Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Uncategorized

Empowering Communities to See Streets as Sites of Recreation: What does it Take?

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 19, 2014 | 25 Comments

“We need to empower people to see their streets as sites of recreation.” It’s somewhat of a city planner mantra. And, it tends to drive me crazy. Part of it has to do with my having been an academic in my previous life, where I spent years observing efforts to “empower” refugees, displaced persons, sex […]

Location, Location, Location: Contested Public Space Means Moving Watts School Could Deny Some Education

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 14, 2014 | 3 Comments

“They say they care about our safety, but they’re putting us in harm’s way!” It is a refrain I’ve heard several times over the last month from students of INSPIRE Research Academy, a state-subsidized continuation school based at YO! Watts that offers 17-24-year-olds a free education and a rare second chance to get their high […]

Kickball to the Rescue!: How Active Programming in Parks Makes Communities Safer

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 6, 2014 | 1 Comment

When I first visited Ted Watkins Park at 103rd and Central shortly after my arrival in L.A. in 2001, I didn’t stay very long. In the mid-1990s, the park had been renamed to honor activist and organizer Ted Watkins following his death in 1993. But instead of mirroring Watkins’ spirit by uplifting the community, the […]

And So It Begins: Crenshaw Sees Major Street Closure and Reconfiguration Starting Friday Night

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 1, 2014 | No Comments

Taking shelter from the hot mid-day sun bearing down on Crenshaw Blvd., I struck up a conversation with a security guard that had worked in the area for a number of years. As we surveyed the evolving stretch of the boulevard sprawled out before us, we talked about the pending Friday night closure of the […]

Addressing the Hit-and-Run Epidemic: When “Finishing the Ride” Acts as the Launch of a Movement

By Sahra Sulaiman | Apr 28, 2014 | 2 Comments

So, this is what it takes to make people angry enough to care, I thought as I looked out over the sea of elected officials, journalists, cameras, and cyclists gathering at the start point for Damian Kevitt’s Finish the Ride event Sunday morning. It apparently takes someone like Kevitt being dragged under a van onto […]

Urbanism Author Ben Ross Book Excerpt and L.A. Event Tues 4/29

By Ben Ross | Apr 28, 2014 | 1 Comment

Washington D.C. area transportation activist Ben Ross has a new book out entitled “Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism.” Ross is the longtime president of Maryland’s Action Committee for Transit and a frequent contributor to Greater Greater Washington. Below is an excerpt from “Dead End” which focuses on the rise of […]

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