LOS ANGELES — CicLAvia has been the go-to event for Los Angeles cyclists for the past 13 years, but not everyone who enjoys open streets rides a bike. This weekend, pedestrians will have their turn to enjoy car-free streets being turned into public parks for a day during the first CicLAmini — a similar but smaller-scale and slower-paced event taking place along a one-mile stretch of Central Avenue and 103rd Streets in Watts.


What You Need To Know

  • The first CicLAmini is taking place in Watts from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

  • A smaller, more pedestrian-oriented CicLAvia, CicLAmini-Watts will stretch for a mile and be open to all forms of people-powered, motor-free transport

  • The event will include a pop-up skate park, pop-up soccer clinic, live screen printing and musical performances 

  • The next CicLAmini will take place in North Hollywood on Sept. 17

While traditional CicLAvia events are five to six miles, “we can’t do that in every community in LA because sometimes you don’t have that many contiguous streets that are interesting without taking you through a bunch of residential areas or going by train yards,” CicLAvia Chief Strategist Tafarai Bayne told Spectrum News 1. “We created CicLAmini to be able to get to more communities and do local events tailored to different neighborhoods.”

CicLAmini-Watts will run along 103rd Street and Central Avenue. (Photo courtesy of CicLAvia)

On Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., participants of all ages can enjoy a mile of open, car-free streets to stroll, run, walk — or skateboard, rollerskate and bicycle — as long as the mode of transportation is people-powered and motor free. The route stretches between 103rd Street to the north and 109th Street to the south and 103rd Street between Central Avenue to the west and Grandee Avenue to the east.

In addition to self-guided walking tours, scavenger hunts and cultural activities, CicLAmini-Watts will have a pop-up skate park, a live screen-printing area for people to get free CicLAvia bandanas, a musical performance stage, a street soccer pop-up clinic and a parked school bus with a basketball hoop attached to its back end for people to play hoops.

CicLAminis are shorter, more pedestrian-oriented open streets events. (Photo courtesy of CicLAvia)

CicLAvia picked Watts for its first mini to promote the work of its partner in putting on the event — the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. LADOT recently added parking-protected bike lanes to the northern part of Central Avenue from Century Boulevard to Imperial Highway, as well as new pedestrian crossings, bus-boarding islands and landscaped medians.

“One of our goals moving forward is really ensuring that our events have long-term impacts that help change the community for the better besides our day of experience,” Bayne said. “Our partnership with the city lets us highlight the way they make the city better in the long term with infrastructure projects.”

CicLAvia is holding two mini events this year — in Watts and North Hollywood. (Photo courtesy of CicLAvia)

The first of two CicLAminis planned for this summer, the Watts event will be followed by a North Hollywood open streets event Sept. 17. North Hollywood, Bayne said, is another landlocked area “where you have a stretch of corridor that’s vibrant and then it pops right through a residential or industrial area, so a mini allows us to touch those pockets.”

CicLAmini-Watts is the 45th CicLAvia since the event series began in 2010 to promote people-powered mobility and connect Angelenos with the highlights and businesses of individual neighborhoods. The event will stop in South LA along Vermont Avenue June 18, in Koreatown Aug. 20, the heart of LA Oct. 15 and South LA’s Leimert Park and Historic South Central Dec. 3.