Aaron Paley, the founder of CicLAvia in Los Angeles, announces a change in leadership and describes the future of the game-changing event—a good read for anyone interested in open-streets, cultural events, and urban quality of life.
Christopher Hawthorne gets the scoop on Aaron Paley's to step down as the executive director of CicLAvia and sits down with some in-depth and insightful Q&A about the creation of the event, its current state, and plans for expanding the wildly popular event in the future.
According to the interview, Paley is stepping down to hire a new executive director that can help lead CicLAvia to a sustainable future. Paley even mentions the potential of making the event a monthly occurrence. Paley's words about what CicLAvia will require of a new executive director also speak of the broad impact the event has had, and will continue to have in the future:
"We're looking for somebody who has an ease or comfort in more than one silo. So yes, it would be great to have somebody who's from the environmental world or who really understands public health or who understands active transportation or an urbanist who understands the way cities work. But we can't have somebody who only understands one of those. The wonderful aspect of CicLAavia is how it touches all these different worlds."
As a truly singular example of a citizen not holding elected office influencing massive change in the way residents and outsiders see Los Angeles, also of note are Paley's words about what the city needs to plan for in the future:
Rick Caruso is planning to rebuild the movie theater in Pacific Palisades that used to be there. It's a neighborhood, but everybody who lives there has to drive to Santa Monica to see a movie. When I look at the quilt of L.A., I want to see that same change, that same investment, in Garden Grove, in Huntington Park. That's the big issue now: Can we help create a very different city, so it's not just these islands of luxury? Can we create a great city everywhere?
[Editor's note: A quick shout out by Paley embedded in the interview hits home for Planetizen. Paley credited urban planner and Planetizen interview subject Jason Neville as the person who suggested that Paley should investigate Ciclovia in Bogota, Columbia as a model for an "linear urban festival" in Los Angeles—another example of the impact that well-informed and passionate planners can have on the future direction of their cities.]
Read the full story: CicLAvia head is stepping down; he discusses event's future
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