Mapping Green Access and Equity, Bruce’s Beach, LA River Plan
Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities
The City Project is proud to release our new Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region. The Report is a guide for creating healthy, livable communities for all. The Report provides a positive vision to:
*Revitalize the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers
*Create healthy parks and schools
*Improve health and reduce diabetes
*Invest billions of dollars in infrastructure bonds
*Promote economic vitality, local jobs, and affordable housing
*Engage and empower communities.
Many parts of Los Angeles are park poor, and there are unfair park, school, and health disparities. Children of color disproportionately live in communities of concentrated poverty without places to play in parks and schools, with neither cars or transit to reach places for physical activity. These children disproportionately suffer from obesity and diabetes. Los Angeles has the chance to create healthy, livable communities for all.
Park Access and Schools for Children of Color Living in Poverty with No Access to a Car
The Policy Report provides GIS mapping, demographic and historical analyses, and policy and legal justifications, and ten principles for healthy parks, schools, and communities. The Report is available online, in hard copy, and on compact disc. Contact Aubrey White at awhite@cityprojectca.org for ordering nformation.
Celebrate Bruce’s Beach March 31 10:30 a.m.
Celebrate the renaming of an ocean front park back to Bruce’s Beach (aka Bruces’ Beach or Bruce Beach) on March 31, 2007, at 10:30 a.m. at Highland and 27th Street in Manhattan Beach. Bruce’s Beach was one of the few beaches in Southern California in the early 1900s that was not off-limits to African Americans. The City of Manhattan Beach condemned Bruce’s Beach and forced out the black community in the 1920’s and 30’s. The City Project has worked with Bernard Bruce, the Bruces’ grandson, to support the name change. It is important to do more than just change the name, however. Interpretive panels and public art should faithfully, completely, and accurately celebrate the proud legacy of Bruce’s Beach and African-American Los Angeles.
Read coverage in the Los Angeles Times and Easy Reader Part I, Part II, and Part III.
LA River Public Comments due March 27
The City Project, the Alianza de los Pueblos del Rio, and others will submit public comments on the draft L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan and draft environmental impact report to implement ten equal justice principles for healthy parks, schools, and communities. The Policy Report above guides and inspires our comments.
Welcome Joe Linton Director of River Projects
Joe Linton is the new Director of River Projects at The City Project. Joe is an activist and artist with experience in many urban environmental causes. He formerly served as Outreach Director for Friends of the LA River and as environmental deputy for Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes. Joe co-founded the LA County Bicycle Coalition. He is the author of Down by the Los Angeles River (Wilderness Press 2005).
