The "Streets are for people" party

Earlier this week, my friend Rick Conroy mentioned some kind of street party taking place on Augusta Avenue this Sunday. He mentioned that it was something along the lines of the Reclaim the Streets party that takes places annually in many cities around the world. He mentioned that the businesses on the street would be participating — Bikes on Wheels would be doing free bike repairs and tune-ups and La Palette, a great little French restaurant on Auguta, would be providing free food.

Yesterday, while locking my bike outside a store on Queen Street, I noticed that the rack was had some flyers attached to it that read:

Streets are for PEOPLE!

Join us in a celebration of bicycles, pedestrians and the idea of a car-free Kensington Market.

July 21st – Sunday – High noon to dusk – Augusta Ave. and Oxford (SW of College and Spadina)

There will be:

• music
• free bike repairs
• bicycle giveaways
• refreshments

Our celebration will culminate with a mass bike ride at 8:00 p.m.!

Bring along your friends and families, and your bikes, trikes or even unicycles if you have ’em and anything you can imaging to help us celebrate!

I’m all for the reassertion of pedestrian culture (“pedestrian” as in “person walking on the street”, not as in “ordinary and dull”); it makes for more interesting neighbourhoods that areas specifically designed for car culture (see Stephen Johnson’s book, Emergence for more on this). I’m also for grassroots parties such as this. They have a more community-oriented feel than more corporatized events such as the Molson Indy, Gay Pride Parade, World Youth Day or Celebrate Toronto (Mayor Mel Lastman’s faux street party), and you can feel more like a participant than merely a spectator.

I’ll be attending, and I’ll bring you-know-what with me.