There are two surefire, easy-to-spot signs of a downtown's cultural vitality: places to see art and the prevalence of bicycles. The art clearly means creativity, and bikes mean people live in the city's center, or nearby, and are probably headed somewhere interesting.

Both benchmarks are celebrated in an informal art tour called Bike First Friday, which began in April 2007 when Victor Lytvinenko, a jeans designer, celebrated his fiancee's birthday by inviting friends on a bicycle parade. It grew each month and now draws as many as 60 riders.

It's Critical Mass without the confrontation, but political just the same.

"In a way, we're making a statement that it's a lot easier getting around downtown on bikes than to drive," Lytvinenko said.

Read about the group's exploits at bikefirstfriday.blogspot.com.

Read all about it

Raleigh cultural blogs have begun showing up like renovated buildings downtown. Along with local blogs that cover a lot of ground -- politics, urban planning, neighborhoods, personal diaries -- about half a dozen blogs report exclusively on the cultural changes going on.

Together, they are defining a city that is still trying to figure out what it's going to be when it grows up.

Typical of blogs, they are often quicker than print media. But unlike many such sites, these have not attracted hysterical rants and unchecked rumors.

Some of the most active culture blogs include Go Go Raleigh (www.gogoraleigh.com), Raleigh Free Press (raleighfreepress.com), New Raleigh (www.newraleigh.com), RDUWTF (rduwtf.com) and The Raleigh Connoisseur (www.dtraleigh.com).

Most of them showed up after the suspension last summer of Raleighing (raleighing.com), a boosterish site that seems to have been the first to regularly document the downtown transformation, and at its peak had 3,000 regular readers each day, according to creator Chris Anderson.

"When it stopped, everyone said 'Hey, I can do that,' " said photo blogger John Morris of Goodnight, Raleigh! "A lot of people saw an opening when that site shut down."

Food and tunes

If on a Friday night you find yourself at the north end of downtown in that interesting little pocket near Peace College called Seaboard Station, it might be a pleasant surprise to encounter free music to accompany your dinner or drink al fresco.

Capital City Grocery, owned by a partnership of people who live nearby, will have mellow tunes every Friday evening through September. There is seating for 40 and room to stand on the store's patio.

A sandwich, salad or prepared meals to go can be enjoyed with a beer or a glass of wine. Pam Letendre, one of the store's managers, says the vibe is family-friendly.

An art gallery and three restaurants are nearby.

Rickshaw, anyone?

Here's how it all ties together: Say you've had a bite to eat in Seaboard, it's too far to walk to other galleries, and you like the benefits of cycling but don't have a bike.

Your answer is the rickshaw. Every night, 16 pedal-powered carriages range from Cameron Village to Mordecai. There's no fare but drivers wouldn't mind a tip, maybe a buck or so a block.

They've been plying the boulevards since April 2007, and the number of rickshaws has been more than doubled because of the demand on First Fridays.

There is also a free trolley on First Fridays.