Running water, squealing children, a Bronx street planted in the heart and heat of a July morning. All together, summer’s trumpets sounded bright and loud Thursday along 196th Street in the Bronx, despite official indifference or bumbling.

With an eye on crime statistics, City Hall this year moved to re-engineer summer recreation, all but eliminating Playstreets, which are closed to traffic, a custom in New York that goes back to 1914.

That came as news to the mayor, a spokeswoman said Thursday, even though it was his own office of criminal justice that had made the cuts. “City Hall was not made aware of this dramatic reduction at the time the decision was made,” the spokeswoman, Olivia Lapeyrolerie, said by email.