Summer has finally arrived in Los Angeles…but…it’s not exactly the same. For the past few weeks, Southern California has been under siege and on edge due to ICE-related (we’re just gonna call ’em El Hielo from here on out, K?) immigration raids, unconstitutional and extremely sus kidnappings from unidentified hired thugs in federal agent cosplay and the resulting protests in their aftermath. If your daily life has any grounding in the real (read: not fake) Los Angeles, you know that things are not quite the same right now.
So much so that CicLAvia, the several-times-a-year premier open streets event Round These Here Parts (which The Militant has attended 60 consecutive times since 2010), out of safety concerns for all involved, officially called off its June 22nd event, a route that was to span from Historic South Central to Watts. This was the third time CicLAvia has called off an event – the first was the April 26, 2020 Mid-City Meets Venice route (due to the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown) and the second was the August 20, 2023 Koreatown Meets Hollywood course (due to Tropical Storm Hilary), which was finally realized just this past April.
The Militant was excited since he determined to do not one, but two open streets events on Sunday: CicLAvia in the morning/early afternoon and Active SGV‘s Active Streets event in the late afternoon/evening. Billed as Mission at Twilight, the 5-mile route from Mission Street in South Pasadena to San Gabriel Mission in its eponymous city was a route that was done a few times before, but this was the first time it was scheduled in the evening.
Although CicLAvia was a no-go, Active Streets was still, well…active.
The Militant was still ambivalent about going: Though he is indeed a born-and-raised United States citizen, he is of brown complexion and of an unspecified ethnic background. So he quite literally may or may not get roughed up by some unidentified thugs looking to fulfill their quotas. Still though, he decided to make the most of it and got his bike on the Metro (B) and (A) lines to the South Pasadena station to have a time. YOLO!
The Militant’s last time doing an Active Streets event was his first: Back in May, 2019 when the event was branded as “626 Golden Streets.” It was a nice event, taking the same 5-mile route that yielded the exact same experience as The Militant’s own hometown CicLAvia: A closed-off route with selected permeable street crossings for autos, activity hubs in mandatory dismount zones and tons of people smiling and having a great time.
Inaugurated in 2017, this was the 8th open streets event by Active SGV and the fourth time the Mission-To-Mission route was used. But this was the first time it took place later in the day. In fact, this was the very first official open streets event in Southern California to take place after 4 p.m. As someone (admittedly, not a morning person, LOL) who has long advocated for a “CicLAvia After Dark,” this was the next best thing, and so The Militant had to be there.
On the train ride over, The Militant chatted with a family of three who were toting their bikes en route to SouthPas. They had just finished watching the Dodger game (to see Shohei Ohtani’s 2nd pitching start), went to the father’s workplace in Downtown, grabbed their bikes and boarded at Grand Avenue Arts station. Upon disembarking at the South Pasadena platform, the South Pasadena hub was abuzz with the joy we had been missing for a while. An ensemble of wind instrument players performed at the stage while a woman blew a bevy of bubbles onto the wind for children to catch, while community booths did outreach and engagement (and not being a SGV resident, not having to see any Los Angeles City elected official or their staff at the event was a welcome change of pace…)
The Militant did hit one source of utter disappointment: He was looking forward to visiting the Fair Oaks Pharmacy Soda Fountain – a SouthPas institution since 1915 located right on the Active Streets route – to have one of their 110th anniversary special edition desserts, but they were closed on Sunday (BOOOOOOOO!!!!!). More like, “Unfair Oaks Pharmacy.” Hmph.
East of Fair Oaks, the route was exclusively residential. Passing Garfield Park and veering south on Marengo Avenue, only the buzzing of bike gears, the sound of conversations and laughter and occasional blasts of music from bike speakers could be heard. One musician from a local music school played classical music pieces on a spinet piano standing on a bike trailer parked on the street.
Though all of SoCal’s open streets events attract diverse crowds racially and generationally, The Militant did notice slight demographic differences between Active Streets and CicLAvia: the latter tends to skew more Latino and adult-age, while Active Streets skewed more Asian and youth-oriented (there were a lot of young children and teens on the streets today).
The route crossed the ultra-wide former Pacific Electric Railway route at Huntington Drive, where The Militant first noticed that Active Streets road crossings have barriers on the route that both prevent left-right turns from motor vehicles onto the route and also more evenly distribute the bikes, scooters and other human-powered vehicles crossing the road so as not to be such a concentrated mass of vehicles crossing the street – an interesting facet to this open streets event that makes it unique.
Further down the route on Alhambra Road and Bushnell Avenue, the Alhambra Historical Society Museum, which was closed the last time The Militant did this route in 2019, was actually open today, and even rolled out the hospitality mat in a big way to all Active Streets visitors. They had a table with complimentary food and drinks (hot dogs with home-baked buns, chips, cookies, veggie platters, lemonade, iced coffee, sodas and water). They also provided an informal supervised bike corral so visitors can peruse the museum, which was a former architectural office originally located on Garfield Avenue that was donated to the Historical Society and moved to the site in 1986. There, The Militant got to learn a little more about “The Gateway to the San Gabriel Valley,” especially the historic Victorian and Queen Anne-style homes whose preservation (and unfortunate demolition, in certain cases) led to the Alhambra Historical Society’s establishment in 1966. There were also photos of the Pacific Electric, the old Alhambra Airport (located where The Marketplace shopping center on Valley Boulevard stands today) and other artifacts of 1800s and 1900s life. There was even an old-school wall crank telephone that puzzled The Militant as to its use the same way a rotary landline phone would confuse a Gen-Zer.
After the route zig-zagged along residential Olive Avenue, Woodward Avenue and 5th Street – all featuring wooden barriers placed outside every home’s driveway – it was mandatory dismount time along Alhambra’s Main Street. There was a massive activity hub featuring civic and community agency booths, art/craft activities and games for children and live music performance and DJ stages.
Sure, it was CicLAvia-like, but it seems Active Streets is more kid/family-oriented than the 20s-30s single young adult-oriented CicLAvia, if only in the subtle ways it presents itself. But also since this was late afternoon, the vibe was very different: The 73-degree high temperature of the day had already come and gone before the event began at 3 p.m., so the energy was much more leisurely, much more cooler, much more “groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon” in every way possible. The more morning-oriented CicLAvia (or any other open street event that ends by mid-afternoon) has always been a little more rushed, and depending on the weather, can be hotter and sun-bleached. Maybe it’s also because we were in the suburbs, but the overall pace just seemed more slower, more easy-going. And that’s a compliment.
The hub was also a way to feature Main Street’s myriad restaurants, cafes, bars and shops to Active Streets visitors. The Militant contemplated taking a food stop here – but maybe not just yet. Further east on Main, east of Garfield and towards San Gabriel, the street felt much wider, route traffic was more sparse and there was less on-street activity. Some businesses opted to close though (Boooo!). Soon enough The Militant arrived at the terminal hub in San Gabriel’s Mission District, itself a narrower, more intimate version of Alhambra’s Main Street, with a smaller cadre of community outreach booths, a few local craft vendor booths, a live music stage and a few local shops and restaurants lining the route.
It was time to eat. But where? Before The Militant could contemplate some possible local eateries, it appeared there right before him: Blossom Market Hall. He had heard of this place when it opened back in December 2021 and it has long been on his shortlist of new places to check out, but here it was. Located in a former 1949 Masonic Lodge building, BMH is a food hall featuring 13 food vendors, encompassing Caribbean, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines, as well as sandwiches/burgers, coffee, desserts, ice cream and a bar. The Militant decided on the Jerk Chicken plate and a ginger beer from Caribbean Gourmet. And while admittedly the Jerk Chicken per se didn’t knock him out, there was still a consistent sense of quality in the other elements of the plate, and the folks who ran the place were nice and friendly (Maybe The Militant should have just gotten the Chicken Curry with Roti instead…). He’d definitely come back here and try another dish. But then again, BMH has 12 other vendors to check out as well. Dunno…should The Militant embark on a Southern California Food Hall quest like he did with the night markets last year? Hmmm…
As the sun hid behind the horizon, the red-to-orange-to-light blue-to-indigo gradient sky emerged and the Active Streets crews were packing up and readying the street for re-opening to those larger, heavier and mostly dirtier vehicles, The Militant lingered in the Mission District – not only the location of Mission San Gabriel Arcangel but the San Gabriel’s own civic center – just to take in the twilight vibe as purported by the event’s theme.
The Militant really, really liked this.
It was already almost 8:30 p.m. when The Militant turned his bike lights on and began to pedal back to the Metro (A) Line station in South Pasadena. Like CicLAvia, he was a straggler on the route past the event’s end time (Once a straggler, always a straggler, eh?). Racing against the looming nocturnal sky and the SGV version of the Po-Po Party Pooper Patrol™, he rode furiously on the nearly empty, but still mostly-closed Main Street. But only a handful of cars passed by him, and by the time he reached Atlantic, Main Street was still closed due to hub clean-up. As he turned onto residential 5th Street, an Alhambra city works employee, about to get in his city truck told The Militant, “Ride safely now, the street is open.” Wow, they actually care for people out here.
Riding past Alhambra Park, he did see a flashing red light in the distance and was ready to get told to “Stay to the right” or “Ride on the sidewalk!” like the PPPPP does after every CicLAvia, but the light turned out to be a bike light at the rear of an Alhambra police bicycle! And the bike cop was just standing there, talking to someone else. Whoa! There were still wooden barriers across every residential driveway in the residential stretch of the Active Streets route in Alhambra, and though only two or three cars passed him by on the street, the streets were still…active with bike/scooter stragglers and a few local evening joggers. In fact, by the time he arrived back in South Pas just a few minutes after 9 p.m., not once did the PPPPP pass by! Just…a-mazing.
With 15 minutes to spare until the next Long Beach-bound (A) Line train arrives, he perused the nearby historic 1906 stone watering trough along the median of Meridian Avenue, which will stand quiet for the next four days until the lively South Pasadena Farmers’ Market sets up alongside it on Thursday afternoon.
At the San Gabriel Mission District hub, The Militant chatted with some members of Active SGV’s team. He learned that, in light of recent events, there was a dialogue among the organizers earlier in the week on whether to cancel/postpone this event, but ultimately, according to the various community partners involved, they were confident that Mission at Twilight would go on without any issues from El Hielo.
After The Militant boarded his train for the voyage home, along with a handful of other Active Streets stragglers and their bikes, he reflected on the event. This was somewhat of a game-changer. This (nearly) nighttime open streets event was what he was craving all this time, or at least came very close to it. Though Active SGV’s Active Streets event is, for all intents and purposes, CicLAvia’s little sister, it’s also grown over the past 8 years to become an event that stands on its own merit. Yes, the open streets concept (born some 50 years ago on the streets of Bogota, Colombia) is unabashedly urban, but Active Streets has made a brilliant suburban, more family-oriented adaptation of it, with unique elements that set it apart from its big sister and other regional siblings. The real Killer App here was the unprecedented, later-hour scheduling of the event from 3 to 8 p.m., which cast a more leisurely, long afternoon (positive) shadow on the event, compelling local families and big-city CicLAvia refugees alike to take it easy and enjoy all that the 626 has to offer. The Militant thinks that even big sis CicLAvia could learn a thing or two by scheduling their own late afternoon/evening event (OH PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE). The 626 be like, “We have CicLAvia at home – and it’s actually even nicer.”
Active SGV’s next Active Streets event is slated for Sunday, November 2 with a route (TBD) in the El Monte/South El Monte area, which will be accessible by Metro (J) Line BRT service. Dunno if The Militant could make that one, but if it’s later in the day, he’ll make sure to be there.
You must be logged in to post a comment.