On a day when blue skies and temperatures were in the 80s, St. Louis Park residents of all ages gathered on Dakota avenue to enjoy the open road.

The first annual Park the Street event occurred on Sunday, Sept. 28 and drew not only comfortable weather, but a widespread variety of activities extending for a little more than a mile, all promoting healthy living.

Freshman Anthony Brandel was one of many students who attended the event. He said the event promoted health in a new, more localized way.

“I thought it was very active,” Brandel said. “It taught you how to become more healthy, supportive of the community and helps students learn about new programs in SLP.”

A wide variety of organizations and businesses lined the sides of the streets, promoting their ideas to people walking, biking, running and even scootering down the street.

A few of those activities and events were jazzercise, pickleball, putt-putt golf, hula hoop competitions, bike decorating and a wind-ensemble band.

Despite the plethora of tents and opportunities available, one of the main focuses of this event for Health in the Park was to promote and teach the community about new and improved bike lanes on Dakota Avenue.

Brandel said as a student, the current bike lane situation could cause a lot of potential accidents involving bikers and motorists.

“In my opinion I think that the current situation is unsafe because the bike path was put in between parked cars and moving cars, but this new plan is a good idea,” Brandel said.

Health in the Park’s community outreach coordinator Jeanne Olson said the number of people who attended the event completely surpassed the organization’s expectations.

“It was a little bit beyond our expectations,” Olson said. “We were expecting to get around 1,500 people, and we had over 2,000 people which was really exciting.”

Olson said the event could not have been possible without the combination of nice weather and events that created an environment fun for everyone in attendance.

“We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful day, but really the activities and events that the organizations and business offered were really interactive, and seemed to get people engaged in what they were doing,” Olson said.

Although the event turned out well, Olson said there were some areas that could have been improved upon for the future.

“We’d like to fill it up a little more, you don’t want it to be packed because you really want people to be able to feel the street, but there were some areas where there was one activity on a whole block,” Olson said.

Senior Mikey Perez who was one of many students who attended the event during the day said he enjoyed some of the events, however agreed that a few aspects could have been improved.

“Everything was very spread apart and because McDonald’s was right there, it was hard to get a feeling of healthy living,” Perez said.