Massively Critical: The October Critical Mass Ride

The Militant hasn't done a group bicycle ride in a looong-ass time, so he figured he'd check out this month's last-Friday-of-the-month Los Angeles Critical Mass ride on Friday night, having heard it's quite the shiznit these days, with upwards of over 1800 cyclists, and a police escort which followed this unfortunate incident last year.

This was the Militant's first CM ride in over three years. When he first rode in Spring 2007, about 60 riders started at Wilshire and Western, snaked through Koreatown, Hollywood, Silver Lake, Historic Filipinotown and finally ended unceremoniously in Downtown Los Angeles...with about six riders. The Militant thought it was teh lame and has avoided it since, in favor of these rides and this (now defunct) ride.

But now that CM has grown to the size and scope of its originator up north, the Militant wanted to check it out.

He rode over from the Militant Compound to Wilshire/Western, where some 1300 cyclists gathered (pictured right). And just at the ready, LAPD motorcycles were lined up around the corner, with a number of bike cops waiting at the base of the Solair Wilshire building.

The most interesting observation coming back from the Militant's two-year absence from group rides? The change in the group ride demographic. The majority of riders no longer comprises of white hipsters on fixies, but Latino teenagers...on fixies.

The 30-mile ride got underway at around 7:45 p.m., headed north on Western, west on 6th Street, north on Highland, west on Melrose, south on La Cienega...

...and then, well it sorta got iffy after that. The pack thinned out greatly. In fact, though the po-po were escorting us, they were also ticketing cyclists at every other lighted intersection for running red lights. It was sort of bizarre. One female cyclist openly wept as she tried to reason with the officer.

As we headed down La Cienega, there was some confusion as to where to go. Apparently, the pack turned west on Pico, but we continued south on La Brea and turned west on Venice Blvd. towards Culver City.

But Venice Blvd already has a bike lane, and the Militant was increasingly feeling the uselessness of this ride using a pre-existing bike lane when for the past five miles or so we took over the streets (which is the point of Critical Mass in the first place, no?).

At one point, after Mar Vista and into eastern Venice, the Militant was riding all alone. Hmm, this evening started out as Critical Mass and ended like...well, any other night the Militant rides his bike alone. He overheard people heading south on Lincoln, so he dismounted and hung out on Lincoln and Venice. There were other cyclists on each corner, either hanging out or waiting for others. He even saw some head north on Lincoln. At this point, he thought, "Critical Mass the Militant's Ass!" And contemplated either riding the 33 Metro Local bus or his bike back to his compound.

Suddenly, at around 9:25 p.m., a huge gaggle of riders came up to the street and stopped at the light (Pictured left). Here they are! They probably did go down Pico after all. Los Angeles, you never fail the Militant!

Now joining what now looks like a couple hundred riders, we descended south on Lincoln towards Marina Del Rey and Playa Vista, where we got ready to turn left on Jefferson. But since we were all bicycles and there were no cars stopped on top of the road sensors circles, the left turn green light never came. After over 5 minutes waiting at the left turn lane, two motorcycle officers went ahead on a red light and we all followed them.

There were whoops and hollers as we bolted east on Jefferson back towards Culver City. But then again, at every lighted intersection, cyclists were getting red light tickets. So basically, never bolt past a red light (when the police are present, unless they actually allow you to...).

We headed left on Sepulveda and hit Venice Blvd. Being All Hallow's Eve Eve Eve, a number of cyclists wore costumes, everything from the standard zombie and skeleton to some of the more creative ones - including an iPod and Elliot (a dude wearing a red-hooded sweatshirt with an E.T. doll in his bike's front basket - clever).

There were also some pretty tricked-out bikes, including one pulling a long trailer, and one extremely illuminated cycle owned by Dego from Downtown Los Angeles, who had built his over the past couple years and powers all his lights with a 38-volt battery mounted behind his saddle.

We headed east on Venice, using the bike lane again, and didn't turn north again until Western, where the Militant returned back to the Metro station at Wilshire, where he met up with an operative. What started out as roughly 1300 turned into...13.

In all it was a fun night, though the police presence was confusing. June's much-lauded Critical Mass was called a "love fest" between cyclists and LAPD, but the Militant overheard incidents of officers being unnecessarily rude to CM participants. There were riders who had great conversations with the police, mainly the younger officers on bikes (a number of them did look like they were having fun - they normally don't get to ride that far). Officers do have to uphold the law as they are sworn to do, but as the pack thins out dramatically, the purpose of Critical Mass is all for naught. It looked like there were enough tickets handed out to balance the City's budget woes. So thank a cyclist if that happens.

In the meantime, the Militant will look out for the other group rides. Or...he may or may not organize one of his own. Who's down for that?!

The Militant's Summer (Or Whatever Season It Is) Ritual: The Bike Ride To The Beach

It's summertime, and the Militant set out on Monday to do his ritual, which he tries to do at least once every Summer - ride his bike from the Militant Compound (located in an unspecified location in Central Los Angeles) to the beach (Here's a post from 2008, via a different route, on this ride)!

The sun was shining, so he brought his bike out onto the streets of Los Angeles, and headed westward!

[Follow the nearly-40-mile ride route here (the first and last few miles omitted for obvious reasons)]:

Okay, after rolling down on an unspecified boulevard and turning on an unspecified avenue, the Militant found himself going south on Oxford Street, just a block east of Western Avenue and a far better alternative as far as riding on two wheels goes. There he headed west on 4th Street, in all its sharrowed-ness, transitioning from the dense apartmentage of Koreatown to the tony mansions of Hancock Park, all while staying on the same street. Upon reaching La Brea Blvd, it's back to the vehicular combat heading south, but not for long; for upon reaching another bike-friendly thoroughfare - Redondo Blvd - just south of Olympic, it was easy sailing for the next few miles.

At the end of the road was Jefferson, where the Metro Exposition Light Rail Line was being built in front of him. In this section, just west of the future La Brea Station, rail was being placed down.

Just west of the future La Cienega Station was a peculiar sight: As most of us know, the Expo Line is the modern-day replacement of the Pacific Electric's Santa Monica Air Line and the wooden bridge which carried the old Red Cars was not torn down for the Metro Rail structure, but rather, the new rail structure was built directly over it (pictured left)! Perhaps the adjoining Exposition Bikeway will be using it when the light rail opens next year.

Further west, the light rail line runs for the next few hundred yards until its terminus just east of Venice Blvd. The Militant snapped this picture of some of the rail-placing that's still going on:
The Militant veered west on Washington, just past the future Expo Line terminus, rounded the corner near the Downtown Culver City Trader Joe's and found himself on Culver Blvd, where he continued in a westerly direction, eventually finding the rails-to-trails Culver Boulevard Median Bicycle Path (pictured left) - which was once a Pacific Electric Red Car Line, and later a Southern Pacific freight line until 1976, The county's transportation commission (Metro's predecessor) bought it in 1990 and converted it to the bike path we see today.

The Militant continued down the path (diverging temporarily for some extra pumps of air courtesy of the Wheel World bike shop on Sepulveda), when he spotted...

...The marine layer. Greeeeat. Suddenly his bright blue Summer sky yielded a dreary mass of grey, more suited for Winter or early Spring days. Um, wasn't the point of this ride to celebrate Summer?

But the Militant's ever-observant eye did spot a peculiar monument on Culver Blvd and Mascagni Street in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles - an over-six-foot tall entrance pylon (pictured right), most likely a vestigal remnant of the neighborhood's old subdivision development (Note to self: Find some more like this around town. Could make a great future MA post...).

Now with his shades off (hope no one was following him at that point), the Militant ended up on some side streets and made his way to Lincoln Blvd north and Washington Blvd. west, where a fellow cyclist rode alongside him. He was riding a fixie, but he was no teenager or hipster. He was some dude in his '50s. He looked like he was in pain. Poor dude (BTW, there's some sewer replacement going on around here, so be mindful if you're gonna ride along Washington north of the Marina).

In no time, the Militant found his way onto the Venice Pier. But it was overcast. And cold. There Militant was not a very happy camper, especially since he came dressed for temperatures a little higher up on the thermometer.

Funny thing, each of the lifeguard stations along the beach was painted in a bright tone, and bore the words, "Summer of Color" (pictured left). Ummm, riiiiight. He can find two things wrong with that statement on this dreary un-summery day.

So the Militant just rode north on the beach bike path, passing by the Venice Beach Boardwalk, with its numerous souvenir shops, street performers, marijuana dispensaries and throngs of unhappy tourists, expecting to see and experience something that resembles Summer.

The Militant biked north until the Santa Monica Pier, where he walked his bike up onto Ocean Avenue and east on Santa Monica Blvd.

As he passed the Third Street Promenade, he noticed that the place looked exactly the same as the last time he was there (some three or so years ago...). He continued down the boulevard, and after Lincoln, decided to use the less-busy Broadway instead. A perfect route, as it had not only a bike lane but a number of traffic-calming devices, such as curb bump-outs, built into the street!
At this point night was falling, and he learned Broadway in Santa Monica turned into Ohio Ave. in West Los Angeles. He had no choice but to continue on Santa Monica Blvd, but then picked up the SMB bike lane after Sepulveda.

It was at this point the Militant was debating whether to just rest and hop on the Metro 4 or 704 bus back to Central Los Angeles or just continue on the bike. A pounding headache made the latter difficult, but a true Militant never takes the easy way out! ARRRRGH!

While passing through Century City (and taking a short Twitter break), he saw some guitar-playing d-bag on Santa Monica try to serenade some chicks waiting on the curb in front of the Westfield Century City on the other side of the street. LOL.

Anyway, it wasn't long before the Militant found himself in Beverly Hills and Little Santa Monica Blvd turned into Burton Way (yet another abandoned Red Car route!). Then after being near the Beverly Center area and just down 3rd Street from Farmer's Market, he realized that he might as well finish the journey on bike, as he was almost there. From 3rd down Cochran it was back on 4th Street, and then back on Oxford, and then onto the various unspecified streets that led him back to his compound.

The Militant was so worn out from this nearly 40-mile trek that he lacked the energy to post this blog entry until a day later (must be getting old...)!

Anyhoo, comparing this post to the route he took back in '08 shows that both knowing more bike-friendly routes and the existence of more official bike infrastructure can really make a difference riding through Los Angeles. Broadway through Santa Monica was an awesome route, and the Militant hopes the bike path that adjoins the Metro Exposition Line would make this trip a lot easier come next year. He would also like to see true bike-friendly improvements along Santa Monica Blvd west of Sepulveda, and link that to Ohio Avenue and Broadway in Santa Monica.

In the meantime, the Militant wants it to be Summer already...

The Westside Ride

Friday night found the Militant venturing into The Westside on bike, to join roughly a hundred cyclists on the monthly Ride-Arc edjumakational rides through various sectors of this great City.

The theme for this month's ride was "Community / Public Space/ Security" - a demonstration of the various uses of public space and security, in how there are various classifications of public and private spaces which people may or may not use (no, really, seriously) according to their intended purpose. Additionally, the ride also touched on how public and private spaces are utilizing surveillance methods (i.e. cameras) for a (true or false) sense of security.

The 22-mile ride, which circled mostly in the Westside, started at the parking lot of the U.S. Federal Building in Westwood, home to various protests, passport renewals and a place to park to take the Hollywood Bowl shuttle bus.


Mile 0, Westwood: "Hey what you guys got going on here? Looks like fun!"
- Middle-Aged Male Passer-By

The Federal Building and the nearby VA Hospital grounds were pointed out as government-owned and funded public land which the taxpaying public was entitled to use -- yet the public largely does not use it.

After circling the vast VA grounds - a virtual community unto itself - there was a large iron gate blocked off to automobiles but open to pedestrians, which the cyclists funneled through. They then made their way through Century City into Beverly Hills, where they stopped at Rodeo Drive (pictured left), with a few rich folks walking around with "WTF" expressions on their faces.

Mile 7, Beverly Hills: "Hey, I wanna join you guys...I got a bike!"
- 20-something well-dressed female on sidewalk

Then it was on through Burton Way and 3rd Street, popping out of the Westside for a bit into the Fairfax District where the cyclists walked their bikes through Main Street Carusoville, an example of privately-owned public space, but The Grove's security went looking for Alex, the ride's leader, and told him he wasn't allowed to address the crowd on this tour stop. So the pack continued on across the street to Pan Pacific Park (we seemed to have been here before...) where they were able to stop, at a publicly-owned public space, though in contrast to the Grove's crowds, there was hardly any non-Ride-Arc'ers in sight.

Later the pack filtered through the wide sidewalks of West Hollywood and into the swank residential neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, which, ironically, are ideal cycling streets. After making a stop near some celeb homes, the group headed back out to Wilshire and through to Bel-Air.

Mile 18.5, Holmby Hills: "What are you people doing in my neighborhood?"
- Some dude in an SUV

After a brief stop in front of spacious Holmby Park, the pack rode up to the gates of Bel-Air. No Fresh Prince to be found, but the riders were briefed on a little bit of the community's history a once the home of Los Angeles' uber-rich, now relegated to the home of regular rich folk. It was on the way back out that a few cyclists took some spills and had some minor collisions with each other on the curving, unlit streets.

Eventually the ride went to the UCLA campus, which, as many of you may or may not know, may or may not have been the Militant's alma mater. The riders rode through Dickson Plaza and Bruin Walk, the Militant may or may not have had nostalgic pangs of pride. Finally, the group stopped in between Pauley Pavilion, home of the recently-eliminated Bruins men's basketball team (yay or boo), and the Intramural field, which is a large open space on the campus which campus security frequently discourages its use. This ended the ride, which left the riders either returning back to the Federal Building or heading home through various means. The Militant, too headed back to the compound via unspecified means.

As always, the Ride-Arc rides provide an excellent educational tour, as well as a way to discover not only the streets of the City but some awesome cycling routes. Many of the previous Ride-Arc rides retraced familiar treading ground for the Militant, but, though rarely wandering into the Westside, he was totally down for exploring some never-explored-before streets.

Let's Pretend We're Tourists

Some 100 cyclists rode the streets of Los Angeles on Friday night to partake in Ride-ARC's "Tourismo!" ride that playfully took the mostly- native Angeleno riders on a 30+ mile tour of tourist traps, historic places and facades seen on movies and television, stretching from Hollywood to Beverly Hills and back.

Starting at the parking lot of Mayfair Market on Franklin Avenue, the ride went up the steep inclines of the Hollywood Hills, stopping by the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House, freewheeling back downhill right below the Griffith Observatory, heading due west to the Capitol Records Building, then down the Boulevard to the front of Mann's Chinese Theatre (pictured above), where bicycle tires rested on the footprints and signatures of stars as the pack posed for a group photo, which was a genuine "WTF?" moment for the tourists who were there. The ride also passed by Fairfax High School, Melrose Avenue (which is now home to the largest concentration of nonfat frozen yogurt franchises in the entire world, the Militant kids you not) to Paramount Studios. The bikes also meandered through the winding concrete path of Pan Pacific Park, taillights blinking like fireflies, then up to The Grove (pictured below, where the pack jokingly sang "Happy Birthday" to a paranoid security guard -- remember, Caruso's Main Street is private property), through Beverly Blvd. to Beverly Hills. The ride continued past the swanky celeb-patronized shops of Robertson, the luxury car dealerships of Wilshire, Rodeo Drive, the Sunset Strip and back. Famous TV/movie houses were seen, such as the Halloween house on Orange Grove Ave, the Cunningham residence from the '70s TV series Happy Days, (located on Cahuenga Blvd. just blocks south of where the series was filmed on the Paramount lot), and even stars' homes like Bugsy Siegel's house in Beverly Hills and yes, even Paris You-Know-Who's house on King's Road, just off of the Sunset Strip (ironically, behind a Hyatt Hotel).

While many folks would rather party on a Friday night, this was a party where locals got to pretend to be tourists, and Alex, the ride coordinator, gave factual and historical information during the tour's stops. Speaking of party, there couldn't have been a more perfect juxtaposition of the rich and non-rich, the glamorous and the practical and the fake and the real, especially when the pack infiltrated the parking lot next to The Avalon, with helmeted riders literally right next to the dressed-to-impress crowd waiting to get inside the club. The scene was even repeated around 2 a.m. when the riders passed clubgoers leaving Sunset Strip spots. Even when the ride passed through normally tranquil, quasi-private, secluded residential areas in Los Feliz or Beverly Hills, it was a clash between two seemingly diametrically-opposed worlds. For this Militant, it was awesome.

The Militant also enjoyed this ride because of the crowd - a much more diverse pack of riders this time, and 100 being the right size for a pack. The Militant also ran into friends both old and new, such as fellow local blogster supreme Will Campbell, who wrote his own account here (Note: He has signed the Militant's non-disclosure forms under penalty of perjury so please do not hound him with queries regarding The Militant's identity); "J," a dude who the Militant met on Franklin en route to the starting point; "A," who shares a mutual friend with the Militant in a certain local foodie blogster and "M," an Angelena on an electric bike which the Militant struck up a conversation with and who was struggling behind the pack in Beverly Hills pedaling on the heavy bike (that battery pack weighs a ton) -- with under-inflated tires. The Militant offered to switch bikes with her and ended up riding off with her the rest of the way (The Militant is not just an officer, but a gentleman as well...).

Ride-ARC is where it's at. The Militant now looks forward to the first Friday of the month.