North PB Sip ‘N Stroll, being held for the third time 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 26, gets bigger and better – and more representative – of the neighborhood each year.
The aim of this third installment of the hyper-local Pacific Beach street fair continues to be to promote and uncover local businesses in North Pacific Beach.
“We’re getting more and more of the local businesses involved, rather than outside-type vendors,” said event originator Mike Spangler, of Spangler Event Productions. “We’ve got probably close to 40 businesses and nonprofits lined up, all based in PB. To me, that is amazing.” Spangler added the event this year is becoming even more community-focused.
“To start, we are raising awareness and money for the Bike Friendly Business District of Discover Pacific Beach, which promotes bike traffic in the area,” Spangler said adding “North PB residents and businesses want more bike racks and this is what we are raising money for.”
Spangler said guests are also being encouraged to ride their bike to the event this year and team up with Discover PB, Beautiful PB, Deco Bikes and SD Bike Coalition to install a temporary bike corral adjacent to the event where they can safely lock up their bikes and receive lots of bike info from bicycling organizations.
New this year, Spangler said, is that the event has teamed up with Pacific Beach Town Council to program the community and kids corner located in the parking lot of Tula Ru.
“We are giving free space to local non-profits such as Beautiful PB, SavePB, PB Planning Group, PB Library, The Gateway Project and a few others so they can interact with the community,” said Spangler. “There is a huge disconnect between these organizations and the younger families in the neighborhood, and what a better way to engage than through the kids. I am personally collecting reclaimed wood from the neighborhood and cutting out fish so the kids can paint them and take them home,” he said. The new Creative Kids Early Learning Studio on Turquoise Street will also be providing some unique learning activities.
One goal of the Sip ’N’ Stroll is to distinguish North PB from the rest of the community by establishing its unique identity.
North PB is loosely defined as the section of the beach community north of the Grand and Garnet avenues commercial district, bounded by Felspar Street on the south, Turquoise Street on the north, Mission Boulevard on the west and Ingraham Street on the east.
Most importantly, Spangler noted the annual street fair’s objective is to “celebrate the residents and all the small-businesses in the neighborhood that people don’t really know about. The point is to uncover them so people know they don’t have to leave PB, they can shop here, get their taxes done, et cetera.”
The event was initially created to merge the “sip” of wine tasting at Turquoise Cellars with a “stroll” down a family-friendly, business-marketing street fair.
Spangler said it is his hoped that Sip ’N Stroll will continue to be a very “hyperlocal, grass-roots effort,” promoting both brick-and-mortar and at-home local businesses in accounting, financial services, digital marketing and numerous other growing fields.
Most importantly, Spangler noted the annual street fair’s objective is to “celebrate the residents and all the small-businesses in the neighborhood that people don’t really know about. The point is to uncover them so people know they don’t have to leave PB, they can shop here, get their taxes done, et cetera.”
Spangler concluded the Sip ’N Stroll “helps the economy of the neighborhood.”
The street fair will have a nice representation of local restaurants and businesses as well as presenting a fine wine and beer tasting garden. When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 26 Where: Cass Street between Loring and Opal streets. Info: www.sipnstrollpb.com