East Hollywood Neighborhood Council Declares Itself Pedestrian Neighborhood

The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has barely been in existence for two years, yet they’ve already layed out a vision for transportation in the video East Hollywood on the Move, led the way by endorsing the Cyclists Bill of Rights before any other Neighborhood Council and proclaimed that streets are for people, not cars, at the first annual ArtCycle.  Last night they began to marry their vision with policy when they declared themselves a “pedestrian oriented community” and vowed to get all members of the community involved in redesigning parts of the community following the “Sole Mates” process.

The first step will be reaching out to stakeholders such as businesses, community groups, and schools to get people involved and excited about bringing safer and more comfortable streets to the East Hollywood Community.  While the idea of designing your community’s transportation around pedestrians is certainly a ground-breaking idea, the process of building and funding the plan is as exciting a model as the pedestrian focus.  Instead of the “Design and Defend” strategy exemplified by the Pico-Olympic Plan or the “complete public outreach and never let anyone see the final document” strategy exemplified by the 20?? Bike Master Plan.

Once outreach is completed, the next step is to set pedestrian standards for all part of the neighborhood then getting the funding for the projects.

We’ll keep our eyes on the happenings in EHo.  In the meantime, if you want to read more, SoapBox has the full press release.