Your Guide To The Longest, Most Walkable, Event-Filled CicLAvia Yet

By Matthew Tinoco

Usually, any combination of the words "Wilshire," "shutdown," and "seven hours" will have Angelenos foaming at the mouth. An exception, however, may be found this Sunday, when Los Angeles’ next CicLAvia route will close off Wilshire Boulevard to cars from Downtown to the Miracle Mile, allowing those who usually inch along the route in their cars a chance to cruise down "Iconic Wilshire Boulevard" on their bicycles, tricycles, unicycles, skateboards and just about any other form of people-powered transport (including shoes!). Wilshire is open to walkers and cyclists alike from 9 am to 4 pm, allowing seven hours—much longer than past event—for people to explore some of the city’s most historic neighborhoods.

How to get there

Ditch the car and ride the rails into Downtown. The Metro Red, Purple, Expo, Blue and Silver* lines all provide easy connection into Downtown for the start of the route. Valleyites and Westsiders can take the Metro Red Line and Expo Lines respectively, each of which stops at the 7th Street Metro Center station where you can exit and be positioned close to the beginning of the route (or you can take the Purple Line all the way to the K-town hub in the middle of the route). Metro provides a solid guide to finding parking throughout their rail network.

For those who want to cycle to the route without the aid of a car or Metro, CicLAvia’s website provides a list of feeder rides that meet in various neighborhoods around town and then cycle to one of the route’s hubs.

* The Silver Line is a Bus Express Line that will likely be lacking in bicycle capacity—use the Blue Line from the south or the Gold Line from the east instead.

What to do once you're there

For those strolling or cycling along Wilshire on Sunday, CicLAvia and Pacific Standard Time Presents have teamed up to provide event goers “The Modernists Guide to Iconic Wilshire Boulevard.” This guide gives some fantastic, interesting and historical tidbits about sights along the route and may picked up at any of the route’s hubs, or downloaded here. Event organizers also provide several stories in podcast form, that may be downloaded from the CicLAvia website.

At the route’s beginning, organizers have created an “Active-Zone” where the YMCA, Echo Park’s Pilates and Arts and Mesmera will be leading exercises, Pilates and bellydancying lessons. The MacArthur Park hub features yoga and face-painting at the Levitt Pavilion. If you return to the Levitt Pavilion after CicLAvia, there will be a festival starting at 5:30 pm and a concert featuring Ellis Paul at 7 pm.

Most importantly, Sunday’s CicLAvia coincides with the 5th Annual Koreatown Barbeque cookoff, south of Wilshire on S. Serrano Ave. and Oxford Ave, meaning lots of delicious Korean dishes to satisfy the tastes of all Angelenos. K-Town will also feature a culture festival and "Fitness in the Park" at 3700 Wilshire Blvd.

Following complaints that the past routes have been too long and bicycle-congested, the organizers behind CicLAvia are dubbing this Sunday’s event the "most walkable CicLAvia ever." To capitalize on this, WalkLAvia is leading a walk along the route which promises to "supply the signs and banners, spray paint chalk, photographers, jump rope."

Towards the west end of the CicLAvia route lies Museum Row, where a slew of museums are hosting CicLAvia-oriented events like LACMA's Photo Op Stop, Tattoo Parlour and Interactive Spin Art Studio, and free admission to the Craft and Folk Art Museum. ForYourArt is building a parklet in front of their building where public art will be on display, and the Peterson Automotive will have several vintage vehicles on display outside.

CicLAvia is more about the journey than the speed or the destination. But if you have a need for speed, Wolfpack Hustle will be sponsoring a race around City Hall that kicks off at noon. The city-sanctioned finals will start after 4 p.m. after CicLAvia is over.

More information on CicLAvia’s events can be found on here.