Complete Streets Ride

INFORMATION: The COMPLETE STREETS RIDE is from 11AM-3PM. Our ride will focus on the corridors along MLK Blvd, Crenshaw Blvd, Vernon Ave, and Central Ave. We will study these corridors to better envision what complete streets development can look like.

DETAILS: For more details visit out Facebook event page here!

KNOW ANY JOURNALIST?: Invite the press and community correspondents to the event.

WHO IS WELCOME?: We welcome everyone including children to join us on this ride!

STAY CONNECTED: Sign up to be notified for future events here!

• For details: See our Facebook event page for this ride — a great way to see who is coming, share pictures, etc. We’ll meet at 10am at Mercado (get directions; it’s just east of the 110 freeway near Exposition and Grand)
• Retweet our announcement on Twitter!
• Know any journalists?  Invite the press and community correspondents to cover the event live.
• Stay connected.  As always, sign up to be notified of future events.  We’ll also post pictures etc. after the ride.

Flyer images (or get the full PDF):

(Click for full size version.)

(Click for full size version.)

(or get the full PDF)

Partners are still unfolding — let us know if you want in.  We include TRUST S LA, Community Services Unlimited, and the ParTour/Mobile Lab/Metamorphosis groups at USC Annenberg.

Healthy Food Ride South LA from Annenberg Innovation Lab on Vimeo.

Check out the NEW VIDEO from the Healthy Food Map kickoff ride!

On March 3rd, I got the privilege to join the Healthy Food Map ride and shoot a documentary about the event. It was my first time riding with the Ride South LA crew and it was an amazing experience.

The ride was a great way to see community research and outreach in action.  It brought together a diverse group interested in spreading knowledge about healthy food in South LA.  The bike ride created a spectacular event that not only drew attention to the map but also embodied the types of healthy lifestyles that the map advocates for.

The Healthy Food Map ride was composed of a wide array of South LA residents, cyclists, USC faculty and students, and partner organizations. The organizations include: T.R.U.S.T. South LA, Community Services Unlimited (CSU), Eastside Riders Bike Club, Los Ryderz, USC Annenberg Lab, USC Metamorphosis, and Laboratory On the Social Frontier (LOSF).  The map was made possible by funding from USC Community Outreach.

Along the route, cyclist visited community gardens at Normandie Elementary and healthy food locations such as Mama’s Chicken and Mercado la Paloma.  The locations are only a few key nodes in the larger network of healthy food projects and stores in the area.  Yet, many participants I interviewed were astonished and surprised by these hidden gems in the community.

The map was created by a group of South LA students to identify healthy food locations in their neighborhoods. The map focuses on pedestrian and bike routes to help support those without a car. The ride itself was a celebration of bike culture and imagining what a bike friendly Los Angeles could look like. As the riders streamed through the neighborhood streets, South LA residents often came out of their homes to photograph or cheer on the group.

This is just the first step in an ongoing campaign to spread the map and increase awareness of Healthy Food options in South LA.  Please make sure to download a copy and spread the map however you can.  And keep a lookout for future rides! The next one is April 6!

Tafarai Bayne of TRUST SouthLA and John Jones of ESR launch the map at CicLAvia 2012 (Photo credit: Sahra Sulaiman)

Next events in South LA around bicycling and social justice include:

• May is bike month!Metro has events posted on their site as does LACBC check them out!
• May 9, 2013 Complete Streets Forum will be convening from 6-8pm at 3731 Stocker St. Los Angeles CA 90008 (CHC office).
• May 15, 2013 Ride of Silence. In Los Angeles CA from 7pm-10pm. Click here for more information.
• May 19, 2013 Mobility advisory Council from 10-11am.
• May 19, 2013 Complete Streets Ride 11am-3pm. The ride will be meeting at 4331 S. Main St. Los Angeles CA 90037.Check out the event on Facebook here!
  
• July 14, 2013 Black Kids on Bike and LACBC (Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition) presents Melrose Art Ride from 2-6pm. Click here for more information! Or visit them on Facebook.
• Check out the cellphone photos from our recent mapping events, including a planners’ tour of East Side biking and a Downtown Food Walk, both on December 8th. All pictures are published live from the cell phone cameras of the people who came along!
• Regular rides in South LA are growing; we’ll list any we know about.  If you know of any we should list, let us know! Also check out the event pages of our local bike clubs like ESR. (And let us know about more clubs we should list here.)
• Sign up to be notified of our next big ride!
• Missed a past ride?  Visit our events archive. It includes the July 1, 2012 South LA Peace, Love and Family Ride & Fair, hosted by the Real Rydaz; the June 17,2012 Return to the Map ride; the May 26,2012 City Lites ride, and more.

Our blog with recent stories are always below this status post.  So far, we have distributed about 2000+ copies of the Watts Ride map.

• Our ride video with interviews and more
• A zipcode map of where people came from for the ride
• Press coverage included NBC 4, KPCC’s OnCentral, USC Press, and more — see the full press list.
• Photos from the ride: coming soon, for now, here’s our informal album
• Goals include participatory mapping to promote bike friendly streets, distributing the Healthy Food map we made, starting a public conversation about the future of South L.A. for bicycles, food, and sustainable development.
• Coordination & Outreach:
  • Facebook event page.
  • Retweet our announcement!  Partners are still unfolding — let us know if you want in.  We include TRUST S LA, Community Services Unlimited, and the ParTour/Mobile Lab/Metamorphosis groups at USC Annenberg.
  • Know any journalists?  Invite the press and community correspondents to cover the event live.
• Schedule and agenda
  • Workshop starts at 10am at Mercado (get directions; it’s just east of the 110 freeway near Exposition and Grand)
  • Riders depart by 11am.  Going South toward Normandie Elementary.  Probably under two hours round-trip.
• Stay connected.  As always, sign up to be notified of future events.  We’ll also post pictures etc. after the ride.

From the book site:

A handmade book project by Garnet Hertz in the field of critical technical practice and critically-engaged maker culture. Critical making is defined by Ratto as exploring how hands-on productive work – making – can supplement and extend critical reflection on the relations between digital technologies and society. It also can be thought of as an appeal to the electronic DIY “maker movement” to be critically engaged with culture, history and society.

Our section is in the “Critical Making – Places” portion, titled Fold, Ride, Share and Rebrand: a Low Tech Crowdmap for Social Change and Biking in South Los Angeles. Our map is also tucked into at least one of the envelopes.

We are just beginning to explore how this book will be useful for our community — more to come! More pictures below…

On Saturday, December 8, 2012 a committed team of Los Angeles City planners led by David Somers together with cyclist mover and shaker and Streets Blog LA South LA beat columnist Sahra Sulaiman set off on bicycles to Watts from downtown LA in the early morning. The goal: To understand and document the most pressing cycling and walking infrastructure needs in the Watts area based on the local feedback from expert cyclists from the area.

The team of circa 10 cyclists streamed south on Main Street that turned into a new bike lane at 92nd Street, cutting across 98th Street and connecting to Central Avenue’s recently created bike lane via a short zig zag that included Clovis Ave and Century Blvd. At 109th and Central, the group reassembled at the Watts Labor Community Action Center (WLCAC) together with the two local cycling clubs East Side Riders (ESR) and Los Ryderz who often use the space for bicycle education and as a point of departure for rides, and each with a committed number of young and older riders who know the area well.

After some general discussion amongst the riders and about the purpose of the ride, the larger group numbering over 20 riders set off across 103rd to Wilmington, down to Watts Towers, and back to the WLCAC. Along this route and on the ride to WLCAC, city planners made careful note of the major potholes in the area that could cause problems for cyclists. The entire group learned from those experienced with riding and walking in the area about troubled crossings and where either a lane or a ‘sharrow’ (a marking to indicate that a lane should be shared by bicycles and cars) would benefit cyclists who needed to connect to across the area safely.

One so-called ‘low hanging fruit’ was a possible sharrows that could connect Watts Towers and the nearby MTA Light Rail Blue Station to Wilmington and 112th via Willowbrook that runs between Watts Towers and the Blue Line. In the area Wilmington and 112th/114th the group learned from a local rider named Stalin that the night life and connection to the 105 freeway was creating serious safety problems that might be remedied by some forms of ‘traffic calming’ (ways to slow car traffic) whereby speed bumps, more stop signs, and flashing light pedestrian crossing might be helpful. One of the teenaged Los Ryderz members was in fact hit walking across Wilmington and was definitely invested in the discussion.

Another troubled spot that the group learned about was a school crossing point for often very young pedestrians and cyclists near 103rd and Wilmington. If there were a flashing light crossing, the bike group leaders and members agreed, then students would be much safer and likely to use their bikes as transportation.

Finally, the group reconvened at the WLAC on 109th to make their way back to LA. It was also an opportunity to see the more than 15 bikes donated by USC’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) to ESR and Los Ryderz. Both groups agreed, the timing of the donation could not be better given the increase in interest amongst youth in the area combined with the holiday season.

See the flyer below for details on CSU’s event. We will demo the map toward the end of the free gardening workshop from 9am-12noon, and probably a bit after 11am at the EXPO Center/CSU Urban Farm, 3980 S. Bill Robertson Lane. LA, CA 90037 (Corner of King Blvd & Bill Robertson Lane. Formerly Menlo Ave. Next to the senior center).

Here’s the event flyer:

If you want to know more about our upcoming events and community projects, sign up for our newsletter.

Today we are working with Foodprint LA on a walking tour that will provide “an inside look at downtown LA’s cold storage infrastructure, caffeine artisans, and future food market, followed by a food map presentation over happy hour drinks. The walking tour will take place from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday, December 8, and the party will follow on immediately afterward, from 5 to 7pm.”

Starting points during the walk: live picture stream (showing those tagged ‘foodwalk’); and live map of food stories downtown.