The Amphi neighborhood is hosting a car-free block party this weekend, in a scaled-down version of the biannual 3-mile Cyclovia event.

Living Streets Alliance is hosting the first ever Cyclovita-Amphi event tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a four block stretch along East Yavapai Road and North Fontana Avenue.

LSA Executive Director Emily Yetman told Tucson Spotlight Cyclovita will feel like more of a block party, since it’s contained within a smaller area than the longer Cyclovia route.

“What that looks like is working with neighbors in one or two neighborhoods closing down a couple streets for the day so that people in the area can come out and bike, walk, play, connect,” Yetman said. “It's … really intimate and hopefully something that will be easy for different neighborhoods to replicate, too.”

The event is an effort to raise awareness for car-free transportation advocacy and the need to make Tucson a more walkable, bikeable city, she said.

A holiday artisan market will be set up at one end of the neighborhood, with a “Taste of Amphi” potluck outside of the Building Bridges Refugee Community Center. At the other end, outside of Woods Memorial Library, there will be a resource fair with housing assistance, eviction prevention, vaccines, free haircuts and more.

Yetman hopes that these smaller Cycovitas will inspire other Tucson neighborhoods to want to get involved, not only in these types of events, but also in other programs that Living Streets Alliance has to offer.

“We also have programs that we run throughout the year. One of those is called Safe Routes to School, where we work with kids and families to try and break down the barriers to biking and walking to and from school,” she said.”We did that in partnership with the City of Tucson and the City of South Tucson.”

The group also supports “quick-build projects,” which use things like paint, planters and flex-posts to create traffic calming elements in neighborhoods.

LSA board member Devon Underwood said the group is motivated to put on more events to make streets safer for bikers and pedestrians.

“We need to connect people into work, into thriving, into different parts of the community, and get out of our bubbles,” Underwood said. “If we keep making infrastructure just for cars, we're going to lose the race. In every city you see that's connected, that's community oriented, that has an outdoor lifestyle and ways to be around each other, wins even in every level of work, whether it's from CEO to your general workforce.”

Vice Mayor Kevin Dahl is particularly excited about the inaugural Cyclovita taking place in the Amphi neighborhood, which is part of Ward 3.

“It's a neighborhood that has been under-resourced. Focusing attention on it helps bring resources to it,” he told Tucson Spotlight. “One of the great things about Cyclovia is that it's a resource fair.”

Yetman anticipates other neighborhoods will want to put on Cyclovita events of their own and is already preparing to help direct leadership with the tools to get started.

“We'll be developing a tool kit, so kind of like a manual that other neighborhoods can use that'll guide them through. Here's how you apply for a special event permit, here's how you get barricades, here's how you develop a route,” she said. “So that hopefully, people have the tools and resources they need to be able to do these themselves, maybe with a little bit of support from Living Streets Alliance.”

Samantha Callicutt is a Tucson Spotlight reporter and graduate student at the University of Arizona. Contact her at Scallicutt@arizona.edu.

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