This week for What Where When-sday, we feature Walk Bike Nashville’s Open Streets Summer Series happening this Sunday from noon until 5 p.m.. The local nonprofit has been around for over 25 years dedicated to making Nashville more walkable, bikeable and livable for everybody.
Meredith Montgomery, executive director of Walk Bike Nashville, says they want people to be able to get wherever they need using whatever mode of transportation they want to use. And behind the scenes, the organization is doing a lot of grassroots work with the neighborhoods to inform and educate people so they can help shape their streets into great spaces.
“I think we’re in a really good place in Nashville, with regards to transportation, it’s actually in the best place that it’s ever been as far as the path that we are on,” Montgomery said. “We say that there’s two issues we’re trying to conquer, it’s the infrastructure, it’s the built environment, and it’s needing those mobility lanes and the bus service. But it’s also the culture. I think we see people moving here especially downtown with some of these big companies and they’re used to getting around on bus and it’s currently not easy to do. We are trying to shift the way that people think about their built environments and their streets and how they get around their cities. Open Streets is a great way to do that. It just opens people’s eyes to how our streets can be for more than just moving cars from point A to point B.”
The Open Street Series has been happening in Nashville for 10 years, closing off certain streets to cars and encouraging Nashvillians to use the streets for all that they can be used for.
“We want all of Nashville to see what the possibilities are with our streets here,” Calah Gipson, Open Streets Coordinator said. “For Open Streets, the actual event itself is the street. You can bring as much or as little as you want. Sometimes we compare it to a park. If you go to the park to ride your bike, you can do that at Open Street. If you go to that park just to people watch, do arts and crafts, hanging out, you could do that at Open Street. Since the street itself is the attraction, we’re actually highlighting various points along the route. We’re partnering with a lot of organizations and businesses in the city, music venues, restaurants, that once you’re on the route, it’s either incredibly easy to get to that restaurant, either they’re on the route or a few steps over. In certain sections, we’re even inviting organizations to set up along the route. But the route itself is open to use how you like.”
This week in live music:
Tonight (July 16) with The Budos Band at the Basement East. Tomorrow night (July 17) Backyard Session curated by WNXP is back at the Bobby Hotel Rooftop Lounge with Josh Gilligan and Samia.
Also on Thursday at the Blue Room, Deep Sea Diver performs. Friday night (July 18) The Head and the Heart are at Ascend and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs start their two night residence at the Ryman. On Saturday (July 19) Zac Farro at the Blue Room and Nashville Punk Rock Flea Market kicks off their two day event at Eastside Bowl. Back at Ascend on Sunday (July 20) are Goo Goo Dolls and Dashboard Confessional. Wrapping up this week’s listings on Tuesday (July 22) is Coldplay at Nissan Stadium.