CicLAvia Film Week: Under Sadik-Khan, New York Gets “Summer Streets”
August of 2008. It seems so long ago. Two L.A. Streetsblog stories attracted more than ten comments. One was on a protest of the SMPD’s over policing of Critical Mass by blocking intersections in Santa Monica by crossing the street over and over. The other was on Metro’s efforts to improve bike/bus relations.
Meanwhile in New York, they were celebrating their first Ciclovia style event, known locally as Sunday Streets. In truth, this event is probably going to more closely resemble what we experience on Sunday than the Ciclovia film from Monday. After all, but New York in 2008 and Los Angeles in 2010 were still learning how to program these sorts of events, both were closing about seven and a half miles of street, and both featured Streetsbloggers touring the street with their Mother. Clarence Eckerson writes on the Summer Streets that was:
We’ll spare you the 200 adjectives we could list about how transformational it was, for it was beyond anything on the printed page. The general consensus was that the event succeeded beyond even the most hoped for expectations and would pass even the most pessimistic of measuring sticks. A page has been turned, clearly there is no doubt: the future will hold many more large scale street openings for pedestrians, cyclists, runners, children, dog walkers, dancers, and any other reasonable livable space use.
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