“This alley is in front of my house. It used to be like a garbage dump. Now my kids can ride their bikes and scooters here until they are tired.” — Freddy Martinez, pictured below
what counts
Even in the densest cities, there’s room for green space if you know where to look. Take Los Angeles: the sprawling streets are interlaced with 900 miles of alleyways—the majority unused and unsafe. So why not turn that dead space—an area twice the size of New York’s
Central Park—into an asset? That’s the idea behind our Avalon Green Alley demonstration project, which aims to repurpose nearly a mile of neglected alleyways in South Los Angeles into walkable, bikeable, beautiful public space. Lush plantings and permeable pavement will keep alleys cool and en- able them to absorb and filter stormwater—diverting thousands of gallons of runoff a year before it can pollute local waterways. A group of dedicated locals are stepping up to make the vision a reality.
Calling themselves the Equipo Verde (Green Team), they’ve been meet- ing monthly to organize cleanup days and knock on doors to recruit their neighbors. We recently joined the team to plant fruit trees, paint a mural, and talk about their progress so far.
87
… cups of lemonade sold by nine- year-old Parker Robinson, a fourth-grader at Lafayette Street Elementary School in Newark, New Jersey.
Parker’s schoolyard is a half acre of plain asphalt—not much fun at recess. So when he heard that The Trust for Public Land was working to transform it into a real park, he took a refreshing approach to helping out. From a makeshift stand built from refrig- erator boxes, he set up shop on a warm Friday afternoon. By the time the pitchers of fresh-squeezed lemonade ran dry, Parker had made $87 to donate to his school’s new playground.
FIRST LOOK · 21
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