Recent Streetsblog LA posts about health

Tattoos - symbols of the struggle of his earlier years - warn you against crossing a former gang member. Sahra Sulaiman/Streetsblog L.A.

To Be or Not To Be a Gang-Banger: Is that Really the Question?

By Sahra Sulaiman | Mar 21, 2014 | 6 Comments

*This story features interviews with a number of youth. Some are named. Others requested they remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the information divulged. This story is the second in a series on the impact of generational disenfranchisement and trauma and repressive policing. The first, “Death and All His Friends,” can be found here. […]

Dear Santa, Please Bring Us an Active Transportation Corridor Along Slauson. But Don’t Forget the Community in the Process.

By Sahra Sulaiman | Dec 17, 2013 | 22 Comments

Flanked by industry or warehouses on either side for much of its trajectory, and running parallel to defunct and unkempt railroad tracks that are liberally adorned with debris, graffiti, and enormous mud puddles when it rains, the Slauson Avenue corridor doesn’t seem like the most human-friendly place. And, if you’ve ever felt reckless enough to […]

Death and All His Friends Cast Long Shadows When They Make Regular Appearances

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 6, 2013 | 12 Comments

“I went crazy,” Sherika Simms says quietly of the realization that she would be unable to help her brother. Twenty-two-year-old Maurio Proctor, two years her junior but more like her twin – the boy that had followed her everywhere she went as a child and wanted to do everything she did – had been gunned […]

Weekend Events Prove South L.A. Can Be an Amazing Destination, While Also Highlighting the Challenges that Remain to be Overcome

By Sahra Sulaiman | Oct 2, 2013 | 4 Comments

As I walked toward the new garden beds at the West Athens Victory Garden, I felt a little tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a young boy of 10 or 12 standing there. He wrapped his skinny arms around me in a big hug. “Well, thanks for that!” I said, surprised. I […]

Residents Rally Today to Protest Closure of Yet Another Grocery in South L.A.

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 13, 2013 | 8 Comments

While Central Ave. celebrates a ground-breaking ceremony for a new Northgate supermarket today, residents in another part of South L.A. will gather to protest the closing of yet another Ralph’s. The shuttering of the supermarket located at King Blvd. and Western Ave., scheduled for June 21, marks the second loss of a Ralph’s in the […]

Fight Fracking (today!), See the City Lites, Take a Nature Tour, and Play Kickball

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 30, 2013 | No Comments

As an NPR junkie, I have long been aware that the natural gas industry has been a sponsor of their programming for several years. But I nearly spit my coffee out last week when I heard a brief spot extolling the virtues of having the gas industry drilling in one’s backyard. Here in L.A., the […]

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