Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative

This programming and activation project will launch the new Western Gage Community Park, a community-created green space and transit hub in a disadvantaged South L.A. neighborhood. Funding will provide a daily, local hire park steward and a schedule of regular arts, fitness, and cultural programming for all ages. This park activation is designed to secure the Western Gage Community Park as an accessible, vibrant, welcoming public space for the surrounding community and cultivate neighborhood cohesion, safety, health, and engagement.

Western Gage Park transforms two vacant lots in a disadvantaged neighborhood with little green space; thanks to community efforts since 2007, the Tot Lot opened in 2020, and the Median Park will break ground in 2023. LANI will facilitate a community-led design process so that Median Park meets residents' needs and reflects the neighborhood. We will work with a local Steering Committee and solicit ideas from everyone in the community, at in-person events and online, and the chosen park design will be presented at a groundbreaking celebration!

Our Mobile Digital Community Meeting Kit will help bridge the “digital divide” in low-income, immigrant, and primarily BIPOC neighborhoods that prevents stakeholders from engaging in community planning and improvement projects. We will provide supported, COVID-safe access to digital meetings, surveys, and other community-wide interactions using Meeting Kit laptops, tablets, and WiFi hotspots. We will also offer general digital literacy resources to help people more broadly connect to technology and information.

We will create small-scale public murals, or “selfie spots,” in 3 neighborhoods - the Byzantine-Latino Quarter, Watts, and El Sereno - to attract locals and visitors and serve as cultural place-making icons. Each art piece will be designed and executed by local artists with community volunteers of all ages, and will celebrate the multigenerational bonds and unique local culture of its neighborhood. The selfie spots will bring new visitors and economic activity to each neighborhood, and connect friends and family of all ages to play and share.

LANI and the Urban Forestry Division will work hands-on with community members to guide them through the process of repairing their cracked sidewalks, making the streets of Los Angeles safer for all.