Streetsblog Los Angeles

At Ease, Soldier: A young member of the East Side Riders proudly poses with his bike at the Watts Towers.

Several years ago, I spent a week photographing a stretch of 37th St. as part of a neighborhood documentation project of the area around USC. Where other photographers had diligently snapped structures and streets, I had cajoled residents into participating in the project and later gave them copies of the photos so they could see the final product. The soul of a neighborhood is its people, I had argued in defending my approach at the time. Without them, the structures are just a shell.

I was reminded of this while surveying the scene at Augustus Hawkins Natural Park on a chilly Sunday morning in late January. About 60 riders had shown up to participate in the CicLAvia South L.A. Exploration Ride through Watts. Each had a different motivation for being there. Some simply enjoyed participating in exploratory group rides. Those unfamiliar with the area came to check out our landmark destination, the Watts Towers. Others were linked to the CicLAvia South L.A. Host Committee, TRUST South L.A., C.I.C.L.E., or the BikeRoWave, the groups facilitating the ride. Still others were from the Watts-based East Side Riders (ESR), eager to make the case for Watts to be included in the CicLAvia expansion route.

Finally, a sizable contingent—at least 20%—came to document the ride, including the L.A. Times, KPCC’s OnCentral, the Annenberg Innovation Lab, filmmakers from Ride: In Living Color, folks from ParTour (a USC initiative harnessing new media and mobile technology to advance positive social change), and, of course, Streetsblog. The apparent newsworthiness of this crossing of socio-economic boundaries served to underscore how infrequently it occurs, even in a city as diverse as ours.

The ride was a continuation of the Committee’s efforts to host monthly rides into South LA. The larger purpose was to promote cycling and show the value of livable streets in communities, bridge gaps between communities by helping people explore new areas, demonstrate proper riding techniques and the rules of the road, and, in the case of ParTour, to engage participants in the creation of a crowd-sourced map of the route to showcase South L.A. as a rideable destination. Read more…

Vea el Streetfilm sin subtítulos, aqui.

After sponsoring two Streetfilms of the first two CicLAvias, Los Angeles’ version of the open streets festival based on Bogota’s Ciclovia, Los Angeles Streetsblog faced a dilemma: How can we continue to cover the event that draws over a hundred thousand Angelenos to the streets?  The Answer? Make a Streetfilm that was accessible to Southern California’s large Spanish-speaking population.

¡Viva CicLAvia! consists of two parts.  First, narrator Mara Corina Arellano Colin explains the history and concept of Los Angeles’ amazing open streets party, including footage and photos from similar festivals in Bogota, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Brussels and Miami.  While the narration is a great explanation of the benefits and culture of CicLAvia, the soul of Social Impact Consulting’s efforts are the interviews with participants.

The next five minutes is a parade of Spanish speakers professing their love of CicLAvia.  Whether it’s the team from South Central’s Mendez Bike Shop, the traffic officer spreading his arms while explaining Viva CicLAvia, or Hollywood’s City Councilman Eric Garcetti; the broad smiles in the Southern California sun give a message in any language.  Giving people more chances to play in the sun is good for Los Angeles.

This Streetfilm marked another first for Streetfilms, a directly reader supported video.  L.A. Streetsblog asked its readers if they wanted a Spanish language film on CicLAvia, and when they said yes, the readers were challenged through a Kick Starter campaign to fund the film.  Needless to say, the readers came through.

Watch here without English subtitles.

One of the debates about open streets events, such as the wildly popular CicLAvia in Los Angeles, is whether or not the event is “good for business.”  While it’s a mistake to rate events that have such a tremendous benefit to the city based on the one-day impact of businesses, a new video from the Mayor’s Office demonstrates that open streets aren’t just good for the city’s residents, but also good for the city’s business.

Matt Berman from Bolt Barbers, Nancy Carlson of Pet Project Pet Supplies, and a pair of Barristas at Coffee Bar on Spring Street all appear in the video and tell the camera that not only do the tens of thousands of people rolling and walking by their businesses isn’t just good for exposure.  It makes for a great day to do business.

Rob Adams is probably as close to an “official videographer” for CicLAvia as one can get.  He shot our two Streetfilms on the big event (watch “Let’s Go” –10.10.10“ and “CicLAvia Is…” 4.10.11“) and this time since L.A. Streetsblog/Streetfilms is going in a different direction, the CicLAvia team asked him to shoot a film directly for them.

But just because we didn’t go with Adams this time (his Spanish is about as good as mine…) doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate a good film on our favorite topic.  The above film focuses on many of the things you can do on CicLAvia without a bicycle such as the giant chess set, the musical performances, dodge ball, the rolling photo booth, or even just setting out a chair on the street.  But don’t worry, there’s plenty of shots of people riding their bikes car-free through Los Angeles.

Watching Adams’ films are a great way to spend the time.  172 days until CicLAvia.

Next?

It seems as though each CicLAvia is attracting more and more people to the carfree festival that connects ten neighborhoods bordering and including Downtown.  After past CicLAvia’s, we’ve asked where’s next? But as CicLAvia has become such a powerful symbol of what Los Angeles can be, the chorus calling for a local CicLAvia is growing.

We have just over six months to the next CicLAvia, and there are four contenders to host the next gigantic car free festival.

1) The current route, either as it exists or with a further expansion.  The “standard” CicLAvia route connecting the East Hollywood Bicycle District to Hollenbeck Park has proven popular.  Media estimates for the amount of people attending CicLAvia in some form dwarf similar events in other American cities.  The route expanded for last weekend’s event with spurs up to El Pueblo (Olvera Street) and down to the African American Firefighter Museum.  However, the two spurs weren’t as heavily traveled, or as well marked, so last weekend’s route could still prove popular and hold some new sights.

2) In the April CicLAvia, there were new t-shirts available that celebrated a future CicLAvia South L.A.  While a completely new route for South L.A. didn’t happen in 2011, there was some real movement towards that goal with regular meetings and rides promoting alternatives to the 10/10/10 route that has been the backbone of the CicLAvia route.  There has also been talk of having CicLAvia run along the route of Phase 1 of the Expo Line, from Downtown L.A., down to the USC campus and on to La Brea.

3) While they’re not calling it CicLAvia, there are also rumblings from advocates and city staff that Culver City should be the next Southern California city to hold a Ciclovia style event.  At the same time, Westside Councilman Bill Rosendahl has also pushed for a West L.A. CicLAvia and Santa Monica has also made some noise about closing off a portion of its streets for a carfree party.  Could there be a route connecting Culver City to the water?  Or even more impressively could we see a combination of the second and third options?

4) While the San Fernando Valley has hardly been a hotbed of bicycling activity, we have seen signs that even The Valley is moving towards livability.  Yesterday, Dakota Smith penned an article for the Daily News asking whether the SFV is ready for CicLAvia.  Today, the Daily News’ editorial board is asking the same question.  A CicLAvia in the Valley this April is a long shot, but when the local paper of record takes an interest, anything is possible.

Do you have a better idea?  Leave it in the comments section.

Just a quick thought before I turn it over. It amazes me that CicLAvia is so big that I miss seeing so many of my friends and Streetsblog personalities that I know were out there. Hope everyone had a safe day on the streets!

On Sunday morning, thousands of families will get together in Los Angeles to celebrate the temporary liberation of ten miles of city streets we call CicLAvia. Since this isn’t the typical pack the kids in the car and go to the park sort of event, we thought we’d post our own family guide to the big event.

Photo: Gary Leonard

How to get to CicLAvia

First and foremost, if you’re planning to drive to CicLAvia, don’t.  There’s limited parking and too many other people are planning the same thing.  Here are some better options.

If you live far away, the best option is probably to get to a station and take a train to one of the stops Downtown.  Metro is ready for more bikes than usual and so is Metrolink.  You can find the station nearest you on their respective websites.

Buses are a bit trickier.  Many buses have bike racks, but they only have space for two bikes.  This works o.k. for commuters, less so for family trips.  Even a family of three is going to need multiple buses even assuming that the racks are free.

If you got the legs for it, and your kids do too, there’s always the obvious solution…you can bike to CicLAvia.  If you’re concerned about the little ones mixing with regular car traffic, there are a lot of group rides going to CicLAvia from various starting points.  The best compilation of group rides can be found right on the CicLAvia website.

There are plenty of things to do in the park.

Public Spaces

Whether you’re planning to walk or bike CicLAvia, at some point you’re going to need to stop and rest.  Especially if you’re with kids.

Last year Joe Linton wrote a great summary of ten public spaces along the “old” route for the CicLAvia blog.  But the route has expanded, and there’s more to see and do this year.  If nothing else, the African American Firefighter Museum is at the end of the South Spur and Olvera Street is at the tip of the North Spur.  Just North of the North end, a parade celebrating the anniversary of the founding of Taiwan will be taking place in the early afternoon.

A unique event is taking place at the First Congregational Church at 540 Commonwealth Avenue.  The Church is hosting a “Blessing of the Animals” so if your family plans involve a four-legged member, feel free to swing by for some godly karma.  The event is free and open to the public.  A secondary benefit for families at First Congregational?  A diaper station that is open to the public.

And lets not forget the Mini-grants.  Curbed did a fun write-up of the grants and some of the other changes happening this year. Giant Chess sets!  Photo booths on wheels!  Fun!  The CicLAvia team was nice enough to provide a list of all the mini-grant winners and their locations, with the caveat that some of these events are mobile and will be moving.  Of course, there are a lot of great events that aren’t mini-grant winners, but many of those you’re going to have to find on your own.

A personal suggestion, the area around City Hall might get a little crowded with the “Occupy L.A.” demonstrators and CicLAvia participants both taking advantage of the public space.  While this provides a great chance to see Democracy in action, smaller children might start feeling a little claustrophobic.

I’m Hungry! Read more…

Occupy L.A., or any peaceful protest, deserves a space at open street festivals. Photo:American Dreadlock/Flickr

The relationship between “Occupy L.A.” and the City of Los Angeles has been a relatively smooth one, at least compared to the one in New York City.  Protesters have peacefully assembled on the City Hall Lawn, some sleep on the concrete pathways at night as sleeping on the grass is technically illegal, and arrests have been few and far between.  The City Council has even passed resolutions supporting the protesters with somewhat better conditions and verbal encouragement.  Some of the Councilmen, first Dennis Zine, Bill Rosendahl and Richard Alarcon, and then others have even wandered “I know its common for protests to happen at Ciclovias?down the steps to talk with Occupy L.A.

But its easy to treat protesters with respect and dignity when there’s little to no conflict and the police have easy access to the manpower if a problem should arise.  The real test of the city’s belief in the right of Occupy L.A. to peacefully assemble will come on Sunday, when CicLAvia stretches the LAPD and tens of thousands of cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders and other pass right past the protest ground.

Streetsblog has confirmed that the CicLAvia team doesn’t want the protesters moved and has communicated this desire to the city, but just in case here is the case to let the protesters stay regardless of how difficult one fears it will be.  Just in case anyone is wondering, this list would apply to a Tea Party protest as well.

1) CicLAvia has hosted protests in the past.  At the inaugural event last year, there was a gigantic “rally against coal” that was pretty much right where the Occupy L.A. encampment is today.  There’s a lot of differences between the two protests, but it’s not for government to decide which protests are valid and which ones aren’t. Read more…

CicLAvia is clearly working Joe a little too hard...

Tonight, a series of Veggie Grill restaurants is hosting a series of fundraisers for CicLAvia at seven locations around L.A. County and Orange County. A 50% of all meals bought after 5:00 P.M. goes to the CicLAvia coffers which is a pretty sweet deal. Joe Linton, Joel Epstein and myself are all going to be co-hosting the one in Santa Monica tomorrow night. In addition our Smackdown Conversations on different issues, we’ll also have some grab bag prizes including some CicLAvia schwag, a Streetsblog t-shirt and some Streetfilms DVD’s.

Fun and merriment are guaranteed. For a full list of locations, click here.

If you can’t make the event tonight, you could always help out CicLAvia by helping Streetsblog cover CicLAvia. Our KickStarter campaign for a Spanish Language Streetfilm on CicLAvia III needs more support and needs it fast. We’re $185 away from our goal and only a couple of hours remain. If we go over our KickStarter goal, we’ll invest in some hardware to make distributing the Streetfilms locally. However, if we don’t reach our $1,000 goal, we won’t get any of the funds pledged to the campaign.

"Southpaw" taken by Alex Thompson at the 10/10/10 CicLAvia

As we get closer to the 10/9/11 CicLAvia, expect more and more coverage here at Streetsblog. Of course, you can stay up to date by “liking” CicLAvia on Facebook or visiting their blogpage anytime.

But for regular Streetsblog readers who want their news in one place, we’ll be offering semi-regular updates on the CicLAvia news you might have missed otherwise. Don’t forget, CicLAvia runs from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. on Sunday, October 9.

1. CicLAvia announced the winners of its $500 mini-grant contest.  The goal of the contest is to create more of a giant street party feel instead of a giant bike event feel that’s existed for the past two events.  The grant winners include the “Eagle Rock Yacht Club” which is really a dodge ball outfit, various performance and music based events and even “street chess” are on the docket.  A complete list of the mini-grant winners can be found after the jump.
2. One great idea that didn’t win a mini-grant, comes from Bikeside, which is hosting a space for candidates in the CD 15 City Council race to replace Janice Hahn to come and talk to cyclists and CicLAvia revelers.  The forum will be held right in front of LAPD’s Downtown headquarters from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M.
3. The City Council Transportation Committee will debate tomorrow a motion to allocate $200,000 to CicLAvia to help cover the city’s expenses.  Any leftover fund from this allocation will be spent on CicLAvia’s in 2012, if the Council approves.

Mini-grant winners in 3…2…1…

Read more…