Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Eastside

In an effort to show how transportation, open space, planning and other issues are intertwined with the health, culture, livability and strength of a community, Streetsblog and The California Endowment teamed to bring Streetsblog’s coverage to a hyper-local level in Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles. Sahra Sulaiman is Communities Editor for Streetsblog Los Angeles and oversees work in South Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. Her work and that of our former Boyle Heights-specific writer Kris Fortin can be found here. Contact Sahra at sahra[at]streetsblog.org or on twitter: @sahrasulaiman.

The Dept. of Parks and Rec Wants Your Input on What Parks Should Be

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 22, 2013 | 9 Comments

I’ve been watching the makeover that the Julian C. Dixon/48th St. Park on Hoover and 48th has been undergoing for the past couple of months with some interest. The small playground, cracked-up basketball court, and small (but well-used) fitness zone sat like disparate islands floating along the edges of a sea of poorly kept grass […]

Learn About “Hotel Mariachi” at a Book Signing at the Mariachi Festival This Weekend

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 19, 2013 | No Comments

If you’ve been to Mariachi Plaza, then you’ve seen the beautiful Boyle Hotel, or Hotel Mariachi, as it is known to many, that sits on the corner of 1st and Boyle. It was built in 1889 by a Croatian immigrant named George Gerscovich (who changed his name to Cummings) who came to California during the […]

Improvements Along First Street in Boyle Heights Begin to Take Shape

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 12, 2013 | 9 Comments

Don’t you want to take a picture of me and put it on the Internet? a man wearing two casts on his arms and a “Fall Risk” wrist band asked in Spanish. What happened to your arms? I asked. I was attacked by witches. Of course you were. One must be careful out here. So, […]

Culture Heals at Proyecto Jardín in Boyle Heights

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 7, 2013 | No Comments

As I sat down to watch the performance by Kalpulli Tlaltekuhtli for the “movement is medicine” segment of the La Cultura Cura Día de los Muertos celebration at Proyecto Jardín, I was (once again) reminded of my encounter with displaced Afro-Colombian farmers in Bogotá, Colombia, a decade earlier. Uprooted from the tropical and resource-rich region of […]

Food Vendors Rally for New Law That Would Provide Path to Legal Vending

By Damien Newton | Nov 7, 2013 | 3 Comments

There’s always been a certain irony that Los Angeles is the only one of America’s ten largest cities to have a blanket ban on street vending. Los Angeles is famous for its street vending culture, especially for the high quality food options available on many street corners, but every time a vendor takes to the […]

Stories of Place and Space Told through Dance and Theater in Boyle Heights and Watts

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 1, 2013 | No Comments

Starting this weekend, you have the unique opportunity to explore two important neighborhood spaces through theatrical performances. Tonight, the Watts Village Theater Company kicks off “Riot/Rebellion,” a play based on the stories of those that lived through the Watts Riots of 1965. The Riots, which lasted for a nearly week in August, were touched off […]

Show More Stories