Last Thursday, an apparent DUI driver killed nine-year-old Nadir Gavarrete and sent his 19-year-old brother to the hospital. The crash took place at the intersection of 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in L.A.'s Koreatown. The city has delayed plans for traffic calming at that intersection.
Koreatown is the city's most population-dense neighborhood, with sizeable immigrant communities from El Salvador, Honduras, Oaxaca, Bangladesh, Korea, and more. Although the neighborhood is congested with cars and parking, frequent transit - from buses to subways - serves the area well. Koreatown residents walk and take transit at some of the highest rates in the city.
Nadir's family immigrated from Honduras. They live on New Hampshire Avenue, a half-block from the site of the crash. That block is full of three-to six story apartment buildings, some more than a century old.
Nadir's father, Pedro Gavarrete, makes a living selling produce out of a box truck, often in the neighborhood.
On Saturday, Streetsblog spoke briefly with Pedro as he closed up shop, getting ready to head off to the hospital to see his surviving son. Pedro said that his son Nadir was into dinosaurs and playing soccer. Nadir had been a fourth grader at nearby Camino Nuevo School.
Support the grieving family by making a donation via GoFundMe.
As takes place at too many sites around the city, the northeast corner of 4th and New Hampshire has now grown into a memorial for a victim of traffic violence.
At dusk each evening, neighbors have been gathering there to pray and sing and mourn.
For more than a decade, safe streets advocates have pushed the city to calm traffic to make Fourth Street safer for people who walk and bike.
In 2011, the city sought and received Metro Call for Projects funding for a Bicycle Friendly Streets project which promised safety improvements at four intersections along 4th Street, including at New Hampshire.
The city held community meetings in 2011 and hosted a pop-up version of the 4th/New Hampshire roundabout in 2019.
The design progressed, renderings were shared, and an online survey was promoted.
But nothing was built.
Streetsblog emailed the city Transportation Department (LADOT) earlier today to get a status on the roundabout, but did not receive a response by press time. Update 8/5: LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney later responded that "Design work for a neighborhood roundabout, access ramps, and street lighting was completed by LADOT and the Bureau of Engineering in March of this year. The City has begun the contract bidding process, and construction is expected to begin next year."
Impatient with the deadly status quo, the department of DIY got involved.
Already in the news for inspiring Westsiders to paint crosswalks at Stoner Park (promptly erased, then officially repainted by the city), L.A.'s famous Crosswalk Collective added crosswalks at 4th and New Hampshire on Saturday morning.
The crosswalks look official, but one stripe was left incomplete. Instead of solid white paint, it reads EN MEMORIA DE NADIR GAVARRETE.
