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.

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.

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.

This week, CicLAvia staff and volunteers begin our door-to-door community outreach for the October 18 CicLAvia – Heart of LA route. This is the first of several direct conversations CicLAvia ambassadors will have to engage community members long before CicLAvia takes place.

Yogurt. After more than a year of using my Metro TAP card to take the bus to work and the train to meetings, it was froyo that finally revealed the full power found in that seemingly innocuous piece of plastic known as the “TAP” card...

CicLAvia will return to the Westside for the first time since 2013 in a little more than a month with our CicLAvia – Culver City Meets Venice Presented by Metro route on August 9. Since our last visit to Culver City and Venice, we have held open streets events across LA County: on iconic Wilshire Boulevard, in historic neighborhoods in South LA and below the foothills that distinguish the gateway to the Valley. 

Silence.

Silence blankets CicLAvia but you never hear anyone talk about it.  We live in a city of rumbles and grumbles.  The rumbles of cars and trucks grinding along miles of city streets.  Fumes pumping from the exhausts of vehicles driven by people who fume and grumble over being stuck on those streets, physically miles from home and mentally miles from each other, even though only separated by thin layers of metal and glass. That is the noise we deal with every day. Every day but CicLAvia Sunday.

CicLAvia Walks is an invitation to discover the riches of Los Angeles – its history, ecology, architecture, creativity, and playful happenstance. We hope that you will use CicLAvia as an opportunity to explore our great city from a new perspective and at a leisurely pace.