LA’s Bicycle District is Catching On!
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007The Los Angeles Bicycle District. The idea started on June 7, 2007 during a discussion on LA Fixed where the Los Angeles fixed gear community pooled together ideas and came to a consensus on the official name and physical location of the District.
It’s hard to ignore the number of cyclists that you see rolling through Heliotrope at Melrose (what I now refer to as “the heart of the Bicycle District”) due to the presence of Orange20 Bikes and the Bicycle Kitchen on that block. I noticed that when a customer called Orange20 asked Jim C where his shop was located, he said something like, “it’s near Koreatown, just south of Little Armenia.” It struck me that this block, which is so important to the LA cycling community, did not yet belong to any particular neighborhood or district of LA — thus, the opportunity to claim this district as our own!
Then, about a month later on July 1, 2007, during the Bicycle Film Festival’s block party in LA, we made it official and posted the first (hopefully of many) signs declaring the existence of LA’s new Bicycle District.
Los Angeles Bicycle District - Established July 1, 2007
So, the concept of the Bicycle District was initially discussed in the community on June 7, but the District was officially born on July 1, 2007.
Now, less than 2 months after the official birth of the Bicycle District, it seems to be catching on. I’ve noticed more and more folks referring to that area of town as “The Bicycle District” conversationally, and I also noticed a recent increase in searches for terms like “LA Bike District” in the stats for Fixpert. This sparked my curiosity and so I performed similar searches online, yielding a number of references to the Bicycle District.
Bicycle District spoke cards - designed by Jon Jandoc aka Moto Velo. Visit Jon’s site The Joke is Up.
Searches for LA Bicycle District
Here’s a sampling of what I found online:
LAist’s upcoming events list - “SOLA means South LA and tonight the women of GOGA, a girls only bicycle club, will do about a 20-mile bike ride to there from the The Bicycle District (Melrose/Heliotrope).”
Full write-up about the Bicycle District on Urban Samurai - “The other day the Urban Samurai crew rolled over to Orange 20 to check out some bikes and goodies. The shop is probably the best bike shop in LA, also the whole [ bicycle district ] area around it has a nice friendly vibe to it.”
Ashira’s great write-up of the BFF in LA 2007 on Dazed Digital - “The weekend of festivities ended with a street party in the newly dubbed (but not yet official) “Bicycle District“, home of the Bicycle Kitchen, a non-profit bicycle repair shop.”
Some awesomely intelligent comment left on the Orange20 Bikes web site (oh wait, that was me, hehe) - “Hell yeah! I’ll be there with bells on!! Long live the Bicycle District of Los Angeles!” then I left a similar comment on Metrobloggin - ok, ok, I’ll stop referencing myself! Just foolin’ around!
Another sensational comment by someone named Fireweed who I promise is not me - “yes, that was a Magickal Day. i got there at the tail end of the beating sun just in time to help jim c shimmy up an electric pole and hammer a nail through a handmade blue sign that said, “bicycle district.” it’s really fucking sensational. i was sooooo happy!”
Related Resources
Fixpert’s flickr photoset of BFF Block Party