El Monte

Active SGV's Clean Mobility Assessment is looking to get feedback from El Monte and South El Monte residents. An online survey is available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese, and a virtual input meeting will take place next month.

Protests have taken place in West Covina, Whittier, Alhambra, Pasadena, Monrovia, Montebello, Pomona, El Monte, Walnut, and Sierra Madre.

This week, #DamienTalks with David Diaz with Day One and BikeSGV about the Mulhall Bike Park that is under construction in El Monte. The Bike Park is literally designed to do exactly what it says: be a space for people to practice their bicycling skills in a closed, safe setting.

Metro celebrated the opening of the agency's first bike hub this morning in El Monte. The hub is located at the El Monte Transit Center, a very quick 15-minute, 12-mile Metro Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit trip from downtown Los Angeles.

El Monte faces some real health challenges including high rates of diabetes and asthma for its citizens combined with low rates of physical activity.  One of the reasons for El Monte's public health crisis is that the physical face of the city needs a major upgrade.  For example, El Monte is a city with 125,000 people, yet it lacks a supermarket so residents are forced to choose between hopping in the car to go to a store with healthy food choices or shop locally at whatever is available at smaller neighborhood convenience stores.  Despite El Monte's recognition that dense urban development leads to healthier communities, there is currently one mixed use development in the entire city, the relatively new Garvey Court.

As Streetsblog has learned about and written about the 5 PLACE Grant Communities, one thing has become clear. When you’re talking about smaller areas, and not sprawling metropolis’ such as Los Angeles, it’s the little things that make a big difference. In El Monte, they created a Health and Wellness Plan that centers around providing healthier food choices and creating more safe opportunities for people to be outside.

Martha Sera likes walking.  A former high school track star, Sera regularly goes for mile-long walks with her husband, father and children, ages two and five.  That Sera has found a way to walk for a living is just a bonus.