The Next CicLAvias: When will Angelenos enjoy car-free streets again?

About 100,000 biked, walked, and played at CicLAvia yesterday — an event so sunny and surreal that it has everyone asking when the next CicLAvia will happen.

Luckily, while walking the route, I overheard Joe Linton, one of the organizers of CicLAvia, dishing on the future of CicLAvia to a small group of rapt cyclists (photo above; Joe is the helmetless tall guy in the blue hat and shirt). He said the plan is to have four CicLAvias next year — about one a month starting in August 2011.

To make sure Joe wasn’t being overenthusiastic due to a cycling high, I emailed him to confirm — which he did, with the caveat that the plan is as of yet an idea that’s not yet approved. Enthusiastically, Joe added he hopes for “4 or more” for next year — “and someday weekly like Bogota,” whose Ciclovias the L.A. event was modeled after.

Jonathan Parfrey, another CicLAvia planner who’s also the executive director of the Green LA Coalition, a coalition of local environmental and environmental justice organizations, was a little more sedate in his predictions. He said he hopes for 3 to 4 CicLAvias next year — with the repeated caveat that nothing’s set in stone yet.

A major challenge for future CicLAvias is finding funding for the events. This first CicLAvia, while it had the support of Mayor Villaraigosa, did not take any money from Los Angeles’ general fund. Instead, the event was funded by contributions from the Annenberg Foundation, California Endowment, Metabolic Studios, Boeing, and other foundations, companies, and even individuals who contributed more than $8000 through Kickstarter, according to Jonathan.

For future CicLAvias, organizers — all of whom work on the event on a volunteer basis — are looking for private and corporate sponsorships — that won’t change the flavor of the free-form event. In the meantime, CicLAvia’s been incorporated into a California nonprofit — and awaits its 501(c)(3) letter to be recognized as a tax-exempt nonprofit. Soon, an online donation button will be added to the CicLAvia website too.

Many many other burning questions about future CicLAvias also still have to be worked out. “One of the questions we all have is, do we maintain this route?” asks Jonathan. “Do we try to expand the route? Do we try to move it around, or will we lose our audience if we move it around?”

After all, thanks to the success of the first CicLAvia, many people — including some of the L.A. City Councilmembers — want to bring the event to their own neighborhoods. “We already know there are nascent efforts [for local CicLAvias] in West Hollywood and Santa Monica,” says Jonathan. Yet moving the event actually makes the CicLAvias more expensive, due to all the traffic engineering and design elements that have to be worked out for each new route.

Want to get involved with future CicLAvias? The organization’s currently going through major institutional shifts to better achieve its expanded dreams, but join CicLAvia’s Facebook page and Twitter following to stay updated on how you can get involved — or email CicLAviaLA@gmail.com with your specific intent for and interest in future events.

“I’m still a little high everything,” says Jonathan. “It imparted a vision of how we can get around L.A. — How we don’t have to be chained to the automobile.” If you missed CicLAvia and want a contact high, see the photo slideshows of the event at blogdowntown or Metro’s The Source — and watch local bike blogger Will Campbell’s timelapse video of CicLAvia’s 7.5-mile route from Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights.

Photo by Siel Ju