THE STREETS ARE FREE: Trend watchers and pattern readers and folks who tell the future very often have to peer, quite closely and quite intensely, at subtle shifts and changes and blips, the better to tell what interests and areas of importance are on the rise in larger society. But no one has to peer too closely at the patterns to understand that closed streets events, or rather open streets events, are very much a growing, robust thing. Cities across Southern California, and beyond, are regularly shuttering large swaths of large thoroughfares, at least to cars, and welcoming those who want to walk it, bike it, skate it, or just stand in the middle of what is typically a very busy boulevard. Los Angeles is doing it regularly now, with its biggest streets -- CicLAvia, the mega bike rolls, are tri-annual happenings at this typing -- and Garden Grove is up next, on Sunday, Oct. 12. "Re:Imagine Garden Grove -- A Downtown Open Streets Event" will put up the "cars, come back later" sign on nearly three miles of downtown road. But while cars are being shooed away from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., no one else is, and anyone with a pair of rollerblades or a tricycle is welcome to take to the streets.
IT ISN'T MUST ABOUT WALKING OR ROLLING... though. A number of to-dos and stay-awhiles shall dot the closed streets, from food areas to music to art-making spots to other stop-and-join-this-activity-type dealies. So you don't need a bike to join, just curiosity and a desire to check out all the good stuff that the City of Garden Grove and Community Arts Resources, the outfits behind the day, have planned.
IS IT FREE? Of course. Will it be a fine autumn Sunday? That's what the weather says. Will this hurt the cars' feelings? Probably not, but our autos best understand that open street fun is clearly a pattern that's taken hold
