Organizers described plans and funding for a Car Free First Friday event that will close Aspen Street between LaRue and San Francisco to prioritize pedestrians and features live music, poets performing on a parked bus, vendor booths and bike vendors.

Dre (event organizer) told the committee that Creative Flagstaff and the Downtown Business Alliance were involved in permitting, and that ARDEX funding will cover the street-closure costs: Dre said the ARDEX grant would cover barrier personnel and the permit ("about $1,275, I think") and that Creative Flagstaff would stipend the organizer $500 if the organization performs administrative tasks. Dre said he paid additional out-of-pocket costs for a larger band sound system (about $1,200) and a videographer (about $900) after a neighborhood sustainability grant application was not funded.

The event will include a parked Mountain Lion (bus) activation with poets performing at intervals, music on the square from two bands, vendor booths, bike vendors and partner organizations including Flagstaff Biking Organization, MetroPlan, High Country Adaptive and others. Dre said he will provide in-person paper surveys at the event and a QR code for online responses; he intends to distribute the survey widely (to event attendees, mailing lists and others) and to collect a few hundred responses if possible. Committee members said broader distribution to mailing lists would be helpful; Dre said the survey is still being finalized and expected to be ready in early next week.

Committee members discussed parking availability downtown after hours and methods for collecting data to evaluate the street-closure impact on businesses. Dre said the event is scheduled for May 2 and encouraged committee members to attend and promote it.