Design Your Own Park – Meeting on Olympic and Grand Linear Park – Tonight!

A map of the project area provided by Deborah Murphy Urban Design and Planning

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times featured a story on what the Community Redevelopment Agency’s (CRA) plan to bring a linear park to the corner of Olympic and Grand.  The Times does an excellent job explaining what the CRA is planning, but misses a key point.  A workshop, sponsored by the CRA and the Department of Recreation and Parks, will be held tonight to gather community feedback on what the linear park should look like.  but first, the Times explains the basics of the project:

In a city that spent the last century paving over the natural
landscape, the idea that a small swath of asphalt might be going green
is a bit of an anomaly.

But that’s what the Community
Redevelopment Agency is proposing for a stretch of Grand Avenue in
downtown Los Angeles’ South Park neighborhood. The idea is to narrow
the street between 9th Street and Olympic by two lanes — and use the
extra land for open space.

So far, there seems to be a push from some community advocates to make the park a “dog park,” but nothing has been decided yet.  Deborah Murphy, the consultant for the project, outlined over the phone an impressive outreach schedule for the project which features five community workshops and a bus tour.  The first of those workshops will be held tonight at 6:30 P.M. in the Public Works Building, 1149 S. Broadway, Room SB6, and will focus on a brainstorming session devoted to prioritizing the features that the community wants to see in the new park. 

If you live in the area and can’t make tonight’s meeting, you should consider joining a bus tour of similar parks designed to spark more ideas and conversation on the future of the Olympic and Grand Linear Park.  The bus tour will meet on west side of Grand Avenue between 9th & Olympic Blvd.  This tour is one of several being planned by the CRA for different projects throughout the city.  For a more complete picture of all of the outreach for the Olympic and Grand Linear Park, as well as the Nevin Elementary School Park, Slauson-Wall Park, and Ord and Yale Street Park; visit the Streetsblog Calendar Section.

(Full disclosure: Murphy is the founder and executive director of Los Angeles Walks.  I serve as the Planning Director on the group’s Board of Directors.)