Saturday’s Beach Streets Uptown is sure to be a fun-filled event, chock full of things to do, people to see, music to hear, places to eat and, of course, traffic-less streets to stroll or cycle through. So how can you keep track of all these activities without missing a beat during this historical first Open Streets affair for the city?
The City of Long Beach will launch its new mobile app, Go Uptown, on Saturday so that Beach Streets Uptown attendees can find all the concerts, festivals, restaurant specials, Zumba classes, art activities and more while attending. Afterward, the Go Uptown app will continue to serve as a Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) resource, guiding the Uptown community and its visitors to nearby resources and business specials aligned with living an engaged, active and healthy life.
“During Beach Streets, people can use the Go Uptown app to plan their day and see what’s going on along the bike route,” said Mayor Robert Garcia in a press statement. “And moving forward, the Go Uptown app will showcase fun and healthy activities that are happening throughout North Long Beach. This app is a really great way that technology can support an active lifestyle.”
Presented by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Beach Streets Uptown will open Atlantic Avenue to people-friendly traffic. Such traffic includes walking, bicycling, skating and socializing participants. From 9:00AM to 4:00PM, cars and other motorized vehicles will be prohibited from entering the stretch from Wardlow Road to Houghton Park at Harding Avenue.
“I’m proud to partner with the Coalition for a Healthy North Long Beach to release the ‘Go Uptown’ mobile application,” said Councilmember Rex Richardson in a statement.
He added that years of hard work with the HEAL Zone initiative users can be directly connected with the Uptown Renaissance “at the touch of a button.”
Alongside access to recreational activities in parks and libraries and special deals available to pedestrians and cyclists, app users will also have access to a list of community resources such as community gardens, farmers markets, community health clinics, schools, points of interests and local businesses.
“We encourage everyone to use the app and to try out new opportunities to have fun while being healthy,” said Health and Human Services Department Director Kelly Colopy in a statement.
The app is made possible by The Coalition for a Healthy North Long Beach (Coalition), funding from Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Programs, and the City of Long Beach’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Public Works. Currently, the main focus of the Coalition is the North Long Beach HEAL Zone Initiative, a multi-year grant funded by Kaiser Permanente. For more information about the initiative, click here.
To download the app, visit the iTunes Store or Google Play.
For more information about Beach Streets Uptown, click here.