Sahra Sulaiman

WHEN I BEGAN MY GRAD PROGRAM at USC in 2001, I lived north of campus a few blocks on Hoover Street. As my daylight hours were generally occupied with classes and teaching responsibilities, I tended to get my long-distance runs in well after dark. Instead of being able to clear my head as I did figure-eights around campus and Exposition Park, however, I was often stopped by police who wanted to know what the hell I thought I was doing.

Do you live in or travel through Watts? Are you stymied by the potholes there? 15th District Councilman and Chairman of the City Council’s Public Works Committee Joe Buscaino  plans to come to your rescue.

Soon after taking some city planners on a tour through Watts, a new bike lane appeared along Central Avenue, between Century and 95th St. A week or two later, the owner of the Watts Cyclery, Stalin Medina, told me that parking had been removed from in front of his shop at 112th and Wilmington and yield lines (a row of solid white triangles pointing toward approaching vehicles) had been painted at the crosswalk there.

At the end of 2012, LA/2B, the project to revamp the Mobility Element of the General Plan for L.A, announced they had narrowed down the feedback gathered during more than a year's worth of public engagement to six draft goals and their corresponding policies.

Just before the Christmas holiday, the Department of City Planning released the Preliminary Drafts of the New Community Plans for South and Southeast Los Angeles. The plans, along with those for the West Adams-Baldwin Hills-Leimert Park area, together comprise the approximately 45-square mile South L.A. Planning Region. It is an area that Principal City Planner Faisal Roble acknowledged to Curbed in May 2012 had long been neglected with regard to planning (with the Crenshaw Corridor being the key exception).

Authorities are searching for the driver of a dark-colored, older model Lexus that ran down 50-year old Tracy Louis Walker this past Wednesday. He was struck at 3:25 p.m. while crossing in the crosswalk at Western and Vernon by a vehicle traveling north along Western. Walker sustained life-threatening injuries from the impact and was taken to the hospital where he later died.

While hiking in Griffith Park, my friend remarked that he found it refreshing to be surrounded by so much wildlife.

I don't know about you, but I feel naked riding a bike at night without lights.

The young men watched the cyclists ride their way past the Watts Towers and post up at the corner of Graham Street.

The South Los Angeles Wetlands Park located at 54th and Avalon is having a rough go of it these days.