A 4-Lap Ride Around A Barrio Logan Block!

Bike Fo(u)r is a participatory art project occurring in the neighborhood of Barrio Logan. This work involves the politicization of space through the act of bicycling. The event will invite participants to use their own physical presence to change space, ignite conversation, and promote civic engagement.

How It Works

Participants are invited to check-in for this ride at Bread and Salt beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 26. The site will feature snacks and refreshments, music, a place to pump up your tires, and information about art and culture in the neighborhood. Upon check-in, riders will be given a “bib” much like those that are distributed in a race, to be placed on their back. Each bib will feature the incomplete phrase “I am riding for_________.”

Participants will be asked to complete the phrase with their own cause. Examples might include:

I am riding for clean air.
I am riding for cyclists’ rights.
I am riding for immigration reform.
I am riding for better education funding.
Whatever the issue may be, riders are encouraged to identify a cause that they would like to draw attention to over the course of the ride.

The communal bike ride will begin at 3 p.m., taking a short course through Barrio Logan until riders reach the block of Logan Avenue between Sampson and Evans. At that point, participants will be asked to begin circling this block continuously, temporarily creating a long chain of cyclists riding for important causes. Riders are encouraged to circle the block as long as they can, though it is hoped that all cyclists will contribute at least 4 laps in support of the neighborhood they are riding in

After the Ride

After they have decided to end their ride around the block, participants are encouraged to do two things: First, they are encouraged to return their bib at some point in the afternoon to Bread and Salt, where it will be displayed along with other’s bibs on a large wall, thereby composing a portrait of community concerns.

Second, this event is occurring on the same night as the Barrio Art Crawl, and so riders are encouraged to go visit and patronize the other galleries, restaurants, and bars in the area. Maps for the Barrio Art Crawl will be distributed to all riders.

Is this Art?

The Occupy movement that occurred at New York City’s Zucotti Park illustrated the manner in which individuals could join together to collaboratively change space. The presence of those gathered in that park transformed a place of recreation into a space for debate and conversation. In Bike Fo(u)r, participants will temporarily alter a single block in Barrio Logan to become a site of advocacy and civil protest.

The impetus for this work was born out of the defeat of Propositions B and C in the City of San Diego’s June 2014 elections. While no illegal improprieties occurred in the voting process around B and C, the very structure of the political system seemed weighted against residents of Barrio Logan. In the end, many residents felt that well-financed private industry was able to override the desires and wishes of the people who spent countless hours trying to reform their immediate environment through a public process; economic interests for many were held up as being more important than health and safety for a few. Again the structure of the political process in this case allowed for a possible 100% of the local population to determine the fate of 4% of the population (the rough population of Barrio Logan).

Therefore, the title of this work is meant to reference the ongoing political challenges facing the community of Barrio Logan while also being open-ended enough to allow for many different issues and riders to be represented.

This work is not about gathering residents from outside Barrio Logan to fight for the neighborhood–the well-organized and well-informed constituency of that community can, and will, continue to do that for themselves. Rather, this work represents a sign of solidarity with the community and with like-minded individuals who realize the need for continuing reform in our neighborhoods, city, and country.