Monday Blues: CicLAvia does South LA

February 29, 2020

Monday Blues: CicLAvia does South LA

Excuse the delay in posting this. After the fun of CicLAvia Sunday morning and afternoon, nearly a week ago now, I rushed home and composed it, selected photos, and was awaiting Monday morning to press the publish button. But then the heartbreak of Sunday night came and it just never seemed important. Things will, slowly, begin to get back to normal; I guess this is a start in that direction:

The only reason this first edition of CicLAvia for 2020 gets presented as a Monday Blues feature is for the simple reason that I didn't do a little research going in to it, and thus missed stuff that I would have found interesting. The route followed the Central Avenue Jazz Corridor in south Los Angeles from, roughly, Adams to the Watts Towers. I don't know if all the places so important to West Coast Jazz of the 1920s to 1950s are still around, or would be recognizable for their historical significance, but I do know that some, like the restored Dunbar Hotel are, and I missed them because I didn't know about them. Most of the old jazz sites were/are located at the northern end of the cicLAvia route, or beyond, toward downtown.

Regardless of that, there was still much to see, not the least being the great diversity of people enjoying the day. In all that mix, I even spotted some familiar faces. Seems to happen every time. Beside the people, there was also the food; I am not sure any other cicLAvia route has had such a wealth of family-owned restaurants - the question was which to stop at. Well, there was no question about stopping at the 27th Street Bakery. That one was a given from the moment it was spotted. But where to get the tacos? I probably could have stopped at any one of the open doors, or crowded patios along the Avenue, but in the end the hand-made tortillas and really tasty beef of Birria la Chingona won the day. No disappointment there.

I could go on about the local cuisine, the people who come out to ride, the architecture, parks, historic sites, all these different individual things that comprise a cicLAvia route, but there is one all-encompassing benefit to cicLAvia, and that is the way it introduces us to different parts of this big, complex city that we, as visitors, might not otherwise have many opportunities to experience. It also allows the people of the neighborhood through which the route passes to share it with those of us who come from further away. For bringing people together, there is nothing else quite like it. Thanks CicLAvia!