Next City: Making Alleys a Place for Play (Not Old Couches)

[thelakelander]

The residents of South Los Angeles were initially a bit skeptical about the idea of green alleys. "When we first started talking to community members, they were like, 'No way,'" says Tori Kjer, a program director of the Trust for Public Land. After all, alleys are often seen as forbidding places in cities. "They're traditionally very much overlooked spaces for people to put out that couch they don't want or for weeds to grow," says Kjer. It was hard for people to imagine them as inviting or useful.

But that's what makes the idea so appealing, too — the prospect that a liability could be turned into an asset. The vision is to convert them into vibrant corridors crawling with greenery, and covered with environmentally friendly surfaces. They are intended to provide play space, biking and walking routes, and a variety of ecosystem services. After six years of research and community organizing, Kjer and her colleagues have won strong support from the community for their Avalon Green Alley Network Plan, and the renovation of two alleys is scheduled to begin early next year.

If the project is scaled up, it could have a substantial impact on the urban fabric: Los Angeles has a total of almost 900 miles of alleys, roughly the length of the coast of California. Proponents believe that on a citywide scale, green alleys could act as significant rainwater sponges, mitigate the heat island effect, and reduce vehicle use, as well as bring social and health benefits to nearby residents.

Full article: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/alley-makeover-green-alleys-los-angeles

[strider]

Springfield still has most of it's alley's intact.  I always thought utilizing the alley system that runs behind the commercial property along Main as a bike path could help solve some of the walk-ability issues with the way Main Street was redone.  In fact, when the redo of Main was being discussed, one of the trade offs was keeping parking and losing the bike paths because of the ability to use side streets (and alleyways) for biking.