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M


ost city dwellers think of the back alley as a place to take out the trash.


But one Los Angeles neighborhood is poised to reclaim these long- neglected spaces. Several years ago, the city approached The Trust for Public Land about greening the back alleys of South Los Angeles, an area with few places to recreate but more than 300 linear miles of empty alleys ripe for repurposing. Green alleys combine traffic- calming measures like public art with natural landscaping like fruit trees and permeable pavement, mak- ing neighborhoods more walkable and beautiful while helping manage runoff. “Rainwater that falls in this neigh-


borhood goes to the Los Angeles River,” explains Trust for Public Land project manager Laura Ballock. “Every drop of motor oil or pet waste—all of that pollution is carried to the ocean.” To capture and treat some of that rainwater as it falls, The Trust for Public Land is helping locals design the Avalon Green Alley Network, a one-mile pilot project. After it’s built, neighbors will care for the plantings and enjoy the bike paths. And instead of polluting the river, rainwater that falls there will drain into the Los An- geles aquifer to be renewed as drink- ing water.


Officials hope success of the pilot project will inspire residents in Los Angeles and other cities to see the potential for ribbons of green just outside their backdoors.


5.


GREEN ALLEYS IN A CONCRETE JUNGLE


AN OYSTER IN THE STORM Green infrastructure need not be the size of an island: nature provides storm protection in smaller packages, too. One creative idea gaining curren- cy in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is to grow oysters in the harbor bordering New York and New Jersey—not to dine on, but to help shield the city against the next serious tidal surge. The hardy bivalves used to proliferate throughout the harbor, but disap-


peared during the 20th century due to industrial pollution. In 2010, New Jersey officials banned oyster research and restoration projects over con- cerns that contaminated oysters could be poached and sold on the black market.


But support is on the rise to restore the succulent shellfish to its former


glory. In addition to helping blunt storm surges, each oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day, removing dirt, algae, and urban runoff pollut- ants like nitrogen. Students at the New York Harbor School on Governor’s Island are testing oysters’ mettle with an experimental reef built under a floating dock in the harbor. “For thousands of years, oysters protected coastal regions from strong waves and storms,” the students wrote on The New York Times Dot Earth blog. “If we bring oysters back to New York Harbor, we restore the life that was once here and make our city more resilient to rising water levels and warming oceans.”


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