July Community Tour Ride a Big Success

Last Sunday’s CicLAvia Community Ride wasn’t quite a CicLAvia, but was still a lot of fun. Just over 200 cyclists (and three rollerbladers!) rode an 8.5-mile loop from Boyle Heights to South L.A. to the Fashion District to Chinatown and back to Boyle Heights. The ride focused on three community landmarks that we plan to connect CicLAvia with on October 9th 2011: South L.A.’s African American Firefighter Museum, Chinatown’s the Plaza (at El Pueblo), and Boyle Height’s Mariachi Plaza.

Vamos a la July 10th Community Ride

Come ride CicLAvia's Community Bike Ride this Sunday! Wearing a basket of bread on your head is optional.

When we announced that the July 10th CicLAvia wouldn’t be happening, we knew a lot of folks already had that day penciled in… or even written in pen… or, more likely these days, electronically recorded… on their calendars. To cushion the waves of CicLAvia withdrawal, we’re hosting a group ride instead. It’s a chance to get together and bike in the city.

The CicLAvia Community Ride will take place on Sunday July 10th 2011. Folks gather starting 12:30pm, departing 1pm from Hollenebeck Park. Suggested donation $5. No streets closed; riders obey traffic laws. More details after the jump.

Draft CicLAvia October 2011 Expansion Routes South and East

South L.A. expansion ride stops in front of the Council District 9 Constituent Center on Central Avenue

These aren’t one-hundred-percent finalized yet, but CicLAvia wants to share the draft expansion routes for South Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. The October/April CicLAvia route is shown in red. Expansion for Boyle Heights is blue; for South L.A. green.

CicLAvia has worked with community groups in these areas to form local host committees. Potential routes has been brainstormed, bicycled and refined. Nonetheless, the CicLAvia expansion host committees are still meeting with various folks and still finalizing these routes. It takes about four months for the permitting process, so the pretty-much-final versions will be submitted to the city in mid-June. Depending on funding, logistics, capabilities, these routes may be added in full or in part this October. If you want to see CicLAvia expand, please donate and/or sponsor!

Boyle Heights CicLAvia Expansion Update

4th Street in Boyle Heights during CicLAvia on April 10th 2011

(Apology:  Super-Voluntario Mark Didia wrote this just after the meeting described, and I didn’t get around to posting it until the day before tomorrow’s Boyle Heights CicLAvia Host Committee meeting.)

 

A couple of weeks ago, Boyle Heights residents met to discuss and draw out an extension route for a future CicLAvia. The meeting was held at Corazon Del Pueblo; a Boyle Heights community space where you can find various activities being hosted (e.g. yoga classes, art shows, etc). At the meeting attendees were able to design routes and vote on which they were most interested in. Out of the eight or so routes created, four received the most interest. From those four, we plan to return for another meeting to fine tune the routes and hopefully narrow it down to one.

 

Boyle Heights is a relatively small, yet dynamic community. Approaching the route is a bit tricky, since we have so many great streets in a small area. To start, we discussed entering and exiting the area. There are few corridors into the community and most agreed that 4th Street and 6th Street were the best streets to enter or exit. Though Cesar Chavez Avenue and 1st Street are great options, they pose some challenges that 6th/Whittier or 4th Street do not. For example, 1st Street has the exposed Metro Gold Line tracks and getting to Cesar Chavez from downtown might interrupt the flow of buses, trains, etc at Union Station. 

Upcoming Events: Expansion East, South and Bike Week

Good Sam's Blessing of the Bikes is next week!

Some CicLAvia expansion get-togethers and other bike events that CicLAvia-istas might be muy interested in:

>> Tomorrow: CicLAvia’s Boyle Heights Host Committee meets to discuss expansion routes and plans. We’re hoping to finalize the additional Boyle Heights route by mid-June, so it’s ready for permitting by the October 9th 2011 CicLAvia. Meeting at 11am on Saturday May 14th at Roosevelt High School room A208. Deets on Facebook event.

>> This Sunday: CicLAvia’s South L.A. Host Committee hosts a ride to introduce folks to the planned route, and to outreach to communities along it. South L.A. expansion also planned for inclusion in the October 9th 2011 CicLAvia. Meet at 11am on Sunday May 15th at All Peoples Christian Center. More info on Facebook event. OOOOPS! Facebook event was accidentally canceled… but the ride is ON! Meet tomorrow 11am at All Peoples 822 E. 20th Street. Los Angeles, CA 90011.

>> Next Monday: CicLAvia is joining Metro, the city of Los Angeles, L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, and others to kick off Bike Week! Celebration y press conference takes place at 8:30am on Monday May 16th 2011 at the North Hollywood Metro Red Line Station! Come on down!

>> Next Tuesday: CicLAvia is being honored at Good Samaritan’s annual Blessing of the Bicycles, which takes place at 8am on Tuesday May 17th 2011 at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Blessing of the Bikes is an excellent event, and Good Sam’s CEO is a cyclist, who has ridden both CicLAvias so far, and the hospital is a leader in connecting bikes with health – and they sponsor CicLAvia and support Bici Libre, too!

CicLAvia news – 20 April 2011

A quick round-up of some CicLAvia announcements. Looking to get involved in CicLAvia? Want a few more emails in your inbox? Look no further!

CicLAvia Boyle Heights Expansion Rolling

CicLAvia on 10-10-10 on 4th Street in Boyle Heights

Last night over two dozen CicLAvia supporters showed up to the first meeting focused on expanding CicLAvia eastward. The meeting was hosted by CicLAvia and the Roosevelt High School – School of Communications, New Media and Technology. Attendees affiliations included the East Side Bike Club (long-time CicLAvia proponents, and responsible for the incredibly dope calavera bike float at last year’s CicLAvia event), the local YMCA, the Boyle Heights Technology Youth Center, Spokes and Words, Mis Neighbors, KPFK’s Hear in the City, Americorps, and many others. Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who opened last year’s CicLAvia, sent his deputy in support of the effort.

Similar to the initial South L.A. meeting last December, attendees shared their CicLAvia experiences, and expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for expansion. The meeting brainstormed possible landmarks that a CicLAvia route might connect; folks were interested in drawing attention to Boyle Heights’ prominent roots in many L.A. histories: Latino/Chicano, Jewish and Japanese.

Get Involved in CicLAvia Expansion Eastward!

10-10-10 CicLAvia on 4th Street in Boyle Heights

CicLAvia is planning expansion! Events will be more frequent and routes will be longer, connecting more communities. The expansion effort has begun in South L.A. and now we’re pleased to announce our first public meeting in Boyle Heights – coming on Tuesday March 1st 2011. If you’re interested in helping with expansion further into Boyle Heights, unincorporated East L.A. (and further?!!) plan to attend the CicLAvia community dialogue meeting. It’s hosted by the School of Communications, New Media and Technology at Roosevelt High School.

Maybe Modifying the CicLAvia Route – Part 1: East End

The eastern end of the 10-10-10 route - mostly on 4th Street

CicLAvia is getting going on the permitting process for our April 10th 2011 event. As we announced the route is more-or-less the same as 10-10-10 when we did 7.5 miles from Boyle Heights to East Hollywood. We love the 10-10-10 route, but we are looking into making a few tweaks that we think could improve it.

We want to hear your input on possible changes to the route – but first a few disclaimers:

TEN Neighborhoods on the TEN-TEN-TEN CicLAvia Route

CicLAvia's Ten-Ten-Ten 7.5-mile route from East Hollywood to Boyle Heights - click image to embignify

In honor of our 10-10-10 CicLAvia date, CicLAvia is running TEN top TEN listings! So far it’s been TEN reasons, TEN buildings and TEN problems. Today, we highlight TEN great neighborhoods that our initial TEN TEN TEN CicLAvia will go through. 

We think that L.A.’s wonderful neighborhoods are ever-changing, fluid, loose, overlapping, and largely unofficial… but we did lean on some relatively official sources (especially the L.A. Times Mapping L.A. website, which draws from the city of Los Angeles’ Planning Department.) These communities are out there to explore, but there’s often not agreement on where one ends and where another begins.  

A few geeky statitical notes on population: The population numbers shown are from the LA Times website, listing the estimations for 2008. The TEN-TEN-TEN route goes through the three highest population density neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles, and even the entire county: (in density order) #1-Koreatown, #2-Westlake, #3-East Hollywood (each greater than 30,000 potential CicLAvia participants per square mile!) The October route also goes next to two more in the top ten (#4- Pico Union and #7-Hollywood.) We’re happy about this, because it means that CicLAvia is bringing active healthy recreational space to the places that need it the most! 

Also – in this short format, there’s so much that we’re not able to capture about these neighborhoods – let us know if you think we’ve left really imporant things out! 

TEN NEIGHBORHOODS ALONG THE CICLAVIA ROUTE 

Boyle Heights home across from Hollenbeck Park. Photo by Jenn Su

1. Boyle Heights
Times map, Population: 99,243, Density: 14,229 people/square-mile