CicLAvia

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.

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.

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.

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. For example, I'm told they'll be releasing a list of "mini-grant" winners later today...

Maybe it's the name.

By the early afternoon of April 10, it was clear that CicLAvia had outgrown its original seven and a half mile route.  In the urban core of Downtown Los Angeles, bikes were packed so thick on the road that entire groups wouldn't make it through traffic signals and other road users were intimidated from using the street.  Something had to change for the amazing car-free party to continue to attract new riders.

CicLAvia was amazing last Sunday.  When you think that less than a year ago it wasn't certain Los Angeles would every have an open street festival and now we're having over 100,000 people take to the streets, it's double-amazing.