Community members of all ages are invited to bike, walk and skate as they please through West Long Beach this Saturday during Beach Streets West.
The City of Long Beach’s annual car-free event promotes active, car-free commuting and is presented by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro).
The event route for the 2025 iteration of Beach Streets will run along Willow Street from Santa Fe Avenue to Long Beach Boulevard, southbound on Santa Fe Avenue from Willow Street to 20th Street and include a westbound area of Hill Street off Santa Fe Avenue. Entertainment hubs will be located adjacent to the route at Admiral Kidd Park, Hudson Park and on Willow Street between Pacific Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard, which will be the main hub.
Beach Streets 2025 will kick off with a welcome ceremony at 11:30 a.m. on the main stage at the Willow Street hub, which will feature resource booths and a beer garden courtesy of Long Beach Beer Lab. This hub will also host musical performances by DJ Las Chicas Tristes, The Smokin’ 60s, Mariachi Divas and Long Beach Undercover.
The Hudson hub will serve as the event’s kid zone and include live performances by DJ Mike, skate demos, a game truck, inflatables, face painting and food trucks. The Admiral Kidd hub will have live performances by DJ Andres Renteria and DJ Elvin Estela, food trucks and a resource fair.
Along the event route, there will be several live performances, including ones by DJ Otro Patrick Miller on the Willow Street bridge overlooking the I-710 freeway and DJ Dennis Owens at Long Beach Beer Lab (518 W. Willow St.). Local businesses, community groups and neighborhood business districts will also host a range of entertainment, activities, information booths and more along the route.
Beach Streets began in 2015 and previous locations include the Uptown, Downtown, Bixby Knolls, Cambodia Town and Zaferia neighborhoods of Long Beach. This event follows a nationwide trend of open street events being organized to meet various social, economic and public health goals.
This year’s event will be part of the City’s 10-year Westside Promise Initiative, an extensive investment effort to address contemporary and longstanding challenges facing historically underserved communities in West Long Beach. This long-term plan involves multiple City departments and is led by the Community Development Department with oversight from the City Manager’s Office.
The Westside Promise focuses on housing supply, climate resiliency, youth and young adults, tourism and capital improvements to City facilities such as parks and health centers. The initiative is looking to expand economic development through small business assistance and workforce training while addressing neighborhood improvement. Long Beach is looking to expand investment in the area through entrepreneurship, grant funding and external partnerships.
Beach Streets West will take place Saturday, May 10 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more about Beach Streets activities, related road closures and the event map, visit beachstreets.com or follow them on Facebook, X and Instagram.
