Long Beach is the 2nd largest city in L.A. County and the 7th largest city in California. Each year, the city partners with bike-friendly organizations to encourage more folks to get on their bicycles to get around town. Here, we share two events from the last year.
Pow!Wow! Long Beach Artist-led Bike Tour, October 10, 2021 This art tour on bikes was one of the activities that brought art to the community (and vice versa) during one October week. A large group of bicyclists met at the beach and followed our guide through the streets of Long Beach to discover and admire a series of murals and other art installations. If there is safety in numbers, this popular bike tour was very safe.
The bicycle path in Long Beach offered a fine starting point for our Pow!Wow! artist-led bike tour.
Bordalo II used waste to make “Plastic Seal”, reminding us that plastic pollution has grown into a global crisis, especially in our oceans. You can’t appreciate this art from your car.
Our tour leader stopped at numerous murals that decorate walls around downtown Long Beach. Artist: Brandon Monroe
Here is another mural we passed at Ocean and Pine as we pedaled our way around downtown Long Beach. Artist: Blue the Great.
This mural, combining scenes that help define Long Beach, was also spotted along our art tour bike route.
As the sun set on our bike tour, we passed by murals decorating other Long Beach neighborhoods and urban landscapes.
We occasionally rode past artists painting new murals and creating new forms of street art for Long Beach.
Returning on our bikes, we enjoyed a few murals that weren’t official stops.
Tom Fruin’s “Camouflage House” was placed on Shoreline Beach adjacent to the bicycle path and our tour. Long Beach’s camouflaged oil islands and derricks can be seen in the background.
Riding our bikes beyond the official tour, we catch views of the harbor and Queen Mary that you can’t get from a car.
The L.A. River bicycle path starts (or ends) in Long Beach where the river meets the harbor. Beyond the guided tour, but still on our bikes, we notice homeless encampments that parallel the river, disturbing scenes that might otherwise be missed.
