Stories

Guest blog post by Shannon Huang, Ryman Arts, and Tati Simonian, Grand Park

October is a great time of month for the arts. It’s National Arts & Humanities month, the month of the Inktober initiative, of The Big Draw, and most significant for Southern California, it’s the month of The Big Draw LA hosted by Los Angeles based non-profit, Ryman Arts.

The Big Draw LA is a series of drawing activities where the public – people of all ages and abilities – makes art at a wide variety of venues — from museums and parks to unique locations in neighborhoods. These events are organized and led by community-based organizations across the region. The Big Draw LA is linked to The Big Draw – the national festival that is taking place in over 20 countries of communities hosting art events during the month of October.

Love is a word we hear a lot at CicLAvia. People love the freedom of car-free streets. They love the neighborhoods they've never visited. Sights, sounds, aromas and adventures: all loved. But, as we look back at our eighth CicLAvia on October 6, 2013 as part of the countdown to our 15^th event on October 18, we find a different, deeper love. The kind of love that comes but once in a lifetime.

April 21, 2013. The day CicLAvia transitioned from a really cool event centered more or less in Downtown LA into a transformative movement that spread out across 15 miles of LA city streets. Dubbed "CicLAvia – To the Sea", the longest-ever CicLAvia route attracted more than 100,000 people to experience a car-free day from the historic El Pueblo in downtown to the glistening waters of the Pacific Ocean at Venice Beach – which may have led to a little congestion at one point…

Today’s look back at the first 14 CicLAvias leading up to our 15^th event on October 18 sees CicLAvia expanding beyond the downtown streets of our first four routes. The fifth route, which took place on October 7, 2012, took a break away from Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights and the Bike District in East Hollywood. Instead, CicLAvia found its way to MacArthur Park and Exposition Park.

Our look back at CicLAvia’s history continues as we count down to our 15th event on October 18th. Today, we remember our third event October 9, 2011, once again in Downtown L.A. The first anniversary event saw a shift in public awareness about CicLAvia and an increase in enthusiasm on social media.

Five years ago this month CicLAvia held its first event on October 10, 2010. With no idea about how the public would respond to removing cars from the streets of central Los Angeles, a coalition of bicycle advocates, environmentalists, urban designers and public officials anxiously held their breath to see what would happen. As we head to our five year anniversary and our 15^th event on October 18, we start a two-week countdown looking back at the route CicLAvia has taken to become a civic institution in Los Angeles and a national leader in the open streets movement:

September had plenty of change and excitement in the world of open streets, transportation and environment. Here’s this month’s Word on the Street:

September 9, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES – Following an extensive search, the CicLAvia board of directors has found the organization’s new Executive Director from within their own ranks. CicLAvia, which produces the largest open streets events in North America, is pleased to announce that Romel Pascual will be the organization’s new executive director. Pascual takes over for co-founder and longtime executive director Aaron Paley, who will remain deeply involved in the organization as executive producer.

This weekend marks Labor Day, a day that recognizes the numerous efforts and accomplishments of the workers who make America run. Here at CicLAvia we have a number of people who work hard to make LA’s streets safer for running, walking, biking, skating, using a wheelchair, or pushing a stroller without worrying about cars. We’d like to use today’s post to introduce you to some of the faces behind CicLAvia and let you know what they do to help hundreds of thousands of you enjoy car free streets each year.

Welcome to “Word on the Street”, our new monthly recap of news you should know from the world of open streets, transportation, health, environment and everything else CicLAvia fans may find of interest!