Social Bridges: Reimagining LA Waterway Crossings as Social Destinations

Green space, park access, and trees

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

We aim to address a critical equity issue in Los Angeles: the chronic lack of public parks in communities of color.
Decades of discriminatory planning have left many neighborhoods—particularly Black and Latino communities—with little to no park space. This has contributed to deep disparities in public health, climate resilience, and social cohesion. We’re responding with community-driven design interventions that transform underutilized waterway infrastructure into vibrant public parks in Los Angeles neighborhoods of color.
From the Trust for Public Land:
"In Los Angeles, residents in neighborhoods of color* have access to 33% less park space per person than the city’s average neighborhood and 72% less than those in white neighborhoods".
*Neighborhoods of color are defined as those in Los Angeles with the highest concentrations of people who identify as Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, multiple races, or other communities of color.

The Social Bridges initiative aims to address the lack of public parks in neighborhoods of color by applying three design typologies to Los Angeles’ waterway bridges:
Visor Parks – Small, shaded rest areas for pedestrians and transit riders, featuring seating and scenic overlooks of urban waterways.

Working Bridges – Dual-level bridges that support urban agriculture through integrated platforms, repurposed water systems, and spaces for food production and community markets.

Habitat Bridges – Ecological nodes that enhance biodiversity, support riverine wildlife, and offer educational opportunities focused on urban ecosystems and constructed habitats.

Each typology is designed to be scalable across Los Angeles, transforming overlooked infrastructure into inclusive, green, and multifunctional community destinations.
A grant from LA2050 would support the development of typologies and prototypes to test the Social Bridges initiative’s potential to expand accessible park space in underserved neighborhoods.

Urban land in Los Angeles is scarce and expensive, making it difficult to fund new parks through land acquisition alone. The Social Bridges Initiative offers an alternative by adapting L.A.'s existing urban waterway bridges into new public parks. The goal is to evolve this into a countywide Social Bridges park system—an innovative urban waterway network rooted in equity. By prioritizing installations in park-underserved neighborhoods, the initiative aims to close racial and economic gaps in access to green space across Los Angeles.
If successful, the urban acupuncture–based Social Bridges initiative would help shape a new kind of Los Angeles County park system—one that more equitably serves all residents, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or neighborhood.