El Cerrito's First Halloween With Neighbor-Run Street Closures Lands on a Saturday
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
On Saturday, October 31, up to 10 El Cerrito blocks can close to through traffic for trick-or-treating, and the households hosting them pay no permit fee. This is the first year the City has offered that option. It's also a trial, and City staff have said they will look at how it went before deciding whether to make it permanent.
That makes this Halloween a little different from the usual night of porch lights and candy bowls. The City's own paperwork says certain neighborhoods get trick-or-treat crowds big enough that residents worry about cars. The answer the City chose is to let neighbors close the street themselves for one evening, with neighbors doing much of the work.
On September 15, 2026, the El Cerrito City Council took up agenda item 6.I, the Halloween Block Party Pilot Program, and adopted a resolution letting the City Manager waive block party permit fees for Halloween night. The terms are short:
The application window closed last Friday, so for this year the list of participating blocks is set. The City has not published which streets will be closed.
The agenda bill explains the reason plainly. "Several neighborhoods in El Cerrito are popular for trick-or-treating activities each year on Halloween," the staff report says, and residents "have expressed concern about vehicle travel in these neighborhoods with a high concentration of trick-or-treaters." Closing a street lets children go door to door with fewer cars around.
The idea came from residents. According to the report, they asked through Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman for a low-cost or free Halloween option "similar to National Night Out." You could always get a block party permit any time of year. What residents wanted was for the cost to stop getting in the way on the one night when the crowds are already there.
The $155 fee isn't arbitrary. Staff wrote that it pays for Police Department and Public Works staff time, including delivering barricades for street closures. That explains how the pilot is built. Waiving the fee means the City absorbs that labor, so staff kept it down two ways. They capped the program at 10 parties, which puts the most the City can forgo at $1,550, and they made hosts haul the barricades themselves. The Council could have just cut the fee instead, and the report lists that as an option. It chose a full waiver.
In practice, for one night, a closed street depends on a neighbor with a car big enough for barricades and enough patience to return them afterward.
Halloween hasn't fallen on a Saturday in a while, and this year it changes the timing of the whole day. The El Cerrito Plaza farmers market runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the El Cerrito Chamber's calendar lists October 31 as a normal market day with no change in schedule. So Halloween morning starts at the Plaza with the usual stalls, hours before any barricade goes up.
On a weeknight Halloween, trick-or-treating starts after work and school. On a Saturday the afternoon is free. That leaves time between the market and dusk to carve, finish costumes, or pick up barricades from the Corporation Yard, the step the pilot hands to hosts.
The block parties are the new piece. Around them is a week of smaller, dated events across town, all listed on current 2026 calendars.
Thursday the 29th is the busiest day before Halloween itself, with the mask workshop on Moeser Lane in the morning and the musical comedy at the Cerrito that night. A mask made Thursday morning is ready for Saturday.
If the week calls for a coffee or a slice, two newer spots are on the route. Cafe Buenos Aires has expanded to 6401 Fairmount Avenue, serving empanadas, coffee and pastries, according to a Richmondside Nosh roundup published September 29. On San Pablo Avenue, Miles Pizza Slice at 10810 San Pablo had an El Cerrito Chamber ribbon cutting on October 1. Both are close to the corridor where Halloween errands are likely to happen anyway.
The pilot's future gets decided later, at budget time. Staff wrote that they "will review the program's success for consideration in the next budget cycle when the Master Fee Schedule is reviewed by the City Council." Whether the program comes back, grows past 10 parties, or turns into a reduced fee will rest on how this Saturday went.
The City listed the program under two goals in its Strategic Plan, Community Safety and Livability and Belonging. Residents who want a say in what comes next can go to commission meetings at 10890 San Pablo Avenue. The Park and Recreation Commission meets there on Wednesday, October 28 at 7 p.m.
The morning after Halloween, the City has a volunteer day at Baxter Creek Gateway Park on Sunday, November 1, from 10 a.m. to noon, meeting at Conlon Avenue and the Ohlone Greenway.
If your block hosted one of the first 10 parties, or you're thinking about applying next year, I'd like to hear how the night went and whether you'd do it again. Tracy Zhou at ggsir.com is always glad to talk El Cerrito, whether or not a move is on your calendar. Let's Connect.
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