CicLAvia

CicLAvia 52 Report: Wilmington AGAIN?!?

The 52nd CicLAvia brought us back to The Heart of The Harbor, a.k.a. Dub City, a.k.a. San Pedro’s Low-Key Little Brother, Wilmington – for the fourth time. Which means about 7.7 percent of all CicLAvias took place in Wilmington. Of course, this was marketed as a pedestrian/hangout-friendly CicLAmini – albeit a long one at 2.27 miles – so The Militant brought his bike down south. Having never missed a CicLAvia, he felt like coming here was an obligation, since there was nothing new to explore, and unlike the epic North Hollywood CicLAmini from last September – there was a noticeable dearth of hangout places. So no disrespect to Dub City, but The Militant was prepared to be bored out of his mind on this Sunday.

The weather was certainly amenable – it was a pleasant 66ºF and partly cloudy. And true to our local Macy Gray May Gray weather phenomenon, the overcast morning eventually gave way to a mostly-sunny afternoon – the Sun Always (well mostly) Shines on CicLAvia, of course.

The Militant’s big complaint was there wasn’t much to the route – just three streets, two on-route hubs and a lack of notable local businesses to patronize, aside from the very-crowded L.A. Waterfront Pizza on Avalon. The Maya Mexican restaurant across the street looked promising, but they opted to close for the day (BOOOO!).

So most of the day was just spent riding back and forth on the route. He did notice a few changes, like the removal of the brick-paved street remnants off of Avalon, which looked newly-asphalted, as well as the conversion of The century-old Brick House now turned into a canine long-term daycare facility known as “The Dog House”:

As The Militant continued west on C Street, he saw a silver Toyota dance The Limbo under the caution tape and defiantly turned right onto the CicLAvia route, as an SUV behind it honked continuously. People on the route were shouting at the vehicle though fortunately it didn’t hit anyone (to The Militant’s knowledge). Here’s the perpetrator – the identity of the guilty will not be protected, because F you guys:

If there was any consolation to this boring, routine CicLAvia (sorry, folks), it was exploring Wilmington Waterfront Park, the 30-acre open space fashioned in 2011 out of former industrial land, which he only got to skim briefly during previous Wilmington CicLAvias. It started when he saw this in the park:

The Wilmington Historical Society booth, set up at Wilmington Waterfront Park during CicLAvia.

The Wilmington Historical Society set up a booth in the park highlighting the community’s 119 year-old

history and notable residents. History! It was like it was just calling out to The Militant, as if to say all was not lost today.

 

There were display banners featuring local landmarks, the requisite Pacific Electric flashbacks and famous local products such as musician Carol Kaye, who played bass on countless hit songs from the ’50s and ’60s and legendary Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo:

Container cranes loom like AT-ATs in the background contrast with the grass and flower landscaping at Wilmington Waterfront Park

This park, which has been around roughly as long a CicLAvia has, still appears very new and pristine. It’s almost as it’s under-utilized by the community, and especially by CicLAvia itself, which should have used the park space as hub/activity space rather than the street itself. There should have been some action like concerts or activities in the park. A few CicLAvians, like The Militant, proceeded to extend their CicLAvia ride by helping themselves to the 9 block-long bike path that spans the length of the park and parallels Harry Bridges Avenue, and included the park’s landmark feature, the cable-stay bridge (The Harry Bridges Bridge?)

Wilmington Waterfront Park’s Cable Stay Bridge, with San Pedro Hill (1,473′) in the distance.

At the extreme west end of the park was where Figueroa Street – the longest street entirely within Los Angeles City limits – reaches the end of its 25-mile journey down from Eagle Rocks’ Eagle Rock. Heading back, overlooking the modern container berths at The Port of Los Angeles, was this marker memorializing a tragic event that happened 90 years ago this past week:

The Militant also took notice of these series of decorative columns of stacked concrete/stone blocks (all slightly diagonal in profile), which he dubbed, “Wilmingtonhenge”:

In ancient times…hundreds of years before the dawn of history…lived a strange race of people: The Wilmingtonians…

As 3 p.m. approached, The Militant rode back to the Banning Hub for the very last time to call it a day, and discovered this just a block south of the CicLAvia route along L Street – The Heart of The Harbor Community Farm:

The local community farm, located on L Street, just south of the CicLAvia route

Apparently the 55,000 square-foot community farm, which opened in 2021, was built on city-owned land and opened with the help of several partnering agencies and commercial sponsorships, looked like a worthy community gem that should have been integrated into the CicLAvia route, but alas it was closed off today, and was even hard to take a look inside from. But this video taken from its grand opening three years ago, gives us a glimpse inside:

True to exploring any neighborhood, there’s always more to the surface than meets the eye. And even in seemingly-dull Wilmington, there was more that even an astute urban explorer like The Militant missed, such as this attractive nine-acre open space at the extreme southern end of Avalon Boulevard (south of the CicLAvia route), which just opened in January of this year:

Dang. Why didn’t CicLAvia include this in the route? Ah well, next time, Wilmington. Next time.

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militantangeleno