The 2016 CicLAvia that's planned to run through parts of Huntington Park, Lynwood, South Gate, and two unincorporated areas of southeast LA County is going to be the trickiest to plan for coordinators of the event, reports the LA Register. The route will receive about $598,000 of the $3.7 million Metro is giving towards producing a whole slew of these events open streets events over the next few years. Without that money, there's no way the cities could pay for the police, fire, and street closures necessary to put on a CicLAvia, which shuts down streets to cars and opens them to all varieties of non-car traffic (cyclists, walkers, skateboarders being towed by large, energetic dogs). But paying for the event is the easy part.
The real challenge though, is not monetary, it's logistical. Previous CicLAvias have mostly been within LA city limits, making coordinating resources a relative breeze. This southeast LA County route will be eight to ten miles long and pass through five different areas. With that many collaborators, planning is quite the puzzle. "Its not that the neighbors don't play well, but each has different traffic issues and considerations," says the interim city manager of Huntington Park, which is the lead city on the Metro grant for this event.
Those considerations mean that organizers have to do a crazy shuffle in order to make everyone happy. One possible route currently under consideration (and seen above) would feature four paths: one "stretching west to the Watts Towers," one north on Pacific Boulevard until Gage Avenue, another south along Long Beach Boulevard and State Street until Carnation Park, and another east along Tweedy Boulevard stopping at the Los Angeles River. It's not final but the five towns have over a year to iron out the details.
· CicLAvia founder: 2016 southeast route most difficult to plan [LAR]
· 11 CicLAvia-Type Events You Might See in LA in the Next 2 Years [Curbed LA]
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