Cicloparkday…Sundayvía…What’s in a name?
By now, it’s clear that San Francisco “Sunday Streets” is a smashing success, and we at WOBO are excited to launch a similar car-free parkway event here in Oakland this fall or next spring. But our campaign has a bit of an identity crisis. What should we call our East Bay version of “Sunday Streets”?
Internally, we’ve been referring to the campaign as “Ciclovía,” taking inspiration from the pioneers of car-free parkways in Bogota, Colombia. “Ciclo” – aka “bikes” – plus “vía” – meaning road or path – adds up to a very clear description of the event in Spanish. However, when we talk to people outside the bicycling or Spanish-speaking communities, we get a lot of blank stares and have to spend a while explaining what we’re talking about. (Check out a great 9-nine film about Bogota’s Ciclovía here.)
We could use “Sunday Streets,” a term that has graced the front page of the Chronicle more than once. Yet the organizers of Sunday Streets have found the name to be a bit problematic when, for example, they held one on a Saturday. Confusing? A bit. New York City’s “Summer Streets” poses a similar challenge, though neither name has kept participants from showing up in droves when the cars are fenced out.
At our recent campaign planning retreat, we decided on “Oakland Parkways” as a new way to describe this non-motorized health and recreation event. Doesn’t that sound nice? But those of you who just thought, “Hey, when is the Parkway reopening?” discovered the complication there. (Not that WOBO doesn’t like the Parkway, we just don’t want people to be disappointed because they were expecting couches, pizza, and a second-run film.)
So we took the “Sunday Streets” issue to the streets – literally – at last Thursday’s Uptown Unveiled! event at 19th and Telegraph, which itself provided a dramatic illustration of how sweet it is to block off the streets for community entertainment. Hundreds of Oaklanders filled the streets to enjoy performances, people-watching, and other free activities. WOBO’s table drew a stream of walkers and cyclists, and we tapped their creativity to gather suggestions for a name. Together with the ideas generated at last night’s Volunteers Meeting, we’ve got quite a list:
- Open Roads
Saturday Boulevards
Open Oakland
Freedom Streets
Streets for the People
Walkland
No Mo (as in, no motorized nothin’!)
Bike For Life
Oakland Outside
Play East Bay
Party in the Streets
Freedom Trails
Cycle Sundays
OakCycle
BikeWay
Decompression Zone
Oaktown Bikedown
Street Play
East Bay Easy
Can you help? Leave us a comment with your idea, or tell us which one you like the best. Together, we can make this Sunday-Ciclo-Park-a-Rama happen here in Oakland… whatever the heck we end up calling it!