Sahra Sulaiman

Sahra is Communities Editor for Streetsblog L.A., covering the intersection of mobility with race, class, history, representation, policing, housing, health, culture, community, and access to the public space in Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles.

Jermaine Welch mourns the loss of rapper, artist, entrepreneur, and visionary Nipsey Hussle in this image from 2019. While out making deliveries just after midnight on June 3, Welch passed through the intersection at Broadway and Manchester and was shot six times, possibly by the LAPD. He has been under investigation ever since. Image courtesy Jermaine Welch.

Bystander Shot Six Times During Officer-Involved Shooting Left Homeless, Struggling to Recover while LAPD Treats Him as Suspect

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jul 13, 2020 | No Comments

“Wow, I wake up from my death and it was like I was in jail...I’m treated like a criminal," he says. "[Yet] I'm the victim in this situation."

Though the Liquor Bank will be demolished, Patrick Henry Johnson will repaint Elixir on the new structure. Rendering courtesy of the Design Review Board

Project Planned for Liquor Bank Site to Go Before Crenshaw Corridor Design Review Board Tonight

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jul 2, 2020 | No Comments

The Crenshaw Corridor Design Review Board is holding an online meeting to take a final look at the plans for the 64-unit project slated to go in at the site of the Liquor Bank, at Crenshaw and Stocker.

Gilbert Johnson, Lead Justice Organizer at Community Coalition (CoCo), speaks to the significance of this moment of rebellion while opening the nearly three-hour-long online discussion on the city budget priorities. CoCo had hosted the forum in collaboration with Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles and members of the People's Budget L.A. coalition this past Saturday.

Black and Brown Residents Speak to Urgency of Deep Systemic Transformation, Offer Insights Regarding Reinvestment

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jul 2, 2020 | No Comments

"We’re done paying for an institution that produces racism, violence, and poverty," said Carlos Cázares. "We are done talking. It’s time to put money where the people are at."

Officer Frank Hernández rains blows down on Richard Castillo while his partner stands by with her taser ready in Boyle Heights on April 27. Image captured from LAPD body cam footage.

How Beating of Unhoused Boyle Heights Man Exposes Woeful Inadequacy of LAPD Reform Proposals

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 23, 2020 | No Comments

Making the case for why, if L.A. is serious about reimagining public safety, it must embrace the conversation around defunding the police

A screengrab of Tupac Shakur performing To Live and Die in L.A. in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall in 1996. The mall is one of several L.A. landmarks featured in the video.

CIM Group Abandons Effort to Buy Crenshaw Mall; Community Members Take Victory Lap, Plan Next Steps

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 18, 2020 | No Comments

"When our community comes together we can achieve anything" - Akili

Tormented by a Bandit, Unhoused Residents Just Want to Be Left in Peace

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 9, 2020 | No Comments

A few feet down from where the handwashing station lies on its side, El Abuelo Travieso – a name that translates to the Naughty Grandfather (though he told me with a giggle that it translates to Grandpa Tush) – is spraying his arms and hands down with a liquid from a disinfectant bottle. He had […]

Street vendors rallied to call for the cancellation of rents and for access to assistance one day after the Department of Public Health asked Angelenos to report vendors that did not appear to have permits or be practicing proper social distancing. The rally, it should be noted, was planned for May Day - not in response to the DPH briefing. But the continued stigmatization of vendors underscores how urgent it is that they be heard.

As Public Health Prepares for Vending Crackdown, Street Vendors Call for the Cancellation of Rents

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 1, 2020 | No Comments

Street vendors decry having been left to fend for themselves during a disaster, seek cash assistance, the cancellation of rents, and an end to criminalization

Miguel R. has been homeless for just over three weeks in the University Park area. Sahra Sulaiman/StreetsblogLA

Evicted During COVID-19: “I Have Been Homeless for 20 Days…What’s Going to Happen to Me?”

By Sahra Sulaiman | Apr 25, 2020 | No Comments

A true eviction moratorium might have kept Miguel housed and stable; now he fears for his mental health and his ability to get back on his feet

Test train on Metro's Crenshaw Line - photo via Metro

Crenshaw Line Opening Pushed Back to Late 2021 – Nearly a Year Later than the Date Projected Six Months Ago

By Sahra Sulaiman | Apr 9, 2020 | No Comments

The 2021 opening will come nearly a year later than the date Metro offered last October, and two years later than its original projected opening

The empty council chambers during the March 17 meeting.

City Council to Hear More Proposals for Tenant Protections Today

By Sahra Sulaiman | Apr 7, 2020 | No Comments

Councilmember Mike Bonin took to social media yesterday to announce that he and councilmember David Ryu would be pushing for greater tenant protections at today’s city council meeting at 10 a.m. In addition to reintroducing a motion for an eviction moratorium, he said, they would also be submitting proposals to: classify COVID-19 rental debt as […]

A low-res screengrab from a video posted to the Foos Gone Wild twitter account shows the moment a mugger jumps on the back of an elotera and puts her in a chokehold at 92nd and Figueroa.

Vending in the Time of Corona: an Elotera Who Can’t Afford to Stay Home is Attacked

By Sahra Sulaiman | Mar 31, 2020 | No Comments

Vendors across the city wonder how they will feed their families; a Street Vendor Emergency Fund aims to help

Last Tuesday's city council meeting was held in an empty chamber. Those hoping to make public comment were kept outside under a tent in the cold. They could see and hear the councilmembers, but the councilmembers could only hear them. [Screenshot of the live feed taken at some point during the eight hour marathon.]

As Council Heads to Chambers Today, a Plea that It Abandon the Do-No-Harm-to-Landlords Doctrine

By Sahra Sulaiman | Mar 27, 2020 | No Comments

While arguing to limit the grace period tenants would have to pay back any missed rent to six months during the marathon city council session last Tuesday, March 17, Second District councilmember Paul Krekorian beseeched his colleagues to consider the Hippocratic Oath – the pledge physicians make to do no harm – and not enact […]

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