The Streets Come Alive

By Tiffany Broden
Contributing Writer

“A quality city is not one that has great roads but one where a child can safely go anywhere on a bicycle.” -Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia.

Each Sunday and every holiday the main streets of Bogotá are closed and taken over by bicyclists, walkers, runners and skaters. On average, over one million people from the city take part in the weekly event that also offers free aerobic classes, performances and other activities set up along 70 miles of closed streets. It’s called Ciclovia, “bike lane.”

For two days, Aug. 29 and Sept. 19, five miles of F-M streets, including Broadway and Center Avenue, will be closed to motorized vehicles and opened to walkers, bikers, skateboarders, rollerbladers and any other type of human-powered transportation. It’s Fargo’s version of Ciclovia, known as Streets Alive.

Cass Clay Healthy People Initiative’s director, Rory Beil, has been one of the key players in creating Streets Alive. “There are a number of community groups that came to us and said there’s lots of national trends related to physical inactivity and unhealthy eating that we see locally and we’d like to have a concerted effort to address those.” Beil said. “We became aware of street closing events that happen around the world, mostly in Latin America, and that’s what [Streets Alive] is based on.”

“Historically public health efforts have been towards educating individuals about what they need to do, but the reality over 15 years, is that they have been ineffective,” Beil said. “So the latest suggestions that have come from national organizations are to focus on changing policies and changing the environment and culture because those things will live on beyond the funding of any individual program. One other thing we’re doing is working with schools to strengthen their wellness policies.”

“I did one of these events in Portland, Oregon with about 35,000 people. And then the World Health Organization put out a promotional video to encourage 1,000 communities to do it in 2010. But they wanted to do it all on a date in April, but we’re usually fighting floods in April, so we couldn’t plan that.” Beil said. “But we all collectively thought this was an event that could bring the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the fit and the unfit all together in one environment, and maybe inspire our community to make a change in culture and celebrate together at the same time.”

Streets Alive is something different that will combine having fun with learning about being healthy. There are tons of activities to participate in and to just sit back and watch. Courts Plus, Xtreme Measures and the YMCA, all usual business competitors, will be coming together to provide free aerobic classes to participants of Streets Alive.

Try out Latin dancing moves with the Zumba class from Courts Plus or get your Zen on with Yoga from Xtreme Measures, it’ll all be available in Activity Alley. It doesn’t matter how old you are either. TNT Kid’s Fitness will be providing a Fit Class for kids and family and Sanford Health will have Older Adult activities.

Activity Alley is just one of the pit stops along the Streets Alive route. That’s where all participants can try a go at hula hooping, aerobic classes and even challenge Miss ND, Taylor Kerns, and other local celebrities to a fitness challenge. Activity Alley will be set up in Oak Grove Park on August 29 and Island Park September 19.

A healthy lifestyle challenge course will also be available to try participate in. According to Beil, “it’ll be a fun little obstacle course” where a person will have to do an activity, such as hanging up wet laundry as fast as possible, and then answer a question to make you think about the things you’re doing in your life that arepossibly unhealthy.

Participation Parkway will be set up in Woodlawn Park for both dates. There a person will find music, dancing, juggling, tumbling and tons of other fun and random activities to watch and try out for yourself. There is no one particular starting spot on the route for Streets Alive. People are encouraged to start anywhere and end anywhere they want. There’s also no set direction and the streets are opened both ways.

With all the activities, a person is sure to get hungry and will need to hydrate to refuel their bodies. That’s where the Eat and Greet Street comes in. Vendors will be set up in a festival-type atmosphere, but forget the funnel cake and cheese curds. Here will be healthy foods to show that eating well doesn’t have to taste boring.

After refueling, First Lutheran Church, Hope Lutheran and Sts. Anne and Joachim will invite you to “put on your dancing shoes and feel the positive vibrations through your sole,” with Sole Music. Contemporary Christian music will be playing throughout the day.

Also along the route is Education Avenue at Hawthorne Elementary on August 29 and Horance Mann Elementary on September 19. “One of the things we see in culture is that unstructured play is not as common anymore. Kids are in structured activities such as video games and watching TV. The theme is play, and will take us back.” Beil said. “There will be four-square and jump roping that Shanley High School will be helping out with.”

But before all the activities of Streets Alive happen, the Great Northern Bicycle Company (GNBC), F-M Community Bike Workshop (FMCB) and the Plains Art Museum are hosting a Bicycle Art Week to get everyone in the bicycling, art and active-lifestyle mood the week before the main event. It’s already going on.

On August 23 there was a “Freak Bikes” Ride event where spoke cards will be created to decorate your bike before you hit Streets Alive. On Aug. 24, FMCB will be providing bikes to bike through paint on canvas to create “a unique collaborative piece of artwork.” On Aug. 25, GNBC tested people’s endurance by having a physical challenge where a bicycle tractor pull was featured.

Tonight, August 26, will feature a people-powered bike-in movie at the Plains Art Museum. “The Triplets of Belville” will be projected on the south side of the building and people pedaling a five-seat bike named “The Mighty Quinn” will power the movie.

And August 28, the day before Streets Alive, people are encouraged to help decorate the street route with bike decorations. There will be bike safety checks at Woodlawn Park as well to make sure everyone is safe while riding bikes around the city.

“I’m excited about the prospect of the energy that [Streets Alive] could build in our community. That’s our goal.” Beil said.

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If You Go

What: Streets Alive
Where: Downtown Fargo-Moorhead
When: Sun, Aug 29, from noon
Info: 877.977.5770