge.
The time change is what makes the handoff tight. The National Institute of Standards and Technology puts the end of daylight saving time at 2:00 a.m. on November 1, 2026. The clock goes back to 1:00 a.m. and that hour plays twice. NYC311 says many marathon street and bridge closures run from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on race day. That means the gap between Nassau Avenue's Halloween closing time and the citywide closure window is 8:00 p.m. Saturday to 7:00 a.m. Sunday. The clock says eleven hours, but twelve actually pass, and the extra hour lands in the middle of the night.
New York Road Runners adds that NYPD closures start early in the morning so trucks, ambulances and volunteers can set up medical tents and water stations before the start. The 311 hours are citywide, so they don't tell you when your own block on the course reopens. Last year's Brooklyn notice ran from 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Use that only as a rough guide. Don't count on it this year.
Saturday, Block by Block
The Mayor's Office announced on September 30 that Trick-or-Streets would be the largest yet, with 160 car-free streets and plazas across the city. Brooklyn Bridge Parents counts 40 of them in Brooklyn on Halloween, and each has its own hours. The neighborhood parades are spread across the day, so Saturday moves north and south across the borough from morning to night:
| Time | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 a.m. | North end of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade | Brooklyn Heights Association costume parade, finishing with a bake sale at the south end |
| About 12:15 p.m. | 155 Milton Street, Greenpoint | Town Square BK's children's parade, led by the NYPD Marching Band, down Manhattan Avenue to Driggs Avenue and back |
| 2:00 p.m. | Washington Street, Dumbo | Howl-O-Ween dog costume contest on a car-free street |
| 3:00 p.m. | Washington Street between Front and Water | Dumboween March to the Arch, then the Archway party until 6:00 p.m. |
| 4:00 p.m. | Cobble Hill Park, Congress Street gate | Cobble Hill Association parade behind The Brass Queens, with music from 3:30 p.m. |
| 6:30 p.m. | Seventh Avenue and 14th Street | Park Slope Civic Council parade, "The Haunted Forest of Brooklyn," ending at the Old Stone House |
The DOT list fills in the hours around those parades. Washington Street in Dumbo is car-free from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pearl Street Plaza runs from 3:00 to 10:00 p.m. The Park Slope parade route on Seventh Avenue, from 3rd Street to 14th Street, is closed from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Brooklyn's latest closing time on the list is 10:00 p.m. Dean Street from Bond Street to Nevins Street, Garfield Place from Eighth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, and Pearl Street Plaza all stay car-free until then. DOT says events may be delayed or canceled, so check the official Trick-or-Streets list the morning of.
Where Saturday's Map Meets Sunday's Course
These streets appear on both the DOT list and the marathon route.
- Nassau Avenue, Greenpoint. Car-free from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, then on the course Sunday.
- Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint. On Saturday the children's parade marches up it to Driggs Avenue. On Sunday the marathon uses it to reach Greenpoint Avenue, McGuinness Boulevard and the Pulaski Bridge.
- 32nd Street, Sunset Park. The block party between Fifth and Fourth Avenues runs from 1:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday and ends at Fourth Avenue, where Sunday's runners come through.
- 74th Street, Bay Ridge. It's car-free from Sixth Avenue to Fifth Avenue from noon to 9:00 p.m. Saturday. 74th Street is also one of the Bay Ridge connector streets the city listed for the course in its 2025 closure notice.
Park Slope has the same pattern a few blocks apart. Seventh Avenue holds the parade Saturday night, and Fourth Avenue carries the race Sunday morning. On both days, the avenues east and west of the closures get the detoured traffic.
Sunday Morning, From the Verrazzano Side
NYRR's 2026 start schedule spreads the field over three and a half hours, so the Brooklyn course stays busy well past the early starts:
- 8:00 a.m. Professional wheelchair men, then women at 8:02
- 8:22 a.m. Handcycles and select athletes with disabilities
- 8:35 a.m. Professional women
- 9:05 a.m. Professional men
- 9:10 to 11:30 a.m. Waves 1 through 5, about every 35 minutes
NYRR says these times may change. The race comes off the bridge into Bay Ridge and heads up Fourth Avenue through Sunset Park and toward Park Slope. It reaches Atlantic and Flatbush around mile 8, near BAM, turns onto Lafayette Avenue through Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, and takes Bedford Avenue through Williamsburg to Greenpoint. The halfway point is at the Pulaski Bridge.
If you need to get across, NYRR lists just two designated pedestrian crossing zones in all of Brooklyn: Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, and Bedford Avenue and Broadway. Plan Sunday errands, brunch and dog walks around those two points. NYRR's spectator rules keep watchers off every bridge on the course, the Pulaski included. Spectators stay behind the blue tape or barricades, and bikes and skateboards aren't allowed on the course. The bike ban covers setup hours too, not only the hours runners are on the road.
Time Out New York recommends three Brooklyn viewing spots, each with its subway lines. Fourth Avenue for miles 2 to 4 is on the R. Fourth and Flatbush at mile 8 is served by the B, D, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Williamsburg and Greenpoint for miles 10 to 13 are on the G, L, M and J.
Fifty Years on the Same Streets
This is the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, first run on October 24, 1976. NYRR has made its first course change in 15 years for the occasion, and it is entirely in the Bronx. After the Willis Avenue Bridge, runners now use East 141st Street and Third Avenue before crossing the Madison Avenue Bridge. Nothing changes in Brooklyn. The race uses the same Fourth Avenue, Lafayette, Bedford and Manhattan Avenue route as in past years. This year it simply comes the morning after the borough's Halloween.
Where to Wait It Out
Several new businesses sit along or near the route, which makes them good places to spend either day.
Near the Park Slope stretch of Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn Paper reported that Caputo Bagels would open October 5 at 81 Fifth Avenue. James Caputo's shop carries on his family's Brooklyn baking history, and it's a block off the course.
In North Brooklyn, Brooklyn Magazine covered Ferguson's Country, a Southern restaurant and bar at 732 Lorimer Street by McCarren Park, close to where Bedford meets Nassau. Brooklyn Magazine's September openings roundup adds two newcomers on Manhattan Avenue itself: Limousine at 623 and Ayune at 664. Both are on Saturday's parade route and Sunday's course.
For the extra hour between Saturday and Sunday, Greenpointers reported that Williamsburg Diner at 82 South 4th Street planned a soft opening by the end of October and a full opening by mid-November, with 24-hour service. Those dates were plans as of mid-October, so confirm before you go.
On Monday, November 2, Green-Wood Cemetery hosts a free Día de Muertos family event from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Main Entrance Meadow, by Fifth Avenue and 25th Street.
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