Long Beach’s Beach Streets Returns – Open Thread

Long Beach’s popular Beach Streets is back! Last Saturday, tens of thousands of people – on bike, foot, skate, scooter – took to a temporarily car-free route about four miles long.

Beach Streets festivals have been on hold since the COVID pandemic started; the previous one took place in 2019.

Yesterday’s Beach Streets route took place in the eastern portion of Long Beach, from the north end of Cal State University Long Beach to Spring Street. Long Beach used a similar route for their 2017 event. The pleasant, largely tree-lined, flat route is mostly wide arterial streets flanked by suburban housing, the university, and numerous commercial strips. As others have noted, it is a great place to ride, but not all that easy to get to by bike from other parts of Long Beach, including from the city’s Metro A Line light rail stations.

The event featured lots of programming: two music stages, DJs, a kids hub, a roller skating area, and more. Many of these were swamped by large crowds. Similar to earlier events, one worthwhile Long Beach open streets feature is that plenty of local businesses set up booths along the route: real estate agents, pet shops, dentists, yoga studios, credit unions, etc.

Readers – how was your experience at last Saturday’s Beach Streets?

Find more photos from Saturday’s event at the Long Beach Post.

Tip for open streets fans: In just three weeks, CicLAvia returns to its roots with a Sunday October 9 Heart of L.A. route through Boyle Heights, Chinatown, Downtown, and Echo Park – featuring the new Sixth Street Viaduct. And hopefully, Beach Streets will be back in 2023.