Brenda and Shereef Moustafa on the first LB "Wine Tasting & Bike Tour" with a view of Rainbow Harbor behind them

One of the most important concepts Bikeable Communities wants to encourage both the greater public and local business community to understand is that “bike friendly = business friendly.” People on bikes are customers just like everyone else. People on bikes have money to spend, and communities and cities alike are wise to court their business. Long Beach’s bike friendly stance is currently being profiled on L.A. Streetsblog and today editor Damien Newton posted a blog featuring our local Bike Friendly Business Districts. We hope you’ll take a look!

Bike friendly cities are also tourist friendly cities. The bike is the perfect vehicle for truly appreciating the sights of a city. On that note the L.A. Streetsblog piece features local LB entrepreneur Elizabeth Williams of Calibiketours.com who I had the pleasure of collaborating with on the first downtown LB “Wine Tasting & Bike Tour” last week. The tour was quite a success. It was such a beautiful evening, clear and cool and the view from the lighthouse hill was spectacular. We had so much fun, and Elizabeth and her team did a terrific job. Both the Wine Down Lounge and the District Wine Bar knocked themselves out to educate, entertain and delight our palettes. Both locations have perfected the chic-but-comfortable wine lounge aesthetic, have dedicated staff offering excellent service and offer delicious accompaniments to pair with the wines.

Stay tuned for more wine + dine bike tour collaborations coming this fall. And special thanks to Bikestation at it’s beautiful new location (more on that soon too!) for their help with bike rentals!