Credit: Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, Complete Streets, Spring Street Parklets
Earlier this month, Los Angeles got itself its first parklets. Located in Downtown Los Angeles, the parklets are the first two of the four parklets to be installed as a pilot program that will inform the implementation of what is expected to become Los Angeles’ very own City-wide parklets program. For the last two years, the collaborative known as the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council (DLANC) Complete Streets Working Group, with help from an array of donors, businesses, volunteers, and local residents, amongst others, has worked to create support around the project. Included in their efforts has been an exhaustive public life study, aptly called Parklet Studies, of the Spring Street Corridor, where the installed parklets are located. Beginning next month, the study team will follow-up with an evaluation of the parklets’ impact on local public life. For those addressing informality, one may want to ask how these projects parallel informality in urban environments. How are they inspired by those temporary moments of ownership of public space by street vendors? Or more permanent ones by favela residents?
To learn more about the parklets and to get some ideas about project management, design development, implementation, and evaluation for your own intervention projects, definitely take a look at the resources the Working Group has shared here: DLANC Complete Streets Spring Street Parklets
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