Living

Streets
LOS ANGELES

The Living
Streets
Initiative
Los Angeles

Presented by the Green LA Coalition

Streets
for Everyone

The Living Streets Initiative

A steady, dramatic shift is occurring in

the way Americans think about urban lifeand the
streets and highways that dominate it. We are moving
toward cities that are more livable and streets that
are more human-centeredand complete.
Complete Streets are streets designed and engineered
to be safe and convenient for everyonenot just drivers,
but bicyclists, transit riders, wheelchair users and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
In just a decade, the idea of complete streets has
evolved from a trendy buzzphrase among bicycle
activists and progressive planners to an increasingly
visible and broad social movement.
Transportation planners, street engineers, public health
officers and elected officialswith a wide range of
activist citizen groups in the vanguardare talking
about how to repurpose our city streets to allow everyone to get around safely and well, even if theyre not
traveling by car.
The Living Streets Initiative is Green LAs effort to
apply the principle of streets safe for all users to the
unparalleled vastness and complexity of Los Angeles.
In this ethnically diverse, economically disparate
metropolis ruled by the automobile, Green LA takes
the concept of complete streets several steps further.

The Living Streets Initiative

Growing
Momentum
Many cities and towns across the U.S.
are moving beyond creating bike lanes and pouring
new sidewalks. As they consider ways to retrofit
their car-centric streets to accommodate all users,
municipal agencies are also rethinking their regulations
and retooling the way they evaluate the efficacy of
their communities networks of roadways.

Momentum is building:
In Los Angeles, one sign of the growing interest in
repurposing roadways into inviting public spaces
is the rapidly multiplying enthusiasm for street festivals
in celebration of non-motorized transit. In the summer
of 2006, when the Pasadena Freeway was shut down
for a few hours for the ArroyoFest Walk & Ride, 5,000
people showed up, most of them bicyclists and skaters.
Only four years later, the first CicLAvia drew 100,000.
Reflecting an emerging, grassroots vision of streetscapes as welcoming venues where residents can
walk, play, relax and socialize, a group of Silver Lake
neighborhood activists began developing the concept
for L.A.s first community-designed pedestrian plaza.
Completed in March 2012, Sunset Triangle Plaza
is located in a triangle of asphalt formed by three
intersecting streets. It features a sidewalk living
room with movable tables and chairs, planters, and
whimsically decorated pavement. This pilot project
was brought to life by a unique public-private partnership, led by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission,
called Streets for People. (See photo, p. 5)
Over the last six years, California lawmakers have
passed a series of ground-breaking laws aimed at
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and requiring that
our streets be designed to accommodate all road users
(see sidebar). Since transportation accounts for a
huge share of Californias greenhouse gas emissions,
transportation planners and city officials are now
mandated to find bold, innovative ways to help
people shift from short automobile trips to walking,
biking, and mass transit. Creating more compact
communities, and redesigning and retrofitting our
urban roadways will be essential to reaching this goal.
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The Living Streets Initiative

BEFORE

California Inches Toward

Streets for Everyone
Assembly Bill 32, the Global
Warming Solutions Act of
2006, and Executive Order
S-3-05 set ambitious goals for
the reduction of greenhouse
gases: by 2020, emissions will
be reduced to 1990 levels;
by 2050, emissions will be
reduced to 80 percent below
1990 levels.
Senate Bill 375, the Sustainable
Communities and Protection
Act of 2008, includes goals
to reduce greenhouse gases
through transportation and
land use strategies that
support walking, bicycling and
transit use.
Assembly Bill 1358, the
Complete Streets Act of 2008
requires circulation elements
within city and county general
plans to provide safe travel
for motorists, pedestrians,
bicyclists, children, seniors,
transit patrons and individuals
with disabilities.

Sunset Triangle plaza in silver lake

AFTER

Nationwide, 25 states and 275 cities and towns

have adopted regulations and directives recognizing
the need for roads and streets that are safe and usable
for walking, biking and public transit. In Los Angeles,
several of such policies have emerged in just the last
three years:

The Citys 2010 Bicycle Plan helps loosen the

automobiles stranglehold on planning decisions
not only acknowledging that streets must
accommodate bicycling, walking, and transit,
but appreciating their potential as venues for
recreation, retail and public gatherings.

In 2011, the City adopted Citywide Design

Guidelines to illustrate and guide ways that development projects can improve the streetscape
experience and enhance neighborhood walkability.

In early 2012, the County adopted the Healthy

Design Ordinance, which promotes the creation
of safe, convenient and pleasant places for
pedestrians and bicyclists to help reduce the
Countys obesity rates.

Although bicycle enthusiasts

are credited with coining the
term complete streets and
spearheading early efforts to
bring it to life in localities as
disparate as Portland, Ore., and
New York City, the movement
has attracted the support of a
variety of other interest groups
from mainstream organizations
like the AARP and the American
Heart Association, to activist
organizations like the Sierra
Club and Paralyzed Veterans,
to professional organizations
like the American Planning
Association, the Institute for
Transportation Engineers, and
the National Association of
County and City Health Officials.
The Living Streets Initiative

Green LAs
Living
Streets
Initiative
The Living Streets Initiative is Green LAs effort to
apply the principle of streets safe for all users
to Los Angeles. We are concerned not just with creating roadways
that fairly and inclusively balance the needs of walkers, bicyclists,
transit riders and drivers. Because environmental restoration
and economic equity are core values for Green LA, we also are
dedicated to revitalizing neglected neighborhoods. Working to
transform streets in the Citys urban core into vibrant, inviting
and green community spaces is a great place to begin.

As conceived by Green LA, Living Streets are

designed to:

involve local residents in the street design and planning process, using
their priorities and needs to bring improvements to specific streets;

enhance a neighborhoods social and economic vitality without inviting

gentrification and displacement of longtime residents and businesses;

improve residents health and quality of life by transforming their key

streets into enjoyable public spaces that are conducive to walking, biking,
and social interaction;

create inviting, pleasing places, with appealing street furniture, landscaping

and public art that reflect the neighborhoods cultural uniqueness and diversity;

help restore our urban ecosystems by adding trees and green space, and
incorporating features that capture rainwater and clean urban runoff.

The Living Streets Initiative

What Makes a Street

a Living Street?
Although their characteristics vary depending on the
density and other particularities of given communities,
Living Streets are meant to have as many of the
following features as possible:

Continuous, well-maintained sidewalks

of adequate width.

Improved crosswalk safetyhigh-visibility

crosswalks; curb extensions and crossing refuges
to shorten crossing distances; ADA compliant curb
ramps; on-demand pedestrian signals.

Streetscape improvementssidewalk furniture

such as benches, trashcans and planters, shade
trees and pedestrian lighting.

Place-makingfeatures that facilitate social

interaction: sidewalk living rooms, street plazas,
paseos, parklets, public art.

Bicycle infrastructurebike lanes, bicycle-friendly

streets, bike racks, changing and locker facilities.

Traffic calmingcurb extensions or corner bulbouts, traffic circles; sidewalk configurations that
facilitate social activity and create elements
of surprise.

Green infrastructurelandscaped parkways and

curb extensions incorporating water recapture
and management features such as rain gardens
where appropriate.

ABOVE: Photos via

Deborah Murphy
The Living Streets Initiative

The Need

The built environment structures and constrains

much of our daily lives, including whatever choices we
might make about living active or passive, healthy or
unhealthy lifestyles.The nearly 500 square miles that
comprise greater Los Angeles are the very definition
of car-dependent urban sprawl. In this enormous city,
a central fact of life is that our roadways and asphalt
pavements, which take up some 20% of available
land, exist to serve the automobile. This makes active
ways to get around like bicycling and walking not only
inconvenient, but uncomfortable and even dangerous.
Behind Living Streets is the idea that by focusing on
moving people, not traffic, we can envision a healthier
built environment; and we can begin by transforming
a key part of our infrastructure, our roadways, into a
healthier, more balanced circulatory system.
Putting the needs of people first is a reminder that
streets are not just thoroughfares, they are public
spaces. By thinking of roadways as destinations, not
just as traffic corridors, we can envision converting
substantial portions of our streetscapes into engaging,
vibrant places that can draw people out of their
cocoons, whether cultural, residential or automotive.
By bringing a human-centered approach to rethinking
our streets, we may even be able to begin to transform
the way of life that requires most Angelenos to spend
so much time in their cars.
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The Living Streets Initiative

OPPOSITE:
People trying to cross
a busy street with no
nearby crosswalk.

The Living Streets Initiative

BELOW: An unmaintained
sidewalk, broken by tree
roots, a common occurrence
in Los Angeles.

The Obstacles
In Los Angeles, with its 6,500 miles of public streets
and resources too tight even to cover such basics as
sidewalk repair and pothole filling, most of the features
considered best practices to promote the health, safety and
enjoyment of our streets are not easy to realize.
Although the Los Angeles General Plan includes policy language
reflecting complete streets principles, the City has yet to put
this intention into practice. Of the handful of LA streets with
substantial pedestrian- and bike-friendly elements, most were
created in connection with large private or public (Metro or CRA)
developments. A few other limited, small-scale pedestrian-and/or
bicycle-oriented sidewalk elements have been built on portions
of blocks by community-based organizations.

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The Living Streets Initiative

Improving the livability of Los Angeles

streets is impeded by a tangled thicket
of regulatory requirements, bureaucratic
procedures and other real or perceived
constraints:

A long tradition of planning that is carried

out development-by-development and siteby-site. This disjointed, piecemeal process favors
the higher-income areas that attract development.
Since developer fees are the primary way that
street improvements are financed, the few stateof-the-art street or streetscape enhancements
that have been tried tend to be in wealthier parts
of town, rather than where the need is greatest,
in the low-income areas where a large percentage
of residents depend on transit, walking and biking
to meet their daily needs.

Illogical, catch-22 transportation planning

criteria under which pedestrian and bicycle safety
enhancements can occur only if the need for such
improvements can be measuredi.e., expressed
numerically or statistically. This requirement is
often unattainable.

Reliance on vehicle level-of-service (LOS) metrics

that measure and evaluate traffic flow, but no
other conditions affecting pedestrians, bicyclists
and transit riders. By focusing only upon reducing
the average vehicle delay, these metrics give equal
weight to the delay experienced by a single person
in an automobile to the delay experienced by sixty
passengers in a public bus; moreover, these metrics
completely ignore negative impacts on bicyclists
or pedestrians.

Under the California Environmental Quality

Act (CEQA), the City must assess the potential
transportation impacts of prospective development projects. To quantify these impacts, the
City relies exclusively on LOS metrics. Paradoxically, this makes bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly
infrastructure and infill development difficult to
implement, since progressive projects of this kind
often yield metrics that (accurately) project a
slowing of automobile traffic.

Deeply entrenched, rigidly auto-centric

engineering practices and street design standards
that have emerged as transportation engineers
have worked for over half a century to meet their
single, overriding mandate: to keep the Citys
automobile traffic moving.

For planners
or community
organizations
interested in developing
a Living Street project, no
public records exist that
document the Citys limited
forays into non-standard
street improvements. And
no guide exists that might
explain how to navigate the
six or more different city
departments and agencies
that have a say in retrofitting
existing streets and/or
building new ones. Moreover,
any effort to repurpose
L.A. streets is hampered by
circumstances on the other
side of the counter, where
balkanized City departments
rarely communicate or
collaborate with each other.

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The Solution:
Green LA believes the best way to spark substantive
change is to lead the way with good practice. Policy
change at the state and municipal level may indeed be a start. But it
will not lead to meaningful, transformative implementation without,
at minimum, the creation of well-built model projects co-designed
by local residents.
Projects conceived and executed in this way can help policymakers,
agency staff and residents visualize what Living Streets might look
like. In addition, they can demonstrate to the Citys elected officials
and relevant department managers that Living Streets are not only
appealing, but achievable and affordable.

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The Living Streets Initiative

Good Practice
To this end, Green LAs Living Streets Initiative
has created a three-pronged strategy:
Demonstration Projects: Design and build
demonstration projects featuring a few simple, easily
removable elements such as sidewalk living rooms and
street porches.

ABOVE: Photo by Gary

Leonard; The first CicLAvia
open streets event in
Los Angeles on 10/10/10.

Prototype Streets: Build three prototype Living

Streets in the Boyle Heights neighborhood selected
and designed by community residents. These streets
feature permanent street improvements such as state
of the art pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes, street
trees and bioswales.
Implementation Blueprint: Monitor and
catalogue the main obstacles to implementing the
prototype Living Streets, and identify practical ways to
overcome them. Make this blueprint available to others
on the Living Streets LA website.

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Demonstration Projects:
Green LAs Living Streets Demonstration Projects
aim to show that underutilized pavement can
relatively easily be converted into welcoming and
dynamic public spaces. They are designed to be simple and
inexpensive to build and install; they are also temporary,
with easy to move features and components.

Demonstration Project #1
El Sereno Street Plaza,
Huntington Drive
For a pilot project in El Sereno, local residents working with
Council District 14 and Green LA chose a central spot in the
downtown business district adjacent to a busy Food 4 Less store and the local
hardware store and across the street from the Barrio Action Youth & Family Center.
The extra wide parking buffer adjacent to six-lane-wide Huntington Drive, and the
pedestrian and retail activity in the area make this an excellent location. Residents
also specifically decided to choose a location not adjacent to a restaurant or caf
to be sure the space would be seen as 100% public.
14th District Council Member Jos Huizar Identified funds to help pay for the
project, and through five community workshops, residents created a design that
captures local character through elements including giant terracotta pots, locally
popular fruit trees and ornamental plants and the silhouette of the iconic Elephant
Hill cut into the metal fence screens. Part of the plaza is on a wooden platform at
sidewalk level, with the remainder at street level, providing multiple spaces and
experiencesand universal accessibility.
Community members will help build the custom designed benches, planters
and platform working with members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps.
Residents chose built-in tables, chairs and metal umbrellas to create the sense of a
permanent public space and avoid the need to move the furniture in and out every
day. Because the project will be installed on an existing red curb area, no parking
spaces will be lost.
StatusGreen LA applied for permits in fall 2011 and expects is to obtain
approval and complete installation by the end of 2012.

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The Living Streets Initiative

BELOW: Community
visioning workshop
for El Sereno.

BEFORE

AFTER

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15

Demonstration
Project #2
York Boulevard Street Porch,
Highland Park
During the community design process for the York Boulevard
demonstration project in Highland Park, community members, working with
Council District 14 and Green LAs Living Streets team, selected what will become
the first street porch, in Los Angeles. Located on the shady side of the street
on the most active block of York Boulevard, and intentionally not attached to any
particular business, the street porch will provide community social space and
support all nearby businesses.
Council Member Jos Huizar identified city funds to pay for the project, and
through four workshops and many committee meetings, the community developed
an organic design featuring inset tile mosaic and river rocks; the motif alludes to
the history and natural environment of Highland Park and honors and engages the
areas emerging creative community.
The porch creates a social focal point and adds a bit of aesthetic appeal adjacent
to a lackluster paseo leading to a public parking lot. It also features an elevated
platform that puts it at the same level as the sidewalk. Because of its location
between an existing bike lane and the curb in a red curb area, no parking spaces
were lost.
StatusGreen LA applied for permits in fall 2011 and expects to obtain approval
and complete installation by the end of 2012.

BEFORE

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The Living Streets Initiative

 AFTER

Located on the shady side of the street on the most active block
of York Blvd., and intentionally not attached to any particular
business, the street porch will provide community social space
and support all nearby businesses.

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Prototypes:
1

Green LAs Living Streets Prototypes are

carefully designed, permanent street
enhancements whose main purpose is enabling
residents to safely and pleasantly walk, ride their bikes
and get to transit stops. The Prototypes aspire to be
cohesive models of pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly
streetscapes, with the kinds of features that residents
of L.A.s urban core most urgently need.
Green LA selected Boyle Heights for its three
prototype Living Streets because it is one of the
citys most neglected areas, with an urgent need for
infrastructure upgrades of all kinds. Although Boyle
Heights is a culturally rich neighborhood known for
its diverse ethnic history, nearly a third of its residents
now live below the poverty line. At 14,229 people per
square mile, it is also one of the citys highest density
areas. About 95% of Boyle Heights 92,000 residents
are Latino and Hispanic, 37% have no access to a car
or do not drive, and 63% are renters.

Prototype #1
Fickett Street
4

This Prototype, on a residential

street that is typical of Boyle Heights,
includes the following pedestrian safety
and green elements:
1. high-visibility zebra-stripe crosswalks with
advanced stop bars and yield lines
2. shade trees
6

3. pedestrian lighting to illuminate sidewalks

4. curb extensions on all four corners of
each intersection
5. paired curb extensions at entrances to alleys
6. bioretention areas (in planters surrounded by
low curbs) incorporated into curb extensions
where appropriate

PLAN

BEFORE

AFTER

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AFTER

Prototype #2
Wabash Avenue
This Prototype, on a typical neighborhood
commercial corridor, includes the following pedestrian
safety and green elements:
high-visibility zebra-stripe crosswalks, with advanced stop bars and yield lines
a mix of large-canopy palms and more traditional shade trees
curb extensions to provide bus bulb-outs at all stops
curb extensions continuing at lengthy red curbs, to provide more space
for activity
add bike lane in place of continuous painted median, retaining left turn pockets
at intersections
bioretention areas (in planters surrounded by low curbs) incorporated into curb
extensions where appropriate

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The Living Streets Initiative

BEFORE

LEFT: Residents designing

a sala publica (community
living room).

The Living Streets Initiative

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BEFORE

AFTER

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The Living Streets Initiative

PLAN

Prototype #3
Whittier Boulevard
This Prototype, on a major arterial boulevard
with several bus lines, includes the following pedestrian safety
and green elements:
high-visibility zebra-stripe crosswalks, with advanced stop bars and yield lines
pedestrian refuge median at key intersection with Mathews Street
existing Ficus trees retained; lifted sidewalks repaired and renewed;
new planting areas
bus shelters, shade trees and planting areas on all four corners at Soto,
a major transit intersection
curb extensions to provide bus bulb-outs where space allows and for new
activity areas along edge of park
bus- and bike- only lanes to improve transit service and bicycle access
bioretention areas (in planters surrounded by low curbs) incorporated into
curb extensions where appropriate

LEFT: Residents at
community meeting
identifying possible priority
street improvements.

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Community
Engagement in
the Selection &
Design Process
The heart and soul of Green LAs Living
Streets Initiative are the people who live in the
neighborhoods where our prototypes and demonstration projects will be built. Green LA firmly
believes that community change must be community
driven; we therefore launched our initiative by first
engaging local residents.
By linking up with local neighborhood organizations,
we engaged in a lively, instructive, and creative
participatory design process in each of our three
project neighborhoods El Sereno, Highland Park, and
Boyle Heights. The most extensive process occurred in
Boyle Heights, where our project partners are the East
Los Angeles Community Corporation (ELACC) and the
Union de Vecinos (see sidebar). Because of their deep
roots in the community, these grassroots organizations
were able to bring together over 50 Boyle Heights
residents to form a Community Task Force that led the
selection and planning of the prototypes.
Architect Holly Harper, the initiatives coordinator, and
designer Steve Cancian of Shared Spaces led task
force members in putting Living Streets principles
into practice, explaining phases of the design process
and coordinating construction. In workshops and
walk audits spanning six months, members studied
and assessed eight sets of interconnected streets,
identifying those four zones most urgently needing
safety improvements; they then weighed and mapped
out various site and design options, finally selecting
smaller stretches of two to three blocks within each
zone where the prototypes are being developed.

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The Living Streets Initiative

PHOTOS: Community
members at participatory
design workshops for the
Boyle Heights Prototypes.

One of the first lessons Green LA learned

from the participatory design process is that
community-defined priorities and perspectives can
be very different from the kinds of concerns identified
and addressed through conventional urban planning.
In Boyle Heights, residents choices wound up being
guided by four overriding objectives:

enhancing pedestrian safety

creating space that encourages social interaction

creating amenities and public space to facilitate

economic interactioni.e., space for street
vending and support for local small businesses

making more space available for sidewalks, trees

and plants

In a further series of brainstorming sessions, the task

force created specific conceptual plans and design
configurations for two groups of simple, small-scale,
inexpensive sidewalk enhancements to be built by
community members on St. Louis and Fickett Streets.
Residents themselves will work together in two
committees to install salas publicas or outdoor living
room sitting areas, paint a series of pavement murals
within five consecutive intersections, add trees and
planters, and erect a community bulletin board. As this
publication was going to press, completion was slated
for early Spring of 2012.

Our Partners in
Boyle Heights
East Los Angeles Community Corporation
advocates for economic and social justice through
affordable housing development, community organizing
and education. ELACC has been in operation since 1995.
Union de Vecinos is a grassroots community
based organization that promotes civic participation,
democracy, and the development of community power
in Boyle Heights and the City of Maywood. Union de
Vecinos started in 1996 working for the preservation
of the Pico Aliso public housing projects. Sixteen years
later they have a Network of Neighborhood and Issue
Committees working for participatory democracy,
economic and environmental justice, affordable housing,
and healthy and safe community neighborhoods.
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Charting Ways to Overcome

Implementation Obstacles
As Green LA started scoping out our prototypes and
demonstration projects, and project staff began exploring design options
with the City departments having jurisdiction over street improvements, it quickly
became evident that the bureaucratic and regulatory impediments to Living Streets
would be even more daunting than we originally thought.
In the course of numerous informal discussions with planning and engineering
staff, Green LA learned that even basic pedestrian safety elements such as
high-visibility crosswalks and added lighting are considered non-standard. This
designation means that approvals and permits are complicated and challenging
to obtain.
To aid independent planners, advocates and community-based organizations
interested in implementing future Living Streets projects in Los Angeles, Green LA
has created an Implementation Blueprint that summarizes what weve learned
about how to address the bureaucratic barriers to implementing Living Streets.
In matrix format, the Blueprint lists each of the specific design elements selected
for Green LAs prototypes, and next to each element, lays out in detail the
corresponding implementation obstacles and what it will take to overcome them.
(See sample section on opposite page.) A reference to the numerous codes,
regulations and standards that apply to each element is also included.
One clear pattern that emerges from the Blueprint is that many of the features
most integral to Living Streets, such as placing planter boxes or small garden
spaces beside sidewalks, or adding benches and lighting at existing bus stops,
are challenging to realize, as they require private financing and managementi.e.,
finding businesses and organizations willing to pay for the improvements and take
responsibility for their ongoing maintenance.
The Implementation Blueprint also highlights the kinds of policy changes needed
in order to realize Living Streets in Los Angeles. For example, the City must adopt
new measures of its transportation system efficacy, either moving away altogether

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The Living Streets Initiative

An example of the type of information contained in the Implementation Blueprint

Living Streets
Element

Major
Obstacle/
Issue

Controlling
Agency/Code

Comments/
Other Plans
Interaction

Strategies
to Overcome
Obstacle

High-visibility
crosswalk with
very wide stripes
in direction of
traffic

Los Angeles
only installs
the simple type
of crosswalk
consisting of
two transverse
lines, per
standard plan
S-481.0.

Californias
Manual of
Uniform Traffic
Control Devices
(MUTCD), 2010
LADOT,
Guidelines for
Marked Crosswalks Across
Uncontrolled
Approaches,
2008

Caltrans
Complete
Intersections
recommends
consideration of
this treatment at
all intersections.

High-visibility
crosswalks have
been installed
by LADOT but
only under
pressure from
local groups.

To view the full Implementation Blueprint please visit livingstreetsla.org

from automobile level-of-service analysis, or adopting meaningful, supplemental

performance measures that will facilitate the creation of more pedestrian- and
bicycle-friendly streets.
Although traffic engineers are very good at solving problems, traditionally their
one and only task is finding ways to move automobile traffic more quickly and
efficiently. They have done a remarkable job in Los Angeles and the incidence of
automobile collisions in the City is actually well below state or national averages
but at the cost of pedestrian collision rates that are among the nations highest.

Living Streets Need

Squeaky Wheels
Our initiative coordinator recounts a conversation with
a City transportation planner that reinforced Green LAs
philosophy of change:
Coordinator: Our Task Force wants to put in a highvisibility, zebra-style crosswalk on Fickett Street.
Planner: Non-standard. We dont do those.
Coordinator: Never? But Ive seen a few of them around,
like on State Street at Bridge.
Planner: Only under exceptional circumstances do we
ever do those.
Coordinator: What kinds of exceptional circumstances?
Planner: The project will tend to come at the
recommendation of a council office.

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Living Streets:
Where We Go From Here
Green LAs long-range goal is to facilitate the building of a
citywide, neighborhood-based network that can lead a grassroots
advocacy movement for Living Streets. Because Green LA is already a working
coalition of Los Angeles-based environmental and community-based organizations
united by shared concerns with restoring our urban ecosystems and a shared
commitment to environmental justice, we are well positioned to lead this kind
of work.
Over the next few years, however, Green LAs advocacy work around Living Streets
will focus on building the groundwork for transformation. Most of our work will
continue to take the form of creating model projects that can inspire, educate, and
help to raise the level of discourse about what kind of city we want to live in.
We will also expand the participatory design and planning process that we initiated
in 2010, and advance our work on the Implementation Blueprint. Our specific
objectives for 2012 and 2013 are to:
Obtain necessary permits and raise funds to build at least one of the three
prototype Living Streets in Boyle Heights that were selected and designed
by a task force of Boyle Heights residents in summer and fall of 2011.
Expand on the vision of the prototype streets by working with our Boyle
Heights partners to complete community-created Pedestrian Safety Plans
for larger areas surrounding the prototype streets.
Build an additional Living Street demonstration project with community
residents and stakeholders.
In the course of the permitting and construction process for the prototypes,
continue to refine and update the Implementation Blueprint to further
document specific barriers that arise, and determine the best ways to
overcome them.
Identify regulations, procedures and practices that may need to be modified,
and recommend possible policy solutions to ensure that developing and building
Living Streets projects in the City of Los Angeles is easier to accomplish.

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Acknowledgments
Green LAs Living Streets LA Initiative was started by the Transportation Work
Groups Living Streets Committee. The committee represents organizations and
professionals committed to reclaiming street space for people, in order to build a
healthier, more vibrant and sustainable Los Angeles.
Staff, consultants and key leaders on the Living Streets LA project are as follows:
Holly Harperis an architect and coordinator for Green LAs Calles para la Gente!
Boyle Heights.
Alexis Lantzis the Planning & Policy Director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle
Coalition; she is on the steering committee for Los Angeles Walks.
Ryan Lehmanis an urban planner and is working on Green LAs community-driven
Living Street projects on York and Huntington Boulevards.
Margot Ocaasformerly of RENEW LA County, is a consultant working on projects
that support Complete Streets policies and programs to affect health-positive
change in LAs built environment.
Steve Rasmussen Cancian is a landscape architect with Shared Spaces, who led the
participatory design processes for the Calles para la Gente! Boyle Heights project
and York and Huntington Living Streets projects.
Stephanie Tayloris Green LAs Executive Director. She oversaw theLiving Streets
Boyle Heights RENEW Initiative(Calles para la Gente! Boyle Heights).
Partners: East LA Community Corporation, Union de Vecinos and Councilmember
Jos Huizar who is leading the way for new street projects including the El Sereno
Street Plaza and York Boulevard Street Porch, and committed to help seek funding
for the Boyle Heights prototype streets.
Writer: Becca Wilson [email protected]
Graphic design: Colleen Corcoran designedbycolleen.com
and Joseph Prichard josephprichard.com
Demonstration Projects After Renderings: Kelli Rudnick
Boyle Heights Prototypes After Renderings: Abby Jones
Photographs by: Deborah Murphy, Gary Leonard, Colleen Corcoran

Living Streets LA

RENEW LA County is made possible by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention through the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

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The Living Streets Initiative

About Green
LA Coalition
Founded in 2005 by local environmental leaders,
Green LA embarked on a singular mission to transform
Los Angeles into a national leader in environmental
health and equity. Green LA grew into a vibrant
network that is building a movement to win campaigns
that can transform Los Angeles into a just and
sustainable city. Combining grassroots activism with
insider knowledge of City Hall, Green LA plays an
essential role in greening the city.
greenlacoalition.org
livingstreetsla.org
Green LA is a project of Community Partners

The Living Streets Initiative

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