Note on the October 9 2011 CicLAvia Route South

[Joe Linton]

South L.A. CicLAvia collaborators -

Unfortunately, the October 9th 2011 CicLAvia is shorter than we had hoped for. We were unable to do the full route connecting with Central Avenue and with Exposition Park. There are a few reasons for this: crossing the Metro Blue Line at Central and Washington will be somewhat costly and will require additional planning and coordination, and the CicLAvia non-profit budget and the City of L.A. budget have lead us to plan for only limited expansion.

The October 9th 2011 route (being announced later today - via ciclavia.org) does include a new 1.5-mile south spur that goes through the Fashion District and extends to the African American Firefighters Museum (at Central and 14th.) Though it doesn't quite get to South L.A., it does take the first step in bring the route a little closer.

We intend to ultimately extend the route further south along Central Avenue and MLK Blvd, with additional mileage hopefully coming on-line in April 2012 (either April 8th or 15th.) and we still plan to keep extending the route further throughout Los Angeles. Bogota, Colombia started with 7 miles in the 1970's and they now do an 80-mile ciclovia every Sunday. We'll continue to work with communities and the city to gradually expand over time. We will need your support and help to do so. As we continue to move along the process we will be in touch to let you know how to plug in and help make this happen.

Joe Linton, CicLAvia

Tafarai Bayne, TRUST South L.A.