Green Living

The folks at the Livable Streets  initiative are “taking back our cities, one street at a time.” They’ve set up a network of Streetsblogs in five major cities, and Los Angeles is one of them.

So what makes a street livable?

It depends on who or what you’re talking about wanting to make feel at home, cars or humans. 

I talked to Damien Newton, editor and blogger at LA.Streetsblog and transportation activist, who defines a livable street as one more concerned with moving people than moving cars from point A to point B.  Unfortunately, we all know that if there are too many cars, people aren’t so comfortable. While the ones inside the vehicles may have temperature control and their favorite playlist going, they still have congestion on the roads and in the air to contend with. And cyclists, pedestrians and people at the bus stop have an even hairier situation. Plus, in current traffic counts, their numerical value is 0.

But LA.Streetsblog is all about solutions. Creative solutions. It’s a source to learn about and take action for saner streets in our city, the kind you want to spend some time meandering. It’s an advocate for all the spokes of the alternative transportation wheel, if you will, that posts information about biking, walking, public transit and open space happenings that affects our communities.

We just might nullify the lyrics of that Missing Persons song if the sidewalks were wider and dotted with trees, we had green medians and the streets were bike-friendly.

Two projects on Newton’s radar: a new possible park on Olympic and Grand and the beautification project on the Sunset Strip that goes beyond beauty.

Check out LA.Streetsblog and get in on the action to create a walkable, bikable, livable Los Angeles.

Tags: alternative transportation, bike lanes, cyclists, l.a. transit projects, l.a.streets, lastreetsblog, livable streets, new urbanism, pedestrians, public transit, Transportation, transportation los angeles