By The Times editorial board, LA Times
March 16, 2014

City government is not necessarily known for its willingness to try new things or move quickly, or its flexibility in issuing permits. Activists and businesses often complain that attempts to beautify their communities get tied up in red tape. But a program from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation offers hope of a new ethos emerging in City Hall, one that empowers neighborhoods and city agencies to experiment with urban design.

The program, called "People St," invites community groups to apply for the right to convert a piece of city street into a plaza, a parklet or bike parking for one year. Ordinarily, if a group wanted to turn a curbside parking space into a sitting area, it would have to seek approval from multiple city departments and hire an architect and maybe a permit expediter to navigate the process, all of which could cost tens of thousands of dollars. People St will let neighborhoods try such projects temporarily, avoiding the expense and hassle of getting permits for a permanent structure. If the project succeeds, the community can work toward building something long-lasting in the space. If it fails, the community has no commitment to the project beyond the year.

The applicants, which could include business improvement districts or neighborhood councils, would build support, raise money, buy the furnishings and be responsible for daily maintenance. The Department of Transportation has developed preapproved plans for groups to use in designing projects, and city staff will handle the analysis to make sure that closing off a stretch of street or removing a parking spot won't have a significant negative effect on traffic flow. The department is now taking applications for the first cycle of projects, and those approved could be installed by November. That's lightning speed for City Hall.

People St is part of a movement to make L.A. more friendly to walkers and bicyclists and to create a more vibrant street culture. But it also injects a sense of experimentation and community leadership into the city's decision-making process. This isn't the mayor declaring that L.A. will plant a million trees or build 50 new parks. Here, the city is making it easier for neighborhoods to install their own mini-parks and to take the lead in shaping their urban environment. And there's little risk to those neighborhoods or the city, because the projects are temporary. It's too early to declare a new day at City Hall, but this could be a model for L.A., and a good one.

From LA Times: Link

By Ann M. Simmons, LA Times
September 30, 2013

A plan to increase the pedestrian friendliness of Los Angeles by blocking off parallel parking spaces and creating pocket parks on the adjacent sidewalk appears to be flourishing, according to city officials and backers of the project.

The pilot program could expand as a result of its success, they said.

The pocket parks, also called parklets, provide greenery, bike racks and a place to sit. They are typically no bigger than 6 feet wide and 20 feet long, or 120 square feet. Four have been installed in Los Angeles this year: Two on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, one on Huntington Drive in El Sereno and another on York Boulevard in Highland Park.

"This is a way of being creative and creating space in ... limited areas, in places with high density," said Councilman Jose Huizar, who co-sponsored the parklets pilot program with former councilwoman Jan Perry.

"There’s more activity,” Huizar added. “People are walking. So I think they've been highly successful."

Steve Rasmussen Cancian, who heads the community-based landscape design company Share Spaces and helped conceive the parklets in Highland Park and El Sereno, said the new parks were designed to reflect the community.

For example, the one in El Sereno has a Latino ambience with large flower pots, lots of color, fruit trees and the feel of an expansive plaza, Cancian said. At Spring and 6th streets, the parklet has a more “internationalist urban design ... to match what we see as the rising spirit of downtown L.A.,” he said.

In addition, the parklets on Spring Street focus on recreation. They sport stationary exercise bikes and one has a Foosball table.

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, associate dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a lead researcher at the school’s Lewis Center Complete Streets Initiative, which played an integral role in creating these new public spaces, said they seemed to be “catching on.”

More people appeared to be using the sidewalks, and the parklets were generally “very well occupied,” she said.

"I think they’re amazing,” said Kesha Macc as she sat one recent morning on a bench at the parklet at Spring and 6th in downtown Los Angeles. “It’s just a great meeting space. If you’re smoker-friendly you can sit there, you can smoke and chill out. Whenever I get cabin fever, I just come here to get out.”

Clad in high heels, Sandra Olsen was looking for a place to rest her feet and complete some paperwork when she came across the bench at 6th and Spring.

"I think it’s perfect,” Olsen said. “People walk so much in the city, and bike. It’s just nice to have an area where you can come and relax if you need to 'cause not all areas have benches.”

Megan Winters, who works downtown, said it was nice to have a pleasant place to sit outside and eat lunch.

Huizar said his goal was to find a way to make parklets a part of the planning process for Los Angeles. He said a report would be issued detailing the viability of the parks and gauging their success. His spokesman, Rick Coca, said in the coming months transportation officials would outline the structure for a citywide program.

"My goal is to have hundreds of [parklets] throughout the city of Los Angeles,” Huizar said. “It's a new way of thinking, a new way of adding to public amenities, to neighborhoods."

From LA Times: Link

By Andrew Bender, LA Times
February 22, 2014

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma traces its contemporary history to pioneers who populated the prairies. Now, new urban pioneers are repopulating the capital, Oklahoma City, as restaurateurs re-imagine landmark buildings and create new communities around them.

They could hardly have come at a better time: The local economy is booming, and Forbes ranks OKC as the nation's eighth-fastest-growing city, thanks to thriving oil, gas and wind-power sectors as well as fracking.

I was here in September for a consulting job, and I extended my stay to find these restaurants with a previous life. I had only three criteria: The restaurants had to have begun as some other kind of business, retain some of the old look and cook well.

It turned out to be an unexpected adventure in food, history and architecture.

I started in Bricktown, just east of OKC's compact downtown. Twenty-five years ago, these 45 city blocks of onetime warehouses sat mostly abandoned after the freight trains relocated. Now, Bricktown's music venues and clubs anchor the local night life, and hotels, restaurants and shops lend a low-key bustle during the day.

A 40-minute water-taxi ride ($9.50) on a canal built on a former street through Bricktown wends its way past mosaic murals and life-size bronze statues of rough-and-ready pioneers on horseback and wagon train. On my trip, the captain, a chatty young feller, narrated local sights, history and lore with patter not unlike that of Mark Twain.

Other big players have filled in Bricktown too: Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, home of the Houston Astros' triple-A farm team, the Oklahoma RedHawks; I Love this Bar & Grill, owned by Oklahoma-born country music star Toby Keith; and a branch of Sonic, Oklahoma's own drive-in burger chain. But it was the restaurants lining the canal that started it all and that store the local soul.

I stopped for lunch at one of the first, Nonna's Euro-American Ristorante & Bar, in a former 22,000-square-foot warehouse, with food that can feel almost as big: beef Stroganoff, Nonna's Favorite (meatballs over spaghetti with marinara and alfredo sauces), and giant cookies and strawberry shortcake for dessert. With entrees topping out at $15, it's a good value. I was inspired to hunt for more.

Next stop was Automobile Alley, just north of the downtown core, an eight-block-long stretch where restaurants, digital media and art and design studios have rejuvenated abandoned Art Deco- and Bauhaus-inspired car dealerships from as far back as the 1920s.

OKC is famous for livestock, and Red PrimeSteak is one of the top steakhouses in town. Behind the stately façade of a former Buick showroom — still sporting the original logo — is a futuristic world that the building's original occupants could scarcely have imagined: Long streaks of red neon imitate taillights, and the former auto turntable is now a private dining room. Besides steaks and cocktails, Red PrimeSteak serves cocoa-cayenne-dusted scallops and classic Southern fried chicken, at L.A.-style prices.

The walk up Broadway Avenue, Automobile Alley's main drag, took me to shops such as Rawhide, for Western clothing and accessories, and Plenty Mercantile, for handcrafted, back-to-nature gifts as well as crafts made by indigenous peoples. Coffee Slingers, once an auto repair shop, is now a cheery, airy coffee bar with its own roasting operation.

From LA Times: Link

I had spoken with several people who were on food stamps at earlier times in their life. While this challenge is clearly not walking in their shoes, it remains a way to bear witness and gives me much deeper appreciation and respect for many who find themselves economically challenged.

The week-long experience was truly eye-opening as I not only struggled throughout the week, but learned more about the kinds of people — and sheer numbers of people — who rely on this government assistance. More than 4 million working Americans — imagine, for example, everyone in the entire Boston metropolitan area — earn below the poverty line, qualifying them for SNAP. Many of them are restaurant workers who serve us food but cannot afford their own. America is among the wealthiest of nations in the entire world, yet 16.7 million of our children are living in food-insecure households.

Getting a small sense of how difficult it is to actually live that reality made the numbers even more disconcerting. I realized how impossibly hard it is to thrive on such a small amount. There were many times I felt hungry, sometimes light-headed, and my energy levels were constantly low. We cannot expect hard-working Americans and their children to live this way.

I am fortunate that this all ended for me Friday, but for so many Americans there is no end in sight. The hunger, the stress of surviving off of just $5.27 a day and the lack of energy that comes from eating so little are persistent problems for too many Americans who don’t have the luxury of quitting the “challenge” after just a week.

I leave this challenge with a renewed sense of urgency to fix this broken system. There is no excuse for this. We must do better.

Check us out on Facebook or read my blog of my day-to-day experiences participating in the SNAP Challenge.


From Smart Assets Philanthropy New York Blog : 
http://blog.philanthropynewyork.org/2013/03/19/creating-a-conversation-about-hunger-in-america/#more-4009