A "Walk + Roll" in Cleveland
Community Building and Active Living in the Neighborhood

The first time I came across Walk + Roll Cleveland, I was intrigued. Imagine city streets closed to motor vehicle traffic so people can walk and bike along the roads and play Frisbee from planned green space to city gardens. When art, music, games and educational activities are taken outside along the byways, it becomes a community event. Without car traffic concerns, people who get themselves down to the signature event in Rockefeller Park participate in a street party reminiscent of the street fairs in neighborhoods like Manhattan’s Little Italy and closed-off Sunday streets in European cities.

Walk + Roll Cleveland “promotes bicycling, walking, alternative transportation, public health, diversity, and community building, through human-powered neighborhood programs that combine fun with active living, learning and participating.” It’s about getting out and about without the car and with other people, conscious about our effect on the environment and our need to be active. Organizer Lois Moss, a cycling advocate and previously a co-owner of Century Cycles, started the main event, dubbed Walk + Roll Cleveland, in 2006. This year, W + R events intertwine magically with Cleveland Bicycle Week. It's too bad we live in a climate where four months out of the year bicycling is uncomfortable. Thankfully, that doesn’t stop our enthusiasm for being outside and riding our bikes.

Walk + Roll Cleveland events start this Spring with a benefit event to be held on our only closed-to-traffic street in downtown Cleveland: East 4th Street. On the evening of Cinco de Mayo, Monday 5/5, partygoers support cycling in northeast Ohio at Pickwick & Frolic. The networking event will be attended by cycling enthusiasts from many Cleveland organizations, businesses, and media sources including Cool Cleveland’s Thomas Mulready and Meet the Bloggers’ George Nemeth. The event supports making Cleveland more bikeable and walkable. Tickets are available now; Pickwick & Frolic will have special drink prices and healthy fare at this special event.

The benefit is closely followed by Cleveland Bicycle Week -- May 10 through 18. Join your colleagues and Bike to Work, then explore other activities like Mountain Biking in the City, Bike Slavic Village, Bike to RiverSweep, Chippewa Valley Road Race, and Every Saturday Social Ride. The YMCA is a major supporter of cycling for health and to show how much it cares, those who bike to work can use the showers at the downtown Cleveland YMCA and receive a free day pass to a local YMCA facility.

Log on to http://www.clevelandbicycleweek.org to find out just how much weight you’re likely to lose once you start bicycling to work and why you should be taking the bike instead of the car out of the garage to go to the grocery. People are quick to point out the convenience of Cleveland, the 30-minute city, now we’ll find out how many minutes it takes to get from every corner in the greater Cleveland area to downtown Cleveland by bike. Bike to work to find out!

Coinciding with Cleveland Bicycle Week, Walk + Roll Cleveland invites bicycling enthusiasts to watch films about cycling at the Natural History Museum on May 12. The films were made by cyclists who celebrate the joy of cycling. Anyone who bikes, scoots, rollerblades, or skates (or finds any other means of human-powered transportation) out to the Museum will receive an extra raffle ticket for prize drawings. Bonus points will be awarded for unusual attire, so it should be fun to watch how creative people can get.

The full-day Bicycle Friendly Community Conference takes place on May 15. This conference highlights the benefits of bicycling for the environment, health, transportation, and community spirit and is co-hosted by the City of Cleveland, the Cleveland Public Library, and a number of Cleveland organizations and businesses such as Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, Earth Day Coalition, and Cleveland Bikes. After Share the Road Coalition’s Eleanor McMahon speaks, breakout sessions on the local bicycle scene and projects in our region will be followed by keynote speaker Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists.

The line-up of speakers and organizations during the morning break-outs and the afternoon tracks requires a choice between a talk about the Towpath Trail and the West Creek Greenway Trail. Or, in the afternoon, when sessions focus on laws and safety and building an organization, one must choose between Consider Biking or the Share the Road Coalition and later, from 3:30 - 4:30PM, Bike Station Concepts or S.T.E.P.S. to a Healthier Cleveland. If you’re a leader and shaker, there’s a full afternoon program on Bicycle Friendly Community Training, a course sanctioned by the League of American Bicyclists. The general public is invited to attend the entire conference; the Cleveland Public Library downtown is hosting the event.

During Walk+Roll Lakewood, on July 19, the City of Lakewood will close off Detroit and Belle Avenues from the Winking Lizard to the Library and from Lakewood Hospital to Lakewood Park so the community and walk and roll in Lakewood. Lakewood’s already known for its vibrant green spaces and youthful forward-looking outlook, so it’s no surprise that this city of street fairs and houses would embrace an event that promotes healthy living and good stewardship.

The culminating event for Walk+Roll Cleveland is its signature event, which takes place on August 24 in Rockefeller Park and The Cultural Gardens. Historic Rockefeller Park’s 3-mile parkway that meanders along Doan Brook from East 105th Street up to Lake Erie’s shores will be closed to cars so cyclists can roll past the cultural gardens and take a break at the Greenhouse. Cleveland neighborhoods and cultural organizations (including the Hungarian Cultural Garden which is celebrating its 70th anniversary) will plan activities and participate in the event.

The idea is to close the park so people can enjoy being outdoors to enjoy music, art, history, public spaces, and nature. The message is that our beautiful city streets can be better enjoyed up close while living a healthy lifestyle that slows the earth’s climactic changes. Look for updates on what’s happening at Walk + Roll Cleveland at http://www.walkroll.com. Join the street party! Come on greater Clevelanders -- get out and walk and roll!

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com

Read more from Claudia at her blog, http://claudiatallermusings.blogspot.com.
Comments? Letters@CoolCleveland.com

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