Re:Imagine Garden Grove - A Downtown Open Streets Event
Garden Grove, California (PRWEB) May 23, 2014 -- City of Garden Grove Enlists Producers of L.A.’s Famed CicLAvia
The City of Garden Grove is pleased to introduce “Re:Imagine Garden Grove – A Downtown Open Streets Event” on Sunday, October 12, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event invites residents and visitors to explore a car-free, re-envisioned downtown environment that will celebrate the community, diverse cultures, and a healthy lifestyle. The City has partnered with Los Angeles-based Community Arts Resources, Inc. (CARS) to produce the inaugural event. CARS produces L.A.’s CicLAvia open streets event and other acclaimed cultural programs with parallel missions to Re:Imagine Garden Grove.
“Re:Imagine Garden Grove” advances a City effort to re-brand Garden Grove and showcase downtown as the living room of the community -- an inviting area where people of all ages and backgrounds can experience the spirit of the city. The vehicle-free celebration will temporarily remove cars from approximately three miles of city streets, including Garden Grove Boulevard, Main Street, and Acacia Parkway, allowing pedestrians, cyclists, runners, and skateboarders to experience downtown in a new light.
The event will also transform a small section of the existing OCTA Pacific Electric Right-of-Way into a temporary and safe biking and walking path. The demonstration project will showcase how this area could be used for future active transportation purposes, connecting Garden Grove to other municipalities along a 20-mile stretch of land.
“Re:Imagine Garden Grove is a way to bring together all of the cultural diversity that is right here in our community and invite others to experience Garden Grove in a unique way,” said Mayor Bruce Broadwater. “It’s a celebration of our strengths and our future,” he added.
Multi-cultural activities, programs, and attractions will fill the streets and parks of the event area. Multiple stages will present performances from local as well as Southern California-based musical and dance groups. A culinary zone will offer local and regional food trucks along with a stage for a multi-cultural chef cook-off featuring star chefs from Orange County.
A pop-up skate park will complete a skateboarding-only zone and demo area, and a vendor marketplace will highlight local artisan crafts. Kid’s art workshops, public art installations, informative and interactive booths, bike repair stops, and free bike parking will also be featured along the event route.
The planning process for “Re:Imagine Garden Grove – A Downtown Open Streets Event” includes meetings with community members, City staff and CARS, to ensure the community as a whole embraces the event.
City Council Member Steve Jones, who has been a leading organizer of this event says, “It is our goal to have local and regional residents and organizations not only attend Re:Imagine Garden Grove, but get involved in its overall success. Additionally, this event will provide an opportunity for our local business owners to interact with new audiences in hopes of expanding beyond their current customer base.”
The first “Re:Imagine Garden Grove – A Downtown Open Streets Event” public meeting open to the community-at-large will be held on Monday, July 28, 2014, at 6 p.m., at the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center.
For more information, and to get involved, please visit http://www.ggopenstreets.com
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ABOUT GARDEN GROVE
The City of Garden Grove, CA, located just one mile from the Disneyland Resort, complements Southern California's most popular tourist area with several brand-name hotels, restaurants, and the arrival of the Great Wolf Lodge Southern California water park hotel, currently under construction. As the fifth largest city in Orange County, the city boasts many of the most recognized cultural and spiritual centers, including Little Saigon, the Korean Business District, and the Christ Cathedral (formerly the Crystal Cathedral). Some of the most affordable new housing developments in Southern California, the third largest school district in the county with one of the highest college graduation rates in the state, and a strong, business-friendly atmosphere makes Garden Grove an ideal place for new and current residents, businesses, and visitors.
ABOUT COMMUNITY ARTS RESOURCES (CARS)
Since founders Katie Bergin and Aaron Paley launched Community Arts Resources (CARS) in 1988, the company has been instrumental in utilizing the arts to bring communities together, reclaiming public spaces and cultivating awareness of local histories, cultural connections and creative resources. CARS designs, installs and oversees festivals and other events for the Getty, the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, CicLAvia, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), the Southern California Grantmakers and the California Endowment. It also consults for city governments, private developers and nonprofits on the uses of public space for cultural and artistic purposes, arranges artist-in-residence programs at local schools and develops unique marketing and outreach strategies for organizations and community groups. For more info: http://www.carsla.net/
Veronica Avila, City of Garden Grove, +1 (714) 741-5051, [email protected]
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