Letters

CicloSDias: the good, the bad and the ugly

The good:

•It was fun to see so many cycling, skating and walking at the same time.

•The temperature was perfect, not too hot or too cold.

•The police and all the CicloSDias volunteers were helpful.

•It was fun to meet new people and see old friends.

•The daytime event crowd seemed to be very well behaved.

The bad:

•The road should have been [clearly] divided into two directions; there were many near misses, as some riders weaved back and forth.

•Other events could have been included, like an early morning race, a photo contest and/or a costume contest [which] would have added to the fun of the event.

•The maps were poor and served mainly as promotional graphics and this includes the online maps, plus the maps should have shown alternate routes for autos to use.

•All designated volunteers should have had a phone, which would have allowed them to be far more effective, especially if there was an accident or incident to report.

•More effort should have been made to help residents that needed to cross non-periodic crossings, since it would have made things so much easier for those working or returning to their homes during the event.

•Many spoke of trying to contact CicloSDias with questions and/or concerns, yet never received a return call.

•There should have been shaded rest areas provided along the route to allow folks to pace themselves, which would have made the event far more enjoyable, especially for those with families and/or seniors that don’t exercise regularly.

•Areas with bathrooms, food, and information booths should have been indicated on the maps so participants would know about them and could plan their day.

•There should have been trash receptacles all along the route, especially in the neighborhoods.

•The City should have swept the streets on the day of the event, both prior to the start of the event and then after the event. This would have allowed them complete access to the entire route and it would have been a safer ride for all those on bicycles and/or skates. For residents, making their streets really clean would have been a nice way to say thank you for all the hassles caused by the event and giving up their parking on a Sunday.

The ugly:

•There were not enough portable bathrooms along the route; parents had to take young children into blocked off alleys to go to the bathroom, which was unacceptable. In this type of event there should always be a bathroom in sight, especially if families with young children and toddlers are encouraged to attend.

•The amount of restricted on-street parking was much too large; restricting on-street parking [to] just one side of the street should have been allowed and would have then inconvenienced about half the number of people. There would still have been plenty of space for ten or more times the number of people.

•There should be at least five CicloSDias routes, each in a different part of San Diego, so that the same area residents do not get impacted every year by this event.

•The CicloSDias official mapping board/questionnaire had a question that mentioned (residents) having to give up their on-street parking for future and/or additional bike lanes, which I find unacceptable; try doing that in North Park’s business district. Why should North Park residents’ quality of life be reduced? Home owners who bought their property with the understanding that they had good on-street parking should not be forced to give it up; this would be like down zoning a business district and/or restricting the hours all business can operate, both of which would not be acceptable to them or even considered.

On-street parking is a valuable neighborhood asset and any talk to reduce, change or restrict on-street parking would have enormous effects upon all those that own and/or live there, which is why reducing the number of parking spaces required in all new construction should not be part of any effort to make neighborhoods more walk-able.

When walk-able becomes just another push for shoving additional business-related parking into our neighborhoods it is time to ask, what is the real goal here, better neighborhoods or more prosperous business districts?

—Don Leichtling, founder North Park Residential Improvement District (NP-RID), via email

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