This Sunday: Solar Eagle Taking Flight for 350.org EARTH

We know that many CicLAvia blog readers are also interested in working on climate change issues. On 10/10/10, we saw many participants of 350.org’s Global Work Party (which took the form of a rally to Kick Coal and Oil Out of L.A.) out on the CicLAvia streets.

350.org at CicLAvia on 10/10/10

This weekend, 350.org is launching its EARTH initiative, which will use participatory public art projects to raise awareness about climate change. Here in L.A., artist John Quigley will be creating and orchestrating the shape of a Solar Eagle Taking Flight, combining solar panels and thousands of people for an aerial image that will be photographed by satellite. If you want your picture taken from space while supporting climate action, all you have to do is show up:

Where: L.A. State Historic Park,1245 N. Spring St., LA, CA 90012
When: Sunday, November 21, 9:30 – 11:15 AM
Why: UN Climate Negotiations kick off in Cancun one week later, and this a chance to come together creatively to rise to the climate challenge.
Get there: CARPOOL; Metro Rail, the park is less than a block away from the Chinatown Station on the gold line. If you BIKE, your bicycle may be part of the image as well.
More info: http://earth.350.org/

Come out and play!

The countdown has begun — Los Angeles’ first CicLAvia is less than a week away. On 10-10-10, we are inviting all of Los Angeles to come out and play! Please help us spread the word about CicLAvia this week by sharing this video with your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and the rest of your social network!

Share CicLAvia on Twitter!
Share CicLAvia on Facebook!

A huge thank you to filmmaker Carlos Marques Marcet and his talented team for putting this together for us.

Ten-Ten-Ten CicLAvia Information

Los Angeles’ first CicLAvia will be Sunday October 10th 2010 from 10am-3pm. It’s free, fun, family-friendly! Click for: route map, or volunteer opportunities. RSVP/share on Facebook – or just show up! Check FAQ page for answers to CicLAvia questions. See the activtity map page for scheduled events or to add your own.

CicLAvia out and about this weekend!

Our friends over at Public Fiction are opening a Secret Restaurant for Brunch this Sunday (August 22) from 11am-2pm and for Dinner on Monday (August 23) from 7-10pm. There will be a fixed menu for a $10-15 sliding scale, with a portion of the proceeds from both days to go to CicLAvia! If you are interested in coming, you have until tonight at 5pm to make a reservation!  RSVP to jenn@swearonourfriendship.com with your name, time/date you’d like to come eat and the number in your party.

Also on Sunday, CicLAvia will be hanging out at the post-ride celebration for Santa Monica Museum of Art’s Tour da Arts cultural bike ride:

7-9pm: Tour da Arts, vol. 2 and exhibition closing party
Highlights include Music by Dublab, live screen printing, food trucks, bike-themed vendors and more!

SMMoA is located at:
Bergamot Station G1
2525 Michigan Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Mayor Villaraigosa announces CicLAvia on Huffington Post!

As we reported earlier, Mayor Villaraigosa pledged to support and attend CicLAvia on 10-10-10 at his Bike Summit earlier this week. Yesterday, the mayor posted his own reflections on the Bike Summit over at Huffington Post, in which he wrote about his partnership with CicLAvia:

It’s clear we haven’t done enough to incorporate bicycles into our transportation planning. But with so much community engagement, and so many good ideas, we can and we will do a better job.

For starters, we need to build more bicycle infrastructure, enforce existing laws, and change drivers’ attitudes towards cyclists. Our reputation as the car capital of the world does not excuse our drivers from common courtesy on the road or from obeying the law.

Also, Los Angeles is an ideal place for cycling, and we’ve got to get Angelenos to reconsider biking as a viable, fun means of transportation. A great first step is the event my office is planning with CicLAvia on Sunday, October 10th. On 10/10/10 , we will be closing off certain city streets from Boyle Heights to East Hollywood exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians. Events like this are already a huge success in Mexico City – they can be a success here as well.

Thank you, Mayor Villaraigosa — We look forward to working with you and seeing you out there on 10-10-10! You can read the mayor’s full post here.

CicLAvia at Moving Beyond Cars event this Wednesday

Our friends over at deLaB, GOOD, and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition are hosting a party to celebrate Alternative Transportation in L.A. The event is called “Moving Beyond Cars” and will be taking place at the LA Beyond Cars: A Global Perspective on Rail and Space exhibition in Downtown Los Angeles. CicLAvia will be hanging out at the event to let you know how you can help us make our first event on 10-10-10 a huge success. Rumor has it that we’ll also be helping with handing out prizes to those who come to the event in the most creative non-car fashion.

Come and say hi!

Moving Beyond Cars
L.A.’s Alternative Transportation Celebration
Wednesday, August 18
7 to 10 p.m.
The Jewel Box / City National Plaza
525 S. Flower Street, Downtown Los Angeles
Free, cash bar

More information can be found here.

Limited-edition, hand-printed CicLAvia t-shirts

Our new t-shirts are here! We spotted CicLAvia supporter Megan Hirsch sporting hers yesterday at LACBC’s Walk and Ride for a Safer 4th Street event:

These tees are limited-edition and hand-silkscreened, and they’re going to go fast! The best way to guarantee one for yourself is to visit our Kickstarter page and donate to CicLAvia at the $100 level. While screen-printing away last weekend, we also reached our $7,000 Kickstarter goal, thanks to the 158 backers who have made pledges so far. — But wait! — Our campaign doesn’t end until August 15, so that gives you plenty more time to donate through Kickstarter and get your very own CicLAvia t-shirt. Keep the donations coming!

More t-shirt colors and designs will be posted up here soon.

Setting the canvas for CicLAvia

This video (titled Running on Empty) by Los Angeles resident and filmmaker Ross Ching has been making the rounds on the Los Angeles blogosphere, and I wanted to post it again here.  The fanciful video is a time-lapse film that shows what certain parts of Los Angeles would look like without car traffic.  It depicts our streets as a wonderful canvas for imagining the possibilities of play, recreation, exercise and exploration that can take place during CicLAvia events!

via Curbed LA and GOOD

Spotlight on: Oaklavía

Here at cicLAvia, we often look to other cities for guidance and inspiration in organizing an exciting ciclovía program for Los Angeles.  We’ve been closely following our friends 350 miles to the north in San Francisco, who are well into their third year of ciclovía programming.  With plans for 9 ciclovías this year, Sunday Streets SF held their third event of the season yesterday, closing off nearly 4 miles of streets to car traffic in the city’s Bayview District.

Summer Streets SF by flickr user edgehill

Thanks to the success of San Francisco’s program, ciclovía fever has spread across the Bay to Oakland.  As an East Bay native, I was thrilled to learn that Oakland will be launching their own ciclovía program (which they’re calling Oaklavía) this year, with a pilot event from West Oakland through Downtown Oakland to Jack London Square scheduled for June 27. I caught up with Oaklavía organizer Karen Hester via e-mail to see how the planning is going:

What is your name and role in organizing Oaklavía?
Karen Hester, event organizer hired by WOBO (Walk Oakland Bike Oakland) to organize Oaklavía: Come Play in the Streets.

What has your city’s role been in making Oaklavía happen?
We have gotten some support in-kind for barricades from the bike and pedestrian department [of the city] and verbal support from some City Council members.

What are the goals of this event?
WOBO is excited to give Sunday Streets some Oakland flair – Oaklavía will take the concept of street festival to the next level, allowing residents to experience the city’s best natural and architectural assets, outdoor activities, and arts in some of our most well-loved and unique streets and neighborhoods.

How long is your proposed route and how was the route selected?
Less than 2 miles, and we worked to find a route that was short but compact, traveled through different neighborhoods, and gave an overall experience of Oakland.

What kinds of activities do you plan on having at Oaklavía?
Activities will include live music, dance, and capoeira classes, and bicycle safety and maintenance courses [as well as] free bike repair, roller derby, flash mobs, circus arts and art bikes.

What is your expected attendance?
10 to 15 thousand.

How closely have you been working with SF’s Sunday Streets Program?  What are some things you have learned from their experiences?
Very closely–we’ve met with their coordinator, and I shadowed her at the first event of the year, and we are sending volunteers to learn how they train and use volunteers.

Thanks, Karen!  We’ll be rooting for you on June 27!

Spring breakin’ Olvera Street

We are live from Olvera Street! We couldn’t quite make it out of town for Spring Break, so we decided to come down to Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles instead. Olvera Street, formerly Wine Street, is the birth place of Los Angeles, where the governor of the Californias left the San Gabriel Mission and headed here to create a new settlement.

In its early days, this area, the main commercial artery of the city, was filled with pedestrians. In later decades, this area was the first stop for immigrants from Italy, China, Mexico and beyond. By the 1920s, Olvera Street’s adobe buildings were badly deteriorated and faced destruction. A popular movement arose to save it and Olvera officially became a pedestrian-only area devoted to its Mexican heritage.

While most of the rest of Los Angeles slowly succombed to the automobile, today, Olvera remains a car-free, pedestrian street. And just as Olvera Street symbolizes our city’s past, we hope it can also speak to our city’s future, as a place filled with cicLAvias, where pedestrians can walk freely and interact with each other and local shops.