Después del patrocinio de dos Streetfilms de los dos primeros CicLAvias, la versión del festival al aire libre de los Ángeles, basado en el del Ciclovia de Bogotá, el Streetsblog de los Ángeles se encontró con un dilema. ¿Cómo continuar un evento que conjure a mas de cien mil Angelinos en las calles? La respuesta, crear un Streetfilm que fuese mas accesible a la población del hablante español en el sur de California.

Viva CicLAvia esta partido en dos. Primero, la narradora Mara Corina Arellano Colin explica la historia e el concepto de la gran fiesta al aire libre de los Ángeles incluyendo secuencias y fotos de festivales parecidos en Bogotá, Guadalajara, la ciudad de México, Brussels y Miami. Mientras la narración es una gran explicación de los beneficios y la cultura de CicLAvia, la alma de los esfuerzos en “Social Impact Consulting” cuentan con las entrevistas de los participantes.

Los próximo cinco minutos son un desfile de hablantes españoles profesando su amor hacia CicLAvia. Sea el equipo del Méndez Bike Shop de South Central, el oficial de transito que extiende sus brazos mientras explica lo de Viva CicLAvia o el concilio de la Hollywood, Eric Garcetti; las amplias sonrisas en el sur de California mandan el mensaje en cualquier idioma. Dándole a la gente mas oportunidades de salir a jugar en el sol es bueno para los Ángeles.

El Streetfilm marco otra primera para el equipo Streetfilms, un video directamente apoyado por parte de los lectores. L.A. Streetsblog les pregunto a sus lectores se quisieran un film en español acerca de CicLAvia y cuando respondieron que sí, los lectores fueron lanzados con una campaña por parte de Kick Starters para financiar el film. Huelga decir que los lectores triunfaron.

Ttranlastion:Vanessa Villalobos

After sponsoring two Streetfilms of the first two CicLAvias, Los Angeles’ version of the open streets festival based on Bogota’s Ciclovia, Los Angeles Streetsblog faced a dilemma: How can we continue to cover the event that draws over a hundred thousand Angelenos to the streets?  The Answer: Make a Streetfilm that was accessible to Southern California’s large Spanish-speaking population.

¡Viva CicLAvia! consists of two parts.  First, narrator Mara Corina Arellano Colin explains the history and concept of Los Angeles’ amazing open streets party, including footage and photos from similar festivals in Bogota, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Brussels and Miami.  While the narration is a great explanation of the benefits and culture of CicLAvia, the soul of Social Impact Consulting’s efforts are the interviews with participants.

The next five minutes is a parade of Spanish speakers professing their love of CicLAvia.  Whether it’s the team from South Central’s Mendez Bike Shop, the traffic officer spreading his arms while explaining Viva CicLAvia, or Hollywood’s City Councilman Eric Garcetti; the broad smiles in the Southern California sun give a message in any language.  Giving people more chances to play in the sun is good for Los Angeles.

This Streetfilm marked another first for Streetfilms, a directly reader supported video.  L.A. Streetsblog asked its readers if they wanted a Spanish language film on CicLAvia, and when they said yes, the readers were challenged through a Kick Starter campaign to fund the film.  Needless to say, the readers came through.

Watch this film in Spanish Guadalajara, Mexico is showing how amazingly transformative a ciclovia-style road closure can be for its citizens. In 7 years, their inaugural Sunday event Via RecreActiva has grown from just 7 miles with 35,000 participants to 41 miles with 400,000 users every Sunday. It goes from 8 am to 2 pm. It covers 6 municipalities. The diversity of activities features traditional ciclovia staples like aerobic classes and music, but also some new wrinkles including free haircuts for children and a city that clearly knows how to hula hoop!

Another unique aspect of this story is that one of the forces behind the success of the Via RecreActiva is a civil association called Guadalajara 2020, a group of primarily made of  business owners, real estate people and entrepreneurs who envision Guadalajara to be a healthier, greener and more humane city.

That mission includes bringing better transit to the city, making it safer to walk & bike and create equality and empowerment among its people. Perhaps it is best put by Guadalajara 2020's President, José Palacios Jiménez, who told us:

"...we would like to be able to remove the cars from the entire city. Because with all the information we manage to get, we are able to understand that the biggest problem of humanity are the cars."

Guadalajara does feature  public spaces on par with the greatest in the world, but also faces many extraordinary challenges with horrible traffic and unsafe pedestrian environments on nearly every street.  It's refreshing to see business folks not only speaking out and understanding the real solutions, but investing their funds to create an organization like Guadalajara 2020.

New York Mets mascot Mr. Met was on hand to lead the riders on a loop around CitiField.  Though led around by pedicab, Mr. Met is keeping himself in great shape at 49.  He posed for plenty of photos with an awful lot of female admirers, and there was no sign of Mrs. Met.  Hmmmmm....

But for the people that took to the streets on April 10, 2011, CicLAvia was about many other things.  Freedom, fun, fellowship and community were just some of the answers Rob Adams got when he asked Angelenos from all walks life what CicLAvia meant to them.  And what's a film without some cameo appearances?  Look for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and an even more famous cyclist as Adams pedals his way through another wonderful Southern Californian Sunday.

This is Adams' second film on CicLAvia.  His first, from exactly six months earlier on 10/10/10, can be viewed here.

The Los Angeles Times estimates that 100,000 people took to the streets to celebrate CicLAvia.  Of course, that number doesn’t count all the of residents that sat on their porches or balconies and enjoyed the car-free festival environment that permeated the air.

But perhaps the image that will remain after these festivals become the norm, instead of the exception, will be L.A.’s suddenly bike-friendly Mayor acting like a kid with a new toy as he hopped on a bike and pedaled away from Hollenbeck Park at the start of the festival with a smile on his face and a shout of joy coming from his heart.

“Let’s Go!”  he shouts as he takes off to celebrate the day.  Hopefully Sunday was the turning point for Los Angeles as we all “go” into our clean transportation future.

-Damien Newton

As you’ll see, thanks to committed volunteers and strong leadership from District 25 Council Member Daniel Dromm, they overcame initial hesitation from the local community board’s transportation committee — which voted the idea down — to make it happen.

The fight was worth it, Dromm told us. “It was recognized just about two weeks ago in The Queens Tribune as being one of the best things about Queens – this play street,” he said. “So imagine if we hadn’t done it?” Indeed. We hope other electeds are in tune with their neighborhoods as much as Council Member Dromm.

All summer long, 78th Street was filled with a warm, family atmosphere, sometimes well after sundown. As for next year, there’s talk of possibly giving this car-free street even greater permanence.  Stay tuned.

It's been eight months since this part of Broadway went car-free, and maybe it's hard to recall just how bad Times Square used to be for everyone walking around. To really appreciate what we have today, you've got to take a trip back in time to see the crowded, dangerous mess that used to fester at the crossroads of the world. Naturally, the moment calls for a Streetfilms retrospective.

Naturally since she advocates for cars for a living with her every breath, her viewpoints are bound to rankle some of those in the livable streets camp.  Here are a few splendiforous musings as she reminisced about the "old" Times Square - where visitors "had to fight" for every last inch of space:

• "Pedestrians are cystic acne on the teenage forehead of this city."
• "I used to feel this wonderful sense of being totally overwhelmed and being displaced when I walked through Times Square.  And that's how it should feel."

Of course, that's nothing new for Ms. Moss, who first appeared on Streetfillms a few months ago in an "exclusive" interview to let us know how she feels about cyclists and pedestrians.

To celebrate block parties we created this mini film.  Last year Streetfilms visited many parties and talked to residents about their streets and life without the automobile.  We were also able to talk to urban planners, community figures like Majora Carter, historians, and NYC photographer, Rebecca Lepkoff.

Livable Streets Education has been working in New York City schools, encouraging students to explore and question the environments around their school and in their neighborhoods, and to voice the changes they want to see on their streets. We recently asked Kindergartners at P.S. 87 what they would do if there were no cars on the streets. We were so impressed with their brilliant, creative responses that we wanted to share them with you!

If you would like to get your school involved, please contact Kim Wiley-Schwartz at 646-734-6486 or kwileyschwartz@openplans.org.

By closing down over three miles of parkways to cars for four hours, the event allowed people of all ages and walks of life to step into the streets and experience the richness of these neighborhoods in a more livable way.

Spanning from Garfield Park, through North Lawndale and Little Village, participants danced, rode bikes, played games, exercised, walked, talked and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  After years of hard work, the organizers of this even were able to bring together community groups and citizens to put on this beautiful experiment in livable streets. Here is to an even longer and more frequent Sunday Parkways Chicago next year!