OHJF

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.

One of the lessons that the world’s great cities learned is how to use natural and man created landmarks to strengthen and create great places. This is one area where Los Angeles still lags, and nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the Pacoima Wash.

Safe Routes to School?

As part of every Policies for Livable Active Communities and the Environment (PLACE) Grants awarded by L.A. County Department of Public Health in 2008, each community had to complete a sample project that demonstrated the types of street improvements that could spread throughout their city as a result of improved planning.  The City of Culver City completed the Downtown Connector project that provides a Sharrowed street connection between the Downtown and the future Expo Station while linking residents to local schools.  Long Beach spent their money on the Green Sharrowed Lane in Belmont Shore.

This week’s series on the grants from the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Policies for Livable and Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) Grants focuses on Glendale and their groundbreaking Safe and Healthy Streets Plan.

You can view the full map at GeoCommons.