COAST Offers More Ways To Celebrate Open Streets In Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA, CA — COAST, Santa Monica's free open streets celebration, will return on Sunday, Sept. 15. Two miles of Santa Monica’s streets will be closed to cars for a pageant of crowd-sourced creativity in addition to live music, food, art and hands-on activities, the City of Santa Monica press release said. COAST invites people of all ages and abilities to bike, skate, scoot, run, walk and roll along the event route.

COAST allows the community to experience Santa Monica's streets as places for community and creativity, not just for cars, the press release said. The route will allow participants to try out painting a communal mural, jumping double-dutch, roller skating at the pop-up rink and more.

There will be musicians, dancers and artists including Sol e Mar, Venice Beats, Mariachi Linda Mexicanas, Cuñao and the California Feet Warmers. Other activities include helmet decorating, a kid’s bike skills rodeo, a giant puppet parade and salad-making at the community garden, the press release said.

COAST will be held on two miles of city streets closed to car traffic, including Ocean Avenue from Wilshire Boulevard to Colorado, Colorado from 5th Street to Ocean Avenue, as well as Main Street from Colorado to Pier Avenue.

There will be free rides offered on all Big Blue Buses across all routes the entire day of the event. COAST visitors are encouraged to walk, ride the Expo Line, Metro Buses, free Big Blue Buses, scoot, roll or take advantage of Santa Monica’s 110 miles of bikeways to get to the event, the City of Santa Monica said. At the event, the route is open to every method of car-free transit; bike rentals will be available at multiple locations along the route as well as at the 85 Breeze Bike Share stations located throughout Santa Monica. Free bike valet will be provided at the Farmers Market at Ocean Park and Main Street, the press release said.

For more information about COAST visit http://www.santamonica.gov/coast.