During Open Streets Knoxville, Central St between the Old City and Happy Holler will be filled with people of all ages and abilities. The event provides them with a chance to walk, ride bicycles, hula hoop, zumba in the streets — all in a setting that is fun and safe. The event will be hosted by Bike Walk Knoxville, with significant support from the City of Knoxville. This pilot event will be the kick-off to several events in 2016.
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Event planning is already underway, with $4100 in sponsorships already raised. We have a sponsor packet and a flyer for businesses along the route. Committees are working on logistics, programming/activities, marketing, and merchant relations. Knoxville Police Department and City of Knoxville Special Events are on board. The timeline is to have the activities scheduled and a brochure sent to the printer by Sept 30th. Sponsors need to be finalized by Sept 24th.
Open Streets events introduce Knoxville residents to fun physical activity and community interaction. Many local residents have little opportunity to access activity centers and events of this kind. Open Streets will bring opportunity to our high priority residents. Once residents are exposed to these opportunities, we expect Open Streets will contribute to long-term changes in the walkability and bikeability of our community, as awareness increases of the need for both places and infrastructure to walk and bicycle on a regular basis, and as the community’s capacity to make those changes increases.