The Park & Recreation Board will close portions of the Bde Maka Ska Parkway to vehicle traffic on July 4, one of law enforcement’s most challenging days, to help avoid a repeat of last year’s chaotic scene at the lake.

The road is planned to close to vehicles the evening of July 3 and be fully reopened to vehicle traffic on the morning of July 5. Pedestrians and bicyclists will have full access to the parkway at all times. West Bde Maka Ska Parkway will be closed from Richfield Road to Xerxes Avenue South. East Bde Maka Ska Parkway will be closed from West 36 Street to Lake Street.

“The Fourth of July has always been a challenge,” Minneapolis Park Police Department Chief Jason Ohotto told a small group of neighbors at an April East Bde Maka Ska Neighborhood Association meeting. “What we want to do is stop a circular pattern of people cruising the lake. And we can disrupt that circular pattern through temporary traffic closures on both sides.”

Last year, a large group of people gathered at the lakeshore, amongst other places, and shot fireworks at people, according to MPR News.

The parkway closure was first announced at an East Bde Maka Ska Neighborhood Association meeting on Monday. According to the association’s safety committee chair, Glenda Marsh, the partial road closure was a collaboration with “neighborhood associations around the lake, liaisons from the East African community, and the Park and City police.”

The Park & Recreation Board said the Linden Hills, East Bde Maka Ska, and West Bde Maka Ska neighborhood associations sent the board communications “supporting parkway segment closures over Independence Day.”

Additional reporting by Keith Schubert