Hidden in La Verne

The sun was raining its warm rays down upon our arms and backs right at the spot that, a couple days earlier in the week, the weather forecasters, purveyors in hyperbole and computer-generated guess-ta-ments, claimed it would be raining down something else, a little bit wetter, upon our heads. Not that the sun didn't do its best to bring forth a little moisture in its own way. The morning did become warm enough to sweat. A little.

now open for business

You know, La Verne is just the nicest little city around; it is what Claremont once was. OMG! Did I just speak some minor heresy? And I probably shouldn't say that anyway, for as the Eagles once sang, "you call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye." I may be stretching the definition of the "P" word, but there is some movement in that direction. 

What am I talking about? Well, bike-ability, of course. If you want an example of grass-roots effort, people working together to get things done, turn your head this way. Or, that way. What ever direction La Verne happens to be from your present location. In the last few years the La Verne Bicycle Coalition has actively been leading the charge to bring change to the noticeable lack of bicycling infrastructure in their little namesake city. Bolstered by individual effort and the energy of other bicycling groups (most notable among them the Damien High School Mountain Bike Team) the wheels of civic response have slowly been turning.

This morning, members of the LVBC led a little community ride from the edge of downtown to the edge of the foothills, a whopping distance of some three miles (one way). Billed as a ride to explore some of the hidden trails and bridges of the city, a ride of discovery in other words, intended to introduce residents, and non-residents alike, to potentially unknown routes of two-wheeled travel. While discovering new things was not high on my list of expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by some unexpected, and previously unfamiliar, revelations. 

An old hand with the Wheeler off-street bike path, and with the Marshall Canyon Trail down in the channel between Bonelli and Marshall, I was none-the-less surprised to discover that those stop-and-lift barriers had been removed from the street-level portions of the trail - thanks entirely to the advocacy efforts of the LVBC, and the return favorable response of civic leaders and city staff. Similarly, another pleasant surprise was the, now, permanently open gates, previously closing access to sections of trail. The biggest revelation of the day, for me, may have been the theater parking lot cut-through at the bottom of Emerald Avenue; I don't believe such a thing would ever show up on a city's bicycle infrastructure map, but it does mean that a rider need not spend a single unnecessary second riding along the freeway also-known-as Foothill Boulevard. Be that as it may, the most pleasant discovery was the little bit of pastoral dirt track behind Oak Mesa, secluded, shaded, running above a little stream in which ducks swam in peace. One second we were riding a city street, the next a rural trail. 

It is heartening to see so many people turn out for these little community rides. Nothing, short of vocal advocacy, tells a city's elected leaders that bicycle infrastructure is needed and desired more than these community rides showing just how much interest there is. Advocacy through action I call it.

Thanks to Curtis and Roy and Doug and others from the La Verne Bicycle Coalition for the great morning. 

not the 405, but still - induced demand

short trail, but so very nice - the concrete-lined portion became a soft-bottomed stream just a short way ahead

Know what else tells civic leaders that infrastructure is wanted / needed? Money. When cyclists stop and spend as they tend to do, and has been well documented in multiple studies, it gets noticed. More infrastructure = more cyclists = more money spent. I had never stopped at this little cafe in La Verne before (I believe it is called Roberta's), but it seems to be quite the cycling destination. Upon arrival a group of kids on bmx bikes finished their breakfasts and  rode off, then came a trio of riders out for a morning spin, then a rider who had just finished a triathlon at Bonelli, and all the while others passed to and fro along the street, from when-ever to where-ever.