Sahra Sulaiman

The date for the grand opening of Leimert Park's People St Plaza is not quite set in stone, yet, but it's coming very soon. And I couldn't be more excited. The stakeholders in Leimert Park have begun to install some of the unique features they developed as a way to tie the plaza to the culture of the community, and they look pretty fantastic.

A few months ago, we featured the story of the extraordinary Maryann Aguirre as part of our #streetsR4families series. The series looks at the experiences of parents trying to move their families safely through the streets of Los Angeles via transit, bicycle, or on foot. Speaking as a single mother from the working-class Latino community of Boyle Heights, Aguirre made it clear that she believed that streets around her would only truly be safe when her community, as a whole, was healthy and thriving.

As news began to trickle out Wednesday night that, under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, embattled lead-acid battery recycler Exide Technologies will be forced to permanently shutter its Vernon plant, hope seemed to have finally been restored to those who have spent years clamoring for environmental justice.

As one of the few attendees at the recent Live.Ride.Share. forum from South Los Angeles, aspiring bicycle co-op founder Ade Neff said he felt frustrated by what he wasn't hearing. While the many of the advocates on hand had fantastic visions for the future of transportation in Los Angeles, they often seemed to gloss over the more complex needs of lower-income communities of color and deficiencies in the existing transit system that those communities already depended on.

"Fun in the sun!" Watts resident William Fabian wrote under the prompt "My South L.A. is..." created by organizers of the Visions and Voices panel, "Food, Recreation, and the Arts as Social Justice and Civic Engagement," at USC last night. The panel was the second in a three-part effort by USC to engage some of the advocates doing work in the South L.A. area while taking stock of its role in the civic and community life of the area as it undergoes expansion.

“If it weren’t for J.P. …”

"It's not every day that you get to be present at the birth of a landmark," said Mayor Eric Garcetti to the hundred-plus members of the press, city notables, transportation advocates, elected officials, and residents gathered under the slowly crumbling columns of the 6th St. Viaduct.

"Lemme guess," I said to East Side Rider Dale Williams as he approached the Ride4Love's ride captains with a printout of the route, "you worked all night last night."

Over the past year, I watched the Neighborhood Land Trust and Department of Parks and Recreation slowly transform a dumpy traffic island at Avalon and Gage into something families in the community could actually use and be proud of.

"They're not even from Boyle Heights!" heckled an agitated Teresa Marquez before the handful of youth from YouthBuild Boyle Heights that had nervously stepped up to speak at the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council (BHNC) regarding the fate of Metro-owned properties Wednesday night had even had a chance to make their comments.