Some Updates on South L.A. CicLAvia Expansion

[Joe Linton]

To the folks interested in South L.A. CicLAvia expansion, some brief updates:

1. This Sunday July 10th, CicLAvia is hosting a group ride (NOT a full-on CicLAvia with street closures) to tour areas where CicLAvia expansion is planned. The ride is about 8 miles long, starts at Boyle Heights' Hollenbeck Park, and includes stops at the African American Firefighter Museum (AAFM), the Plaza (El Pueblo), and Mariachi Plaza. The stop at AAFM will briefly introduce participants to the planned South L.A. extension. More info on Sunday's ride here:

http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/vamos-a-la-july-10th-community-ride/

2. CicLAvia will be nailing down the final-final October 9th route by August 1st. Nailing down the route is a negotiation, with the city, Metro, the CicLAvia board, budgets, traffic, transit concerns, etc... We submitted the draft South L.A. expansion route (map here) to the city and Metro.

We've heard a few initial preliminary concerns - which we're still negotiating. There's some concern that we need to be especially careful about safety where the route crosses the Metro Blue Line at Central and Washington.

Additionally, between planned expansion for South L.A., Chinatown and Boyle Heights, the overall length that has been proposed (a total of 11 new miles to be added to the original 7.5 mile route) may be too long (ie: too expensive, too much new logistics) - so we're looking at how to still expand in each of those three areas, but possibly reducing new mileage, likely phasing expansion in over time.

To be continued...

Joe Linton

CicLAvia