When’s the last time someone told you that to make a difference in your community, all you had to do was ride your bike? Making sure the LA River is developed as a real recreational and transportation corridor is important for LACBC, and more to the point, for the future of Los Angeles.
Sure, it’s our 17th annual River Ride on June 4th, and you may be asking yourself what could possibly make this year’s ride so important? Well, aside from being LACBC’s biggest event of the year, River Ride has always had a significant advocacy component.
If you’ve ridden before or if this is your first time, you’ll notice there’s a pretty big chunk of the Los Angeles River through Chinatown, Downtown, Boyle Heights, and Vernon, without a bike path. LACBC has been fighting for seventeen years to build momentum to have that gap in the LA River Bike Path closed. Last year, with the passage of Measure M, Los Angeles has a dedicated source of funding towards just that!
Now, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The 17th Annual River Ride isn’t quite a victory lap, yet. We have money to help build it out, but we need to ensure we keep up the pressure at the City and County level so our elected officials know how important completing the path really is!
And let’s not forget we still need to push the western portion of the path all the way to Canoga Park in the Valley. So, let’s celebrate a big victory and get ready for the next push. And the best way to do that? REGISTER FOR RIVER RIDE! Go out, have some fun and let your friends and family know what a great time you had. They’ll want to know more….
What makes 2017 more exciting? After a year hiatus, we’re back in Long Beach this year! If you rode the 70 or 100 miler from Griffith last year, why not start your adventure with a different perspective – looking north! You’ll get the fun and food of the Long Beach Expo – AND – you’ll make it to the Autry in Griffith Park as your turn-around point. That means you don’t have to worry about missing all the fun in Griffith. Folks, that’s TWO expos. For those of you that were daydreaming about bicycles in Algebra class – that’s TWICE AS MANY EXPOS as we had last year.
Think about the type of city we want to leave the next generation. I know the place I want my daughter to grow up in has 53 miles of continuous multi-use path running from Canoga Park to Long Beach. I know that’s a legacy I’ll be proud to have. So, even if you don’t actually want to ride (but seriously, you do. I know you do…), in the immortal words of Helen Lovejoy:
