Streetsblog Los Angeles

Jaren, a member of the Youth Action Council, offers his observations at a pit stop on the healthy food walk. (photo: sahra)

One of the exciting things about covering South L.A. is how active the communities within the area are. So active, in fact, I cannot always keep up with everything that is going on. Instead of writing stories this week, I’ve been catching up on piecing together the interviews, photos, and stories I’ve been tracking for some time so that I can hit the ground running with some more in-depth stories next week. I was hoping to have this weekend off to finish that process, but that might not happen. There’s too much amazing stuff going on. Check it out:

Saturday, 9 a.m., the East Side Riders are collaborating with the Hub City Teens from Compton to explore the Compton Creek trail and make their way to Long Beach. For more information, see the event page or contact the East Side Riders.

Sunday, things kick into high gear.

In the morning, the South L.A. Healthy Food Walk and Ride kicks off at Mercado La Paloma. The last event asked pedestrians to evaluate the health and safety of the streets along Jefferson Blvd. This time, organizers will turn their sights on King Blvd., Vernon Ave. Western Blvd. and Adams Blvd. As before, participants will be helping the RideSouthLA team gather data about the neighborhood for their map of the community. Participants can ride or walk, and lunch will be provided by Community Services Unlimited‘s Village Market Place. The VMP — the funds from which help CSU provide local youth with paid internships — offers fresh-baked goods, beyond organic fruits and vegetables, and yummy jams and sauces.

Time: 10am – 2pm

Start Location: Mercado La Paloma, 3655 S Grand Ave.

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Mid-day, take yourself over to the Slauson Corridor to participate in the re-branding process of a community. Read more…

The CicLAvia feeder ride from South L.A. led by the East Side Riders (photo: sahra)

Just one week after Angelenos proved they could happily bike and walk their way through Carmageddon, they get to put their freshly honed skills to the test at the nation’s biggest car-free festival.

CicLAvia‘s back, y’all!

Grab your bike, your family, and/or some friends and experience almost ten miles of cyclo-topia in the heart of L.A. this Sunday. Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., road closures will allow you (and probably more than 100,000 of your neighbors) to carlessly explore the neighborhoods surrounding Exposition Park, Macarthur Park, downtown, Chinatown, and Boyle Heights.

What more could you want?

Well, Angelenos in the know will stretch out their hours of cyclo-fun by waking at dawn and starting their day in South L.A.

At 8:30 a.m., much of the South L.A. riding family will be gathering at the WLCAC in Watts to prepare to ride to CicLAvia’s southern hub. Consider yourself cordially invited to join supporters of the CicLAvia South East effort and Los Ryderz as we ride north to Exposition Park, ably led by the East Side Riders.

The approximately 7.5 mile jaunt to the South Hub along the sunny, sleepy streets of South L.A. was a lot of fun last April. Curious and smiling passersby wanted to know where we were headed and why. A rib shack owner even offered to open up shop and feed us.

There’s a secret added bonus for those who, like me, will have to ride through the central part of the city at dawn to get to Watts: you’ll be able to ride some of the empty streets of the official CicLAvia route before the masses descend upon it.

That’s right. It’s just like that ancient proverb says: the early-rising biker gets to have all the fun.

Or…something like that. I think that is the rough translation.

Shh. Don’t tell anyone. Let that be our secret. 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…