Bike, Walk, Roll, Dance & Play at Streets Alive! Ithaca

People of all ages are invited to walk, roll, bike, stroll, dance and play “car-free” at this spring’s Streets Alive! on Sunday, May 4th from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. Streets will be closed to cars and open to people for over a dozen downtown blocks, from the Boynton Middle School and Ithaca High School parking lots all the way to Court St. and down to GIAC.

Kids, elders and everyone in between can enjoy the safety and exhilaration of car-free streets, along with diverse grassroots fun such as bike art, sign art, tai chi, Taiko drumming, a cappella singing, a pop-up children’s forest, Zumba dancing, hula hooping, live music from El Rumbon, double dutch jump roping, Beats Alive!, “Jane Jacobs” walking tours, and free ice cream and popcorn. More free opportunities include a youth bike rodeo and helmet give-away, bike repair and advice stations, bus bike-rack practice, and transportation chats with roaming elected officials.

Individuals or groups can even adopt part of the street, chalk some art, create a mini park, or share something else fun or creative. Ithaca Earth Day 2014 and Get Your Green Back Tompkins will be celebrated with more music, dance, information and activities next door to the Ithaca High School parking lot hub, outside Boynton Middle School.

Streets Alive! Ithaca is part of a growing movement to foster joyful, healthy, people-centered activity in urban spaces, inspired by similar events in cities from Denver and Atlanta to Bogota, Colombia. Streets Alive! Ithaca seeks to promote active living, community empowerment, and walking, rolling and cycling for daily transportation. The public is encouraged to bring friends, family, and neighbors. A return to a S. Plain St. route is planned for fall’s Streets Alive! Ithaca.

Bring your wheels, bring your friends and family, tell your neighbors, and make your streets come alive!  For more information or to join the volunteer crew, visit streetsaliveithaca.com Streets Alive! is put on by Way2Go of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and a myriad of project partners, including Big Red Bikes, City of Ithaca, Creating Healthy Places Project of the Human Services Coalition, Finger Lakes Cycling Club, Finger Lakes Fitness Center, Friends Bike Clinic, Get Your Greenback Tompkins, Ithaca Carshare, and Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council.
Streets Alive! sponsors include Cayuga Medical Center, Finger Lakes Wealth Management, Sciarabba Walker, Taitem Engineering, Tompkins Trust Company, Collegetown Bagels, and Dennis Ice Cream. Streets Alive! is also made possible in part by funding from the Park Foundation and the Tompkins County Tourism Program.