Streetsblog Los Angeles

Participants from the Complete Streets this ride with the Mobility Advisory Council included representatives of TRUST South LA, Community Health Councils, LA's First Five, the East Side Riders, Los Angeles Walks, the LACBC, city planning, LADOT, Biz-e-Bee Bikers, and a couple extra folks thrown in for good measure. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

“David!” I yelled, gesturing at City Planning’s David Somers to come over and listen to what the residents playing cards in their yard were saying about the need for a stoplight at the intersection outside their front gate.

Too many people had come crashing through it, they told me.

And if it wasn’t their gate, they pointed across the street, it was the damaged stone wall kitty-corner from their yard.

Just so I could fully grasp how bad the intersection at 82nd and Hooper was, the woman pulled out her camera and showed me a photo of a large red SUV parked practically on top of the hot water heater outside her bedroom window.

She had been sleeping on the other side of that wall, she said.

“They didn’t even give him a breathalyzer!” another resident shook his head. “Even though there were beer bottles fallin’ out of the car!”

The driver had apparently tried to run away and hide, at first. Then, he came back and tried to drive the truck off (or something of that nature) before the Sheriffs finally stepped up and told him that wasn’t how things worked when you crashed into a house.

Hooper’s just too fast of a street, they all reiterated. Wide open and curvy, people apparently feel like they can slalom along it, especially after they’ve had a few drinks. Which never ends well for anybody. And by “anybody,” I mean the residents in the area. Read more…

A mother and her kids crossing with little problem at 112th and Wilmington, thanks to the new yield lines (photo: sahra)

Soon after taking some city planners on a tour through Watts, a new bike lane appeared along Central Avenue, between Century and 95th St. A week or two later, the owner of the Watts Cyclery, Stalin Medina, told me that parking had been removed from in front of his shop at 112th and Wilmington and yield lines (a row of solid white triangles pointing toward approaching vehicles) had been painted at the crosswalk there.

The improvements at Wilmington were especially pleasing, given that the crosswalk is often used by children in the area going back and forth to the elementary school that sits on that corner. The removal of parking ideally makes it easier for drivers to see children waiting to cross while the yield lines hopefully create more of a buffer between pedestrians and cars.

“Da-yum,” I thought. “I had no idea the city was so responsive!”

It turns out they are not.

The improvements at Wilmington and 112th were the result of a separate investigation by the folks from the LADOT’s Southern District. Upon discovering it could be improved, they made the changes so the crossing would meet DOT standards. Similarly, the DOT’s Bikeways Section had been searching for opportunities to implement elements of the bike master plan, and the Central Ave. stretch had come up on NavigateLA.

Oddly happy coincidence or not, it was exciting to see the changes and a great opportunity to observe the extent to which new pedestrian markings had any impact on driver behavior. Read more…

Javier Partida (Los Ryderz) and John Jones III (East Side Riders) talk to riders from the Department of City Planning about the need to make Graham into a bike-friendly street (photo: sahra)

The young men watched the cyclists ride their way past the Watts Towers and post up at the corner of Graham Street.

Puzzled, they pulled me aside and asked what was going on.

What was the occasion?

I had to laugh. “You want to know what all these white people are doing in your neighborhood, huh?”

Nodding sheepishly, they laughed, too.

They weren’t the first people to be curious about our presence.

Even though our group was comprised of people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, it was clear that many were not from Watts, and we caused quite a spectacle as we made our way around the area.

Strange as it may sound, in 2012, in a city as diverse as ours, it is still jarring for residents to see outsiders — particularly white people — in certain parts of the city. White folk are rarely seen just hanging out around Watts outside the vicinity of the Watts Towers. When they and other outsiders do come to the area, they tend to arrive in groups and there usually is a specific reason for the visit, so residents are not shy about asking what the occasion is.

I explained to the young men that some of the group were from the Department of City Planning and that they were interested in a firsthand look at how safe the streets were for cyclists and pedestrians.

We had enlisted the help of Los Ryderz and the East Side Riders, I said, to give the planners the best tour possible. Since both groups ride in the area and most are residents of Watts, they could offer the planners important information about how the streets are used and by whom, as well as how safe the streets feel at different times of the day.

Pointing in the direction of Chris Madrigal (one of Los Ryderz), I told them that he had been knocked unconscious in a hit-and-run on Wilmington in the middle of the day a few weeks prior. Because, like many such incidents along that street, it wasn’t reported to the police, city officials don’t know it happened and don’t know there is a need to slow Wilmington down.

“They have to see streets like Wilmington in person to really understand how dangerous it can get,” I concluded.

The young men nodded. Read more…

Heather Presha of Leimert Park summarizes the needs in the area her group analyzed at a meeting held at the KAOS Network last night. (photo: sahra)

“My son calls it “Poo-poo Island,” said Heather Presha of Stocker Plaza, a sizeable grassy island at the intersection of 8th and Garthwaite Aves.

She was presenting her group’s summary of the issues of concern and areas of opportunity in her neighborhood to the approximately 25 community members and pedestrian and health advocates gathered at the KAOS Network in Leimert Park. The meeting, led by Los Angeles Walks (in collaboration with L.A. Commons, Community Health Councils, the Prevention Institute, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and Multicultural Communities for Mobility) to begin a conversation about how to make the area more walkable. Participants spent a good half hour poring over maps of their neighborhoods and marking them up with their concerns and ideas for improvements. Then the groups each reported back to the rest of the participants with a summary of their findings. Presha’s group included the area considered to be the heart of the Leimert Park community, where the art walk is held on the last Sunday of every month.

Poo-poo Island, Presha suggested, might be a great place for a dog park, as neighbors tend to use it that way already. The official designation of the site would create one more opportunity to encourage interaction between community members.

Other suggestions for improving walkability in the area included putting in curb cuts and making all sidewalks ADA compliant, beautifying sidewalks, putting benches on islands, adding more lighting, increasing the visibility of crosswalks, having animal control patrol more regularly (to round up problematic stray dogs) and making major shopping centers more accessible for pedestrians.

Speaking on behalf of his group, resident Randal Henry raised their concern that, at some major shopping centers, the only way onto the property is through the entrance that cars use. That kind of design is unfriendly to pedestrians in general, but can be especially so to youth, those walking with their families, or elders. Read more…

Tafarai Bayne of TRUST South L.A. and RideSouthLA explains the goals of the day. (c) sahra

If you were one of the participants in the South L.A. Healthy Food Ride/Walk this past weekend, you could be forgiven if you walked away a little confused about the purpose of the walk.

It started out simple enough.

The group – largely comprised of super-motivated teens from South L.A. vying for a spot on the Youth Action Coalition run by Building Healthy Communities South L.A. — met at Mercado La Paloma, the new home of Community Services Unlimited’s (CSU) Village Market Place.

Tafarai Bayne, of TRUST South L.A. and RideSouthLA (a partnership between the Mobile Urban Mapping project at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and TRUST South L.A.), laid out the plan for the day.

Participants were being tasked with helping the RideSouthLA team collect data and map the neighborhood. Specifically, they were asked to “take pictures of things that are healthy and unhealthy” (with regard to food choices) and “things that are safe or unsafe” (with regard to walking or biking conditions). The cellphone photos were to be sent in to the event site, to help compile a visual record of the walk. Read more…

Police recently reopened the case of D'Ancee Nathaniel Barnes who was three years old when he was killed by a female hit-and-run driver in 1989. photo: sahra.

“Only a nobody walks in L.A.” blared at me as I strolled into the grocery store.

“Bullshit,” I muttered to myself.

The security guy raised an eyebrow.

Protesting I was not a crazy mutterer by way of explaining how I had spent the afternoon walking around in front of a motel, chatting up an elder prostitute, and being tailed by a pimp on a mountain bike would not have mitigated his concerns about my sanity. So, I shut my mouth and headed for the yogurt aisle.

But the song continued, loudly listing off all the poor saps who walk, including potential freeway stranglers, shopping-cart pushers, and someone who could possibly be groovy but was definitely not in the movies.

Most of the time, I am mildly amused by the cynicism of “Walking in L.A.” But I had spent a couple of depressing days hoofing it in the streets and gathering information on drive-bys and pedestrian deaths, including the hit-and-run that killed an acquaintance’s 78 year-old father. So, I wasn’t feeling all that lighthearted regarding questions of walking.

Jimmie Thomas was thrown more than 30 ft. when struck by a car around noon on the 18th of June. He had been crossing Western Ave. just south of 55th St., a busy corridor for both cars and prostitutes. According to the LAPD, the driver of the black SUV, a glasses-wearing black male in his mid-30s, did not stop to render aid.

A witness I spoke to said the driver — who was in a black Honda or other small car — did stop to try to help out. But he took off before the police arrived. In the hysteria of trying to aid the victim, the witness said, nobody paid too much attention to the license plate or identifying information of the driver.

“I hadn’t heard that,” mused Officer Mendoza when I called to ask about the incident.

I paused, unsure how to respond.

I wasn’t sure that my information was accurate, either. Read more…