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Louisville Experiments With Crowdfunding Again for This Year's Cyclouvia

Louisville’s Cyclouvia—a version of similar "open streets" events held in cities around the world—returns next month. Bardstown Road will be closed to vehicular traffic for several hours on a Sunday afternoon.Last year, funding for Cyclouvia wasn’t including in the Metro budget; it was mostly paid for through federal money that goes to decreasing congestion and improving air quality, with some funds from Councilman Tom Owen’s office, and $3,000 raised through crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The money goes towards barricades, and paying police officers to staff the event.This year, the budget includes  funding for three Cyclouvia events—the first of which is on Oct. 13 on Bardstown Road. Owen's office is also contributing some money for the event on Bardstown Road. But Metro Government is still experimenting with crowdfunding to cover some of the cost. Urban Planner Michael King said the city hopes to sell 125 T-shirts through website “tfund” to help cover the cost, though they’re still far short of their goal.“We’ll still be able to pull it off, but it will really help us offset some of the cost,” he said. “And then our hope is to do two more Cyclouvias within the fiscal year, and that will help raise the money for future events, as well.”The plan is to hold both a Cyclouvia on Frankfort Avenue and one on West Broadway next spring. King said the event on Frankfort Avenue will be similar to Cyclouvia on Bardstown Road, but West Broadway will present new opportunities.“We’ll still try and maintain the open streets, kind of linear park atmosphere of it, but because it’s such a wide road there, we can also do some things that won’t completely disrupt the flow of pedestrian/bicycle traffic,” he said.Check out photos from last year's Cyclouvia here.