Los Angeles has more streets than any other city in the U.S. At 7,500 centerline miles, our streets make up about 15% of all the land in Los Angeles. As our largest public asset, streets form and reflect the character of our neighborhoods and people. Mayor Eric Garcetti's Great Streets Initiative seeks to take advantage of this underutilized asset to create and support thriving neighborhoods. (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-54110418-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');
Introducing Our Challenge Partner: West Angeles CDC
Above: Great Streets and West Angeles CDC staff engage community members at the July 2017 Business Lunch and Learn.
Check out this video of the West Angeles CDC’s plans for engaging the community!
Tell us about yourself. Who is on your team and what does your organization do?
The West Angeles Great Streets Team consist of Gene Bailey, (PM) Carolyn Patton, (REDD-Director ) Taylor Carson (SMC). THE MISSION OF West Angeles CDC is to increase social and economic justice, demonstrate compassion and alleviate poverty as tangible expressions of the Kingdom of God through the vehicle of community development.
Describe one challenge or opportunity you are most excited to tackle on your street?
We are excited about the opportunity to help promote safety around 54th and Crenshaw and to bring an element of beauty to the area.
Describe one key strategy you’ll use to engage residents, businesses and other communities along your street?
One key strategy that we will use to engage the residents and businesses will be the use of surveys to gather input from community related to safety, livability, accessibility, etc.
What is something that you love about your street or neighborhood that you hope more Angelenos would know about?
Through the heart of our neighborhood runs the historical Crenshaw Blvd "the shaw" which is an iconic element in Entertainment history, having appeared in numerous movies, television shows and music videos.
Angelenos Envision DIY-ing Their Great Streets at CicLAvia
On June 11th the sound of rushing traffic was supplanted with laughter, bike bells, skateboards and music as CicLAvia converted three miles of streets into people friendly places in Glendale and Atwater Village.
Great Streets was on hand to support the event’s theme of small business and economic development by hosting a pop-up parklet designed by Great Streets Design Fellow Stefanie Dhillon. The goal? To provide more outdoor seating and entertainment for CicLAvia patrons while also gaining valuable information about residents and the community.
Our vision for the parklet was to create a Lemonade Stand that embraced a nostalgic throwback to the spirit of youthful summers and celebrated the vibrant small business community of Atwater Village.
The Lemonade Stand pop-up parklet provided a place for CicLAvia patrons to grab refreshments from a local business, recharge, exchange ideas about Los Angeles and learn more about Great Streets.
We handed out lemonade, played giant Jenga and learned a lot about what Great Streets improvements people wanted to see in their neighborhoods. Through a series of engagement posters, we crowd-sourced data about where people liked to hang out and what types of street improvements they would like to see in their community.
To do this, we invited community members to review our new DIY Great Streets Manual and showed patrons how they can DIY a mural, parklet or plaza, street trees and seasonal lighting, bike racks and corrals, street and sidewalk repair and much more -- all of which are detailed in step by step instructions in the DIY Manual.
After crunching the numbers, we found that most of our patrons lived in or spent time in Atwater, Glendale and surrounding communities -- though we did have quite a few people who came from other neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles. As for the most requested services? Our numbers show that patrons who visited were most keen to see more street trees, sidewalk dining and murals.
And now that Angelenos have a step-by-step guide on each of those services, we look forward to seeing them bring each of those improvements to their neighborhoods across Los Angeles!
Welcome to our Q&A with Pacoima Beautiful Planning Director Max Podemski! Max shared this of Bradley Alley in Pacoima to highlight their approach to community-led public space projects. This project closed down a dead end street and turned it into a new public space that acts as a gateway between the San Fernando Gardens public housing facility and the broader community. The space is programmed year round with events such as Zumba classes. This is an example of how we can reclaim blighted urban spaces and turn them into neighborhood anchors. Find out how you can get involved by checking out Pacoima Beautiful!
Tell us about yourself. Who is on your team and what does your organization do?
Pacoima Beautiful is a 20-year-old environmental justice organization serving the Northeast San Fernando Valley. The majority of our residents rely on walking, biking, and public transport, and we see enhancing our streets as a key strategy to creating a better environment for our communities. This includes streets that are safe for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as clean and inviting public spaces. We have partnered with Vanessa Thompson who works for ARUP, an international engineering and design firm that has worked on prestigious projects such as the Birds Nest stadium in Beijing. Vanessa is from the Northeast San Fernando Valley and previously interned for Pacoima Beautiful. We are very proud and happy to be working with her on this project.
Describe one challenge or opportunity you are most excited to tackle on your street?
The intersection of Parthenia Blvd. and Van Nuys Blvd. is very large and complex, and it will experience a profound change when Metro’s East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor breaks ground in 2021. Our goals for the project is to enhance safety, beautify the intersection, and increase the areas sense of place. The primary challenge will be to achieve these goals while accommodating the Metro project and the large amount of vehicles that move through the intersection. However, the change presented by the Metro project is a huge opportunity to rethink this intersection from a place that primarily serves cars to an important community anchor. We hope that this Great Streets project acts as a bridge that transitions the neighborhood from its current state to a more multi-modal future.
Pacoima Beautiful Planning Director Max Podemski (left) facilitates a walk audit of Van Nuys Blvd, and Parthenia St. with local residents and community members.
Describe one key strategy you’ll use to engage residents, businesses and other communities along your street?
One key strategy is presenting to existing neighborhood groups and organizations. This is a way of making people aware of the project who might not normally attend a planning meeting, but who still have a large stake in it. We have arranged to present at community organizations and schools that have regular meetings. This is also a way of building up our email list so that we can invite people to large events such as our workshops.
What is something that you love about your street or neighborhood that you hope more Angelenos would know about?
Panorama City is the heart of the Northeast San Fernando Valley. For many years it was the commercial center of the area with large shopping centers, office complexes, and even an automobile plant. The new Metro project is already resulting in resurgence in the area with increased development. We hope that our Great Streets Challenge project will once again make Panorama City the center of the Northeast Valley.
Introducing our Challenge Partners: South Robertson Neighborhoods Council
From SORO: “As a Neighborhood Council, our primary job is outreach. This photo is from the SORO NC Booth at the 2015 SoRo Festival. Anchored in the middle of the street pretty much everyone who passes through the festival passes by our booth and it's a tremendous opportunity to get to know each other as community, and have important conversations about the community we want to share, face to face, in the middle of the street that ties us all together and gives us our name–South Robertson. A little slice of village life in the middle of the big city.”
Join SORO on Sunday, May 21 for their project kickoff and workshop. RSVP here!
Tell us about yourself. Who is on your team and what does your organization do?
My name is Marjan Safinia. I'm the Outreach Chair and the Chair of the Robertson Revitalization Committee for the South Robertson Neighborhoods Council (SORO NC), chartered and funded by the City of LA. Together with Doug Fitzsimmons, President of SORO NC, we are collaborating with a number of active team members from our board and the community on the project, as well as SORO Community Foundation, a local nonprofit. As a Neighborhood Council, we're tasked to create a closer bridge between local government and our community and for years we have been hearing about the strong community desire to see changes along South Robertson, so we're thrilled to be part of this project.
Describe one challenge or opportunity you are most excited to tackle on your street?
We're really excited to explore a Complete Streets approach to South Robertson. The project area is less than a mile from the on- and off-ramps of the I-10 freeway at Robertson, and as such, serves as a major traffic artery. It's also the primary commercial corridor for neighborhoods hungry for more local businesses that serve them and a walkable neighborhood. So how can we approach this delicate balance? How can we vision a street which will draw walking community members and businesses that serve them while recognizing we are also a piece of a network of arteries designed to carry traffic around the City? Redressing this balance between local needs and City needs is part of our challenge here in South Robertson, and emblematic of the problem many streets around Los Angeles are facing.
Describe one key strategy you’ll use to engage residents, businesses and other communities along your street?
We're really lucky to be celebrating the 20th Annual edition of the SoRo Festival along South Robertson's project area on June 4th this year. Two decades ago, community members who formed the SORO Community Foundation envisioned a street festival that would draw together all the residents, businesses, nonprofits and City services that served this area to create a sense of shared community along our major corridor. For the last 20 years, on the first Sunday in June, our community has continued this tradition, shutting down traffic on South Robertson for a few hours and building a vibrant community-driven street festival with activities, entertainment, food, etc.
Each year this event draws over 8,000 people from all around our community (and more!), and it's an excellent opportunity to engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders in conversation and preferential voting on a number of potential approaches. Although this is our biggest single outreach opportunity, we're also leveraging our long-established network of outreach partners such as neighborhood associations, schools, religious organizations, businesses and City partners to get word out about ongoing outreach meetings, and investing in thoughtful paid social media advertising to target folks who may not be connected to these institutions in our community, but can be found online. We believe in opening a lot of doors of different kinds for folks, recognizing that everyone will engage at a level that is comfortable for them and it's our job to provide them with a multiplicity of engagement options so that giving input is made easy!
What is something that you love about your street or neighborhood that you hope more Angelenos would know about?
I wish more Angelenos knew about the wonderful, connected and cared for residential communities that exist right behind a strip of South Robertson that most people probably barely notice as they barrel on and off the freeway. We think South Robertson is one of the most diverse and engaged communities in the City, and you'd only know that there is such a wealth of community here if you look beyond the commercial corridor. We'd like to work to close that gap, so that the community has a corridor that more closely represents them, and we're able to create a distinct sense of place and identity for South Robertson in the larger patchwork of the City.
Read KCET’s story “Rethinking Streets in Los Angeles to be More People Centric” to learn more about SORO’s efforts, or get involved by attending a community workshop on South Robertson below!
Proyecto Pastoral developed the logo above for this project showing a woman crossing the street with her child. This represents the concerns in the community about pedestrian safety and the mothers of young children who are working together to improve safety in the neighborhood.
Join Proyecto Pastoral on Saturday, May 6 for “Luchadores United for Pedestrian Safety” a community festival celebrating safer streets. RSVP here!
Tell us about yourself. Who is on your team and what does your organization do?
Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission is a 30 year old Boyle Heights organization whose mission is to support grassroots projects in education, leadership and service. Comunidad en Movimiento (CEM/Community in Action) is the organizing arm of Proyecto Pastoral. CEM leaders have led efforts to address safety and wellness issues in their community. Pedestrian safety has been a priority for CEM for many years through our “Camino Seguro” or Safe Passage program, where we have volunteers oversee children crossing the streets to ensure that they reach school safely. Through CEM’s committees (Safety, Education, and Community Development) we have led several community assessments with parents, students/youth, and residents to identify safety needs and priorities. CEM leaders developed strategies to address these key concerns, such as much needed street improvements and other community-driven efforts to bring awareness around pedestrian safety, improve walkability and connectivity in the neighborhood, and build partnerships with local agencies and stakeholders.
Describe one challenge or opportunity you are most excited to tackle on your street?
We’re excited to be able to transform 4th Street by including some of our proposed street improvements to help address the safety concerns along corridor. Currently, 4th Street functions as a mini-freeway in and out of downtown LA with interchangeable lanes and easy access to the 101, 5 and 10 freeways. It’s been a challenge that the surrounding community that lives near 4th Street has had endured for many years. These safety concerns have escalated due to the reconstruction of 6th Street Viaduct project, that has brought additional traffic and street congestion between Boyle and Anderson Street.
Describe one key strategy you’ll use to engage residents, businesses and other communities along your street?
We’ve developed a robust community engagement outreach plan to ensure the involvement of seniors, youth/students, local residents, and key stakeholder groups in the neighborhood. In our plan, CEM leaders and residents have led door-to-door (door knocking) efforts to talk to residents about our project and May 6 Pop-Up event, senior walking groups/activities to promote our event and gather feedback from our senior community, youth and teacher information sessions to gather feedback from our youth around safety and build buy-in to participate, a street sign making art workshop to develop street signs of people from the community for the pop-up event. These efforts are leading toward encouraging permanent signs and high-visibility crosswalks that help slow down traffic and build awareness of the existing residential community on 4th Street.
What is something that you love about your street or neighborhood that you hope more Angelenos would know about?
I love the resilient community of Pico Aliso. Through the years they have fought to keep their children and overall community safe from violence and other safety concerns. The Pico Aliso community are who we call “Luchadores” or “Fighters.” They continue this fight and legacy by addressing the pedestrian safety and other safety and wellness concerns for their families, their children, and for the future generations to come.
As 2016 comes to a close, we take a look back at some our most exciting moments throughout the year. We couldn’t have done this work without our many partners in the community and in government. Special thanks to our leaders and their teams at LADOT, DCA, DCP, BSS, BOE, and EWDD for rocking our world in 2016 with your Greatness, we appreciate you!
10. Great Streets Takes Home New Urban Film Fest Win - In October Great Streets took home the award for best urban design film from the New Urbanism Film Fest. But the real winners were our Great Streets Challenge partners who showed Angelenos how you can transform a street into public space with passion, hard work, spray chalk, and planters!
9. LADOT Finishes César Chávez Ave Safety Improvements - In early 2016, LADOT wrapped up its installation of 26 painted curb extensions along César Chávez Avenue in Boyle Heights. The safety treatment shortens crossing distance for those traveling on foot, and prompts people driving to take slower, safer turns.
8. Crenshaw Bl Receives $2 Million Grant for Safety Upgrades - On February 20, Crenshaw Street Beats turned the intersection of Crenshaw Bl and Florence Ave into an instrument of community change. That day Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Deputy Mayor Barbara Romero announced a huge win for the Hyde Park neighborhood: $2 million in pedestrian safety upgrades to be funded by a federal grant.
7. Mayor Garcetti Launches Second Round of Great Streets Challenge - In September Mayor Eric Garcetti re-launched the Great Streets Challenge -- raising the City’s investment to $2 million and opening it up to any street in Los Angeles. As of the close of 2016, 37 applications were received. Seven winners will be announced in early 2017.
6. Hollywood “Scramble” Reaches One-Year Mark with Sterling Results - This November marked the first anniversary of the new scramble intersection at the intersection of Hollywood Bl and Highland Ave. In the twelve months hence, no people walking or biking have been injured at the intersection.
5. Western Ave Gains Art and Safety Makeover - Great Streets helped merge culture and safety into a comprehensive suite of improvements for Western Ave in June. With partners Councilmember David Ryu, Beautify Earth, and LADOT, we brought seven new murals, painted 17 high-visibility crosswalks and conducted a community clean-up. Stay tuned for more great things coming to Western Ave in early 2017.
4. Mayor Garcetti Announces Arts Activation Fund - Great Streets hit the ground running in January by launching the Arts Activation Fund with the Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2016 the AAF funded art and cultural programs in public spaces throughout Los Angeles. Nine projects brought art walks, educational programs, and concerts to the first 15 Great Streets Corridors. Click here to apply for up to $15,000 for art on your Great Street.
3. Mayor Garcetti Launches Great Streets Great Business - Local businesses are the backbone of every Great Streets’s economy. So we developed a program that serves businesses where they’re at. With our partner, Valley Economic Development Center, we’re conducting door-to-door outreach and technical assistance along the first 15 corridors, and providing access to small business loans to help local entrepreneurs invest in and expand their operations.
2. Mayor Garcetti Unveils Van Nuys Blvd Safety Improvements - In December, the Mayor joined community leaders to celebrate the completion of a $1 million safety overhaul for Van Nuys Blvd in Pacoima, a corridor which sees a disproportionate number of traffic injuries. Said Mayor Garcetti: “Van Nuys Boulevard is the cultural and commercial heart of the Northeast Valley, and we’re going to keep it thriving — by making sure it is safe and accessible to everyone who comes to enjoy what it has to offer.”
1. Great Streets Challenge Transforms Public Spaces - The first round of the Great Streets Challenge culminated in early 2016 with eight projects that brought new visions for how our streets can become lively public spaces. The program was such a hit, we re-launched it again in September. Stay tuned for an announcement of the next batch of projects in early 2017!
Honorable Mentions
Fresh Sidewalks Come to First 15 Corridors - In partnership with the Bureau of Street Services, Great Streets reconstructed 61,000 square feet of concrete sidewalk in 2016. Taking care of “back-to-basics” on the path to Greatness!
“Iconathon” Gives Great Streets a Visual Language - In partnership with the Noun Project, Great streets hosted an Iconathon in April 2016 with graphic artists and community partners to develop visual representations of the concepts we work with. The result? Twenty-four icons that visualize everything from parklets to shopping local. Visit the LA Great Streets Noun Project page to download free.
Sherman Way Gets 30 New Trees - Thanks to an investment from Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and City Plants, Sherman Way sports 30 new trees that will add beauty and comfort for decades to come.
Lankershim Blvd Tries on New Street Ideas - In partnership with Councilmember Paul Krekorian, Great Streets gave NoHo residents and visitors a chance to experience enhanced public spaces and protected bike lanes on Lankershim Blvd.
Pedestrians Find Their Way on Central Ave - Thanks to Los Angeles Walks, the National Health Foundation, and students from Jefferson High School, “Walk This Way/Caminale” brought artistic neighborhood signage to Central Ave that helps residents and visitors learn about local destinations and access them on two feet.
Chh-chh-chh. The repetition of a busy pushbroom on wet Boyle Heights sidewalk. A father’s soft chuckle as he works with his family to create a mosaic in South LA. Live painting—on the body of a woman standing on Venice Blvd in Mar Vista.
Mar Vista Art Walk (Photo: Hector Felix Photography)
What do these three different public art projects have in common? 1) They all occurred on a first 15 Great Streets corridor, 2) they were all supported by the Department of Cultural Affair’s (DCA) Arts Activation Fund (AAF), and 3) a central theme to all of them was people.
Central Avenue Garden Mosaics Project
While all art has a range of creators, public art in particular has a naturally diverse audience. Public art is open to everyone, free for all, usually outdoors, and in a public space. It is because of this universal accessibility that public art has the power to bring so many people together in a random, diverse, and open way.
Often “placemaking” focuses on hardscape changes. Transforming an alley into a plaza. Renovating building fronts and façades. Replacing a parking space with seating. Re-imagining our existing streets and sidewalks as space for people can be realized through changing the infrastructure. But it doesn’t stop there.
If you build it, will they come? Great Streets believes that changing the design of our streets will change the way people use our streets. But it also takes shifting a common perspective to think of our streets as public space and encouraging cultural programming to activate this space with people.
Two years ago, the North Hollywood Business Improvement District (NoHo BID) worked with the Department of Transportation People St program to create a friendly plaza with seating and tables where an underutilized alley existed. NoHo Plaza was physically transformed. But people still thought of it as an alley. Through AAF, Experience NoHo Plaza brought regular summer performances, dancing, and movies to the space and week by week, the neighborhood began to rethink this space as one for people.
Experience NoHo Plaza
Across town in Boyle Heights, people pack the sidewalks of César Chávez Ave every day. Parents push strollers. Merchants provide goods to the neighborhood. Abuelas walk their grandchildren to school. The Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory (BHAC), located on the avenue, wanted to capture the musical chatter, laughter, and sounds of the neighborhood to highlight this ambiance that makes César Chávez Ave such a community hub. As their AAF-funded project Sounds of César Chávez Avenue shows, public art also has the power to keep places vibrant and celebrate in the beauty that already exists.
Sounds of César Chávez Avenue
When we think about Great Streets and the ways that we go about activating our streets and preserving the special public spaces we have in Los Angeles, tapping into this power opens up community-building to everyone. Public art does not have a minimum purchase or a VIP list. Whether by word of mouth, such as the DCA recent Current:LA installations across the City or by virtue of being in the right place at the right time, such as walking down César Chávez Avenue, people are drawn to public art because public art is for people.
The Arts Activation Fund is currently open to artists and creative people who want to use public art as a way to activate public space in Los Angeles. To apply, go to: http://dcaredesign.org/artsactivate/
The Arts Activation Fund is sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Community Partners, and the Great Streets Initiative.
Do you want to open your own business? Do you currently own a business and want to expand?
Join Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilmember Curren Price's offices for an exclusive Small Business Workshop! Join us at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College on Tuesday, May 3rd from 8:00am-12:00pm (Registration & Breakfast from 8:00am - 9:00am).
The goal of this event is to provide small businesses with resources on accessing capital, qualifying for a bank loan, small business borrowers’ rights, and more!
On March 12, the Nuestra Avenida event re-imaged bustling César Chávez Avenue in Boyle Heights as a safer, more pedestrian-friendly street. A team of community organizations led by Multicultural Communities for Mobility, From Lot to Spot, and CALO Youth Build Charter School, in response to a series of hit-and-run collisions in the community, highlighted the need for safety improvements for people walking and biking along the corridor. The one-day event temporarily activated and created public spaces, including pastel-painted street furniture, portable shading umbrellas, and musical and interactive programming. Approximately 700 community members attended the event and over 200 bilingual surveys were collected providing local stakeholders an opportunity to share their thoughts about street safety.
On March 21, our last challenge grant event was held in Highland Park on North Figueroa St. The North Figueroa Association business improvement district, Gensler, Occidental College, Teatro Arroyo, NELAart, and other local arts organizations formed FIG JAM to highlight North Figueroa’s potential to continue to serve as a vibrant public space for both long standing and new residents. FIG JAM aimed to improve North Figueroa by drawing attention to the street’s rich past, recognizing its vibrant present and sparking interest in its promising future. Temporary improvements included a living museum along the street exhibiting historical photographs and narratives alongside stories of current residents and business, as well as temporary street changes to promote safer active transportation, parklets, and the testing of a corridor signage concept for both legacy and newer businesses. Over 50 volunteers helped set up for the event, 28 community organizations participated, and over 500 people attended throughout the day.
This weekend, Great Streets teamed with the Noun Project and the Goldhirsh Foundation to host a Great Streets "Iconathon," a design workshop to create symbols for Great Streets-related concepts. Urban Design work can be very technical and difficult to translate in plain language. Creating visual symbols for our work helps to communicate this work, regardless of literacy status or language spoken.Over 80 residents, technical experts, and graphic designers came together at the Mar Vista Arts Department on Venice Blvd to sketch out draft designs for concepts like economic revitalization and intergenerational play. We also sketched out physical improvements to streets like parklets, street furniture, and pedestrian scrambles. These icons will be publicly available by May 2nd on the Noun Project's website. Great Streets will also be working to install signs with these icons in the coming months.
FIG JAM is happening this Saturday and you don’t want to miss the fun! Join the Highland Park community from 10AM to 6PM on N. Figueroa Street at Avenue 58 for free and family-friendly fun. This one-day event will bring neighbors together in the streets and along the businesses and public spaces of Highland Park. Help us reimagine North Figueroa Street by drawing attention to its rich past, recognizing its vibrant present, and sparking interest in its promising future. Find out more here!
Recap of the Great Streets Challenge Grant Project: Pacoima Street Values!
At CicLAvia Sunday March 6, Great Streets and our Challenge Grant partners Pacoima Beautiful and LA-Más came together to support the Pacoima community with a full day of fun and engagement.
CicLAvia closed down a four-mile stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard to motor-vehicle traffic, creating a safe pedestrian zone. Just as the Great Streets Challenge Grant events do, this busy corridor transformed a busy street into place for people on bike and foot.
While CicLAvia drew people from all over the Los Angeles region to enjoy the open street, Great Streets invited visitors and community members from the street into the local small businesses.
The great Streets Challenge Grant project, Pacoima Street Values, builds on the existing street activity happening on Van Nuys Boulevard, and the local “DIY” placemaking efforts that businesses undertake to support vibrant sidewalk life.
LA-Más and Pacoima Beautiful helped five businesses along Van Nuys Blvd revamp their storefronts and public spaces to help attract new customers and create a unique sense of place along the corridor. These five revamped businesses were showcased on a tour led by Pacoima Beautiful and LA-Más.
Here is a brief description of the businesses and photographs from the tour:
Botanica San Simon
Botanica San Simon (13412 Van Nuys Blvd) sells herbal healing and spiritual remedies to Pacoima residents. The front courtyard – located between the storefront and sidewalk – has numerous plants and herbs that are used by the botanica. To help encourage more pedestrians and customers to linger, the Challenge Grant team helped enliven the courtyard with a vibrant ground pattern, movable seating, and new planters.
Chabelitas Restaurant
Chabelitas Restaurant (10767 San Fernando Rd) is a family-owned business serving delicious Mexican food. The outdoor patio of this restaurant offers a respite from the noisy and busy intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road. The Challenge Grant team highlighted the potential of this quasi-public space with colorful signage, ambient lighting, and a faux-tile pattern.
La Raza Moda
La Raza Moda (13376 Van Nuys Blvd) is a husband and wife clothing store that also provides alteration services. Located on a narrow corner, this business struggles with advertising that has resulted in several City citations. The Challenge Grant team built two movable merchandise display carts contained on private property that also doubles as signage.
Rosa’s Clothing
Rosa’s Clothing (13366 Van Nuys Blvd) is a secondhand thrift store that provides products at an affordable rate. With limited store space, the business often doubles its footprint by expanding its sales floor onto the sidewalk. To address the rules that limited vending on the sidewalk, the Challenge Grant team created a clothing display system and welcoming floor pattern to encourage customers to linger on the street while shopping.
A & S Tires
A & S Tires (13432 Van Nuys Blvd) sells new and used tires, while also providing auto services. As means of advertising, the business previously used banners and tires as an informal mechanism, which often blocks the sidewalk. To address the need for pedestrian access and business advertising, the Challenge Grant team (pictured) built a collapsible and movable furniture piece that doubles as public seating and indirect advertising.
February 2016 kicked off a series of seven Great Streets Challenge Grant events in two months! Below is a quick recap of the projects and programs that our amazing partners led. Feel like you missed out? Check out our upcoming events here!
I Heart [Re]seda
Reseda Blvd - Northridge | February 6, 2016
Hundreds of Reseda Boulevard residents and stakeholders came out for "I Heart Reseda," the culminating event of the [Re]visit [Re]seda Challenge Grant. The program included a poetry slam, art show, live music, food trucks and more activities that got people out on the street enjoying public life. Thanks to our amazing parters: the Office of Councilmember Mitch Englander, the Northridge Chamber of Commerce, Northridge South Neighborhood Council, the Museum of the San Fernando Valley, CSUN, and the Northridge Sparkle Campaign.
Connect the Dots
Van Nuys Blvd - Van Nuys | February 20, 2016
The Challenge Grant event Connect the Dots brought more than 200 people to Van Nuys Boulevard on February 20, 2016 for free outdoor design workshops and a street fair celebrating the Great Street's vibrant future. The event hosted two workshops that asked residents to imagine Van Nuys Boulevard performing at its fullest potential: providing a public space that is engaging at all times; a healthy, active transit corridor in a lively economic zone; and a strategic groundwater-recharge asset. Van Nuys was partially closed to increase pedestrian space and create a temporary bike lane, and vacant store fronts were activated with art and cultural activities. The event was led by the Arid Lands Institute of Woodbury University in partnership with Pacoima Beautiful, LA County Bicycle Coalition, and Council District 6.
Street Beats
Crenshaw Blvd - Hyde Park | February 20, 2016
On February 20, the Street Beats Challenge Grant event transformed the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue through music and safer public spaces. Musical instruments and DJs were placed on each corner of the intersection and, using wireless speakers, anyone on the street was welcome to create beats, melody, and music. The event also demonstrated temporary painted curb extensions and a pedestrian scramble that allowed pedestrians to cross in every direction while all cars were held. Huge thanks to the Hyde Park community, volunteers, and our partners: the Office of Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Community Health Councils, T.R.U.S.T. South LA, Ride On! Bike Co-op, and Studio MMD.
Youth Envisioned Streets
Central Ave - South LA | February 27, 2016
Last weekend, our Challenge Grant team on Central Avenue – Youth Envisioned Streets (YES) – held their street improvement demonstration and community celebration! The goal of YES was to inspire students and community members in South LA to re-envision Central Avenue as a healthy and vibrant corridor. YES was held in conjunction with A Place Called Home’s annual Health and Garden Expo, where community members could sample healthy foods and learn how to prepare healthy meals. A primary event objective was to showcase as many community-based organizations as possible, including small businesses, local supply vendors, community artists, and nearly 200 local volunteers. Over 1,500 people attended the event and 400 surveys were collected in English and Spanish. The National Health Foundation served as the YES project leader and hopes this event will serve as a model to address the social determinants of health, including economic vitality, healthy eating and activity, and community vibrancy.
Join Us to Experience Pacoima Street Values this Sunday!
Help us celebrate our Pacoima Street Values Challenge Grant project this Sunday during CicLAvia from 9AM to 4PM.
Pacoima Street Values builds on the existing street activity happening on Van Nuys Boulevard, and the local "DIY" placemaking efforts that businesses undertake to support vibrant sidewalk life.
Project leads Pacoima Beautiful and LA-Más helped five businesses along Van Nuys revamp their storefronts and public spaces to help attract new customers and create a unique sense of place along the corridor.
To find out more about the project, click here or join the project leads for a tour on Sunday at 11:30AM. The tour will start at A & S Tires at 13432 Van Nuys Blvd.
Also on Sunday, join us and the Urban Land Institute | Los Angeles for a "pop-up parklet" and health expo at Pacoima City Hall from 10AM - 3PM.
For more info about each of the five businesses, see more info about the Challenge Grant project below.
Pacoima Street Values
Pacoima Street Values is a project led by Pacoima Beautiful in partnership with LA Más and with support from Councilmember Felipe Fuentes to support, celebrate, and enhance the ways businesses make streets in Los Angeles great through informal activities. This project was a recipient of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Challenge Grant.
Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima is lined by many small businesses that activate the street in unique and creative ways - from seating to elaborate merchandise displays. These activities lend vibrancy to the street and give it a deeply-rooted sense of place that reflects the culture of the community. Pacoima Street Values legitimizes and enhances these informal and positive uses, so that businesses can continue to be a presence on the Boulevard.
A wide ranging public outreach effort was undertaken along Van Nuys Boulevard to identify businesses to partner with in this effort. Custom designed furniture and improvements were then developed to meet the needs of those businesses and improve the public realm for everyone who comes to the boulevard. They were constructed using local hires from MEND as well as donated paint from Dunn Edwards.
Botanica San Simon (13412 Van Nuys Blvd) sells herbal healing and spiritual remedies to Pacoima residents. The front courtyard – located between the storefront and sidewalk – has numerous plants and herbs that are used by the botanica. To help encourage more pedestrians and customers to linger, we helped enliven the courtyard with a vibrant ground pattern, moveable seating, and new planters.
Chabelitas Restaurant (10767 San Fernando Rd) is a family-owned business serving delicious Mexican food. The outdoor patio of this restaurant offers a respite from the noisy and busy intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road. We highlighted the potential of this quasi-public space with colorful signage, ambient lighting, and a faux-tile pattern. .
La Raza Moda (13376 Van Nuys Blvd) is a husband and wife clothing store that also provides alteration services. Located on a narrow corner, this business struggles with advertising that has resulted in several City citations. We built two moveable merchandise display carts contained on private property that also doubles as signage.
Rosa’s Clothing (13366 Van Nuys Blvd) is a secondhand thrift store that provides products at an affordable rate. With limited store space, the business often doubles its footprint by expanding its sales floor onto the sidewalk. To address the rules that limited vending on the sidewalk, we created a clothing display system and welcoming floor pattern to encourage customers to linger on the street while shopping.
A & S Tires (13432 Van Nuys Blvd) sells new and used tires, while also providing auto services. As means of advertising, the business previously used banners and tires as an informal mechanism, which often blocks the sidewalk. To address the need for pedestrian access and business advertising, we built a collapsible and moveable furniture piece that doubles as public seating and indirect advertising.
Pacoima Street Values believes that great streets are created not just through infrastructure, but by the local community. In the case of Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima, businesses and residents are working to create a vibrant pedestrian experience in spite of being located on a highly auto oriented road way. The goal of Pacoima Street Values is to ensure that as we retrofit our streets to be safer and more walkable; the sense of place created by this informal activity is not displaced, but integrated into these changes.
About the Great Streets Challenge Grant
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the Great Streets Challenge Grant in 2015 to empower communities to showcase their Great Streets and their potential to serve as vibrant public spaces. In the first round, eight projects were funded up to $20,000 to demonstrate creative and innovative ways of using our Great Streets to support public life. More information can be found at: http://lagreatstreets.org/challenge-grant/
Youth Envisioned Streets for a Healthier LA this Saturday!
Central Avenue is hosting a youth-driven pop-up event on February 27th you won’t want to miss! Come out 10am to 3pm for this one-day event to reimagine this Great Street and its public spaces as safe, vibrant, active places for all members of the community. Enjoy a day with your community with live music, nutrition and gardening demos, a kids play zone, and so much more led by the National Health Foundation, A Place Called Home, Coalition for Responsible Community Development, Los Angeles Walks, and Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition. Check out all the details here http://yessouthla.org/
Crenshaw Boulevard is laying down beats with the community in a free one-day music-oriented event this Saturday, February 20! Join your neighbors, DJs, dancers, and musicians to make music with us at Street Beats.
Help reimagine how Crenshaw Boulevard can be a Great Street while enjoying this fun and interactive day sponsored by T.R.U.S.T. South LA, Community Health Councils, Ride On! Bike Co-op, and Studio MMD!
Want to know more, check it out here https://www.facebook.com/streetbeatsla/!
Below, you’ll find the press release issued by the Street Beats team:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 17, 2016
CONTACT: Adé Neff, 323-863-5434
MUSIC, COMMUNITY, AND INNOVATIVE STREET DESIGNS
COME TO CRENSHAW BLVD
“Street Beats” is the first South Los Angeles community event supported by the
Mayor’s Office Great Streets Challenge Grant program.
LOS ANGELES—This Saturday February 20 the intersection of Crenshaw Bl and Florence Ave in South Los Angeles’ Hyde Park neighborhood will be transformed from one of the most dangerous intersections in the County to a vibrant community event, pulsing with interactive music and “pop-up” street design demonstrations.
“Street Beats” is an event led by a team of South Los Angeles community organizations, TRUST South LA, Community Health Councils, Ride On! Bike Co-op, and Studio MMD, a local architecture firm. The event anticipates drawing hundreds of community members to the busy intersection with live music, playful programming, and food vendors—and will use the opportunity to educate participants about street designs that could improve the safety of people walking, biking and taking transit in South Los Angeles.
A 2015 LA Times study of traffic collisions showed that the intersection of Crenshaw Bl and Florence Ave is in the top 25 most dangerous intersections Countywide with 108 collisions over the span of the 11-year study, including 30 hit-and-runs and two fatalities. The intersection currently sees two wide streets with fast-moving cars and many people traveling on foot, by bike, and by bus. Designed with local community input, the Street Beats event will demonstrate narrowing crosswalks with temporary “curb extensions” to shorten the distance to cross the street. The event will also showcase a temporary “pedestrian scramble”, which gives people crossing the street their own traffic signal phase and allowing pedestrians to walk any direction, including diagonally.
The project is part of the Mayor’s Office Great Streets inaugural Challenge Grant program and is one of two South Los Angeles events funded by the program. The Great Streets Challenge Grant program is a partnership between Mayor Garcetti and ioby.org, a crowd-resourcing platform for citizen-led, neighbor-funded projects. Launched in July 2015, the program funds community projects that engage residents, businesses, and other stakeholders in developing a neighborhood-oriented vision for each Great Street corridor.
Crenshaw Bl is the Great Street corridor in Council District 8 and over 200 local community members and supporters have contributed musical equipment, outreach efforts, and more than $10,000 in donations to support the event. The Great Streets program funded $20,000 of the project and the Office of Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson is also an event sponsor for Street Beats. The Councilmember is scheduled to attend and welcome participants on Saturday.
Street Beats is scheduled for Saturday, Friday 20th 2016 at the intersection of Crenshaw Bl and Florence Ave. 9a-3p. Event is free and open to all ages
To learn more about the Street Beats project, visit: https://www.ioby.org/project/street-beats-fundraising-campaign, like Street Beats on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/streetbeatsla/, and follow Street Beats on Twitter at #StreetBeatsLA and @StreetBeatsLA
Event Page on NextDoor: https://nextdoor.com/events/ca/los-angeles/street-beats-a-musical-event-on-crenshaw-boulevard-to-promote-safety-527730
Event Page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1745887642299847/
