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This Sunday, Aug. 26, is a great day to ditch your car.
Bolinas Road in downtown Fairfax will be closed from noon to 4 p.m. for the family-friendly , which will celebrate local businesses, citizens, art and non-motorized transportation.
Earlier this summer the , somewhat modeled off San Francisco’s “Sunday Streets.” The Fairfax council .
While booze won’t be available for sale (unless you want to duck into one of the bars), “Streets for People” will include:
- Café tables in the street
- Roco dance will lead a Zumba Class in the street at 1 p.m.
- Sienna at Yoga Mountain will lead a community yoga class at 3 p.m. in the street at Bolinas and Elsie Lane
- Street painting and portraits
- Information on local businesses
- A parklet demo
- Bike demos
- Free bike tune-ups
- Acoustic musicians
- Free “back to school” haircuts for kids
- Youth music showcase
- Creative re-use market
- Kids zone
- Tween art
The event will close Bolinas Road between Broadway and Elsie, the Mono parking lot and a portion of Mono Avenue West of Bolinas Road for bicycle parking.
Fairfax resident Renee Goddard spoke about the event at the Aug. 16 Fairfax Chamber mixer and encouraged local businesses to participate. “This is really about making a space for people. I hope you will come and will tell everyone to come.”
The Fairfax Chamber and Sustainable Fairfax are among the local organizations in support of “Streets for People” and have each pledged $1,000 for the event.
The event will require two additional officers on duty for traffic control, a cost estimated to be $720.
Fairfax Police Chief Chris Morin told the council in June that the police officers will have backup plans ready for implementation in case traffic gets especially unbearable.
that closing Bolinas Road between Broadway and Elsie Lane is a contentious idea, but they have said closing the road would be an experiment to see if the town could realistically move toward the general plan vision of making that stretch of road a permanent vehicle-free greenway.
As for the General Plan, it calls for talking about this as a community (along with other ideas that might help our downtown), after trying test runs of various ideas, such as what will occur on Sunday. The GP does NOT say that the objective is to make a permanent closure of Bolinas. An early draft listed that as one possibility, because so many people in the community have asked for it. Because objections were also heard, the Council removed that language from the plan, and supported instead an ongoing dialog, and a desire to explore various options that could help our community. The idea here is to try small steps, and learn what's the best way to help our town, and the vitality of our downtown. I look forward (along with many merchants and residents I've talked with) to seeing how it works on Sunday. Hope to see you there!
I think Streets for People is a great thing and like your idea of including Center Blvd, etc. City Streets in San Francisco has been a huge success and hasn't led to chaos and insurrection by those evil cyclists. More bike & pedestrian-friendly towns are good for everyone. See, SF, Boulder, CO & Manhattan.
But, I suspect she's not listening, at least not to me, and that her agenda, regardless of what it actually is, or why, will get pushed through anyway. Again, I'm not "against" a community event. But, I am concerned when something gets pushed on us and is presented as a "Green" solution, without any consideration for what the actual impact is on the people who are ACTUALLY being affected. You want to close the streets to cars? Fine! But make sure you have enough officers to prevent people from turning around in my driveway, blocking my driveway, or my front gate. And if you want me and my family to walk to the event (sorry, medical conditions prevent me from riding a bike right now), then fix the sidewalks so I don't fall again, make sure the cyclists are riding in the bike lanes and not on the sidewalk, line up the crosswalks so my mother (age 92) can use her scooter (oops, it's got a motor) and not fall out or injure herself again trying to get across the street. (PS While Bolinas will be closed to traffic that day, I bet the rest of Fairfax will look like a giant parking lot.)
Another idea is just turn a couple of parking spots into parklets. http://sfpavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/ The seem to be doing very well in sf and beyond. As for the sidewalks, they are teribble and the building owner should fix them not the Town (section 1.12.045 municipal code). But they need money to fix them, so lets experiment by closing the streets and drive up revenue and get the sidewalks fixed.
So great to have a few hours without cars , a chance to relax with our beautifull community. This is the BEST town!
I am sure there's many more folk who deserve our thanks too. Here's to strengthening our community and with that, the many other great things that happen. We're looking forward to seeing our friends and neighbours there!