CPCP Catalyst Initiative: Los Angeles

CATALYST INITIATIVE ROUND 2

MarĂ­a del Carmen Lamadrid, a media designer, and Shawn Jackson, an engineer and interaction designer, worked with David De La Torre and the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch in Los Angeles, an association of Elysian Valley residents who work together to maintain a clean and safe neighborhood. Their work together focused on how artistic practice and participatory design can amplify often overlooked voices and create strategies for a neighborhood to organize around issues of public safety. Their story over a year of collaboration is one of listening to community, designing delightful interventions around places of contention, navigating challenges faced by a population combating the effects of gentrification, and leveraging neighborhood concerns into civic action.

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Contents The Partners

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How it Started

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Planning 5 The Event

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Learnings 12 Successes 14 Ripple Effects

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THE PARTNERS 2 - LOS ANGELES

The Partners

María del Carmen Lamadrid is a media designer and

Elysian Valley Neighborhood

tinkerer currently based in Los Angeles. She merges

Also known as Frogtown, the Elysian Valley neighborhood

social interventions, fabric objects and technological

is located between Interstate-5 and the Los Angeles

speculations with participatory action research to

River, close to downtown L.A. This small, densely-

tease out hyper-local points of tension around land-use.

populated neighborhood is home to primarily Latino and

María’s use of media design are inspired by post-colonial

Asian-American residents, many who are connected to

theory as a way to create visual artifacts while producing

families evacuated by force in 1959 from the nearby

culture and community empowerment in Los Angeles

Chavez Ravine to make space for the construction of

and abroad.

Dodger Stadium. Due, in part, to the revitalization of the Los Angeles River’s waterfront and the proximity to

Shawn Jackson is an engineer and an interaction

downtown, Frogtown is rapidly gentrifying.

designer living in Los Angeles. He applies visual design and code to craft experiences that are as delightful to use as they are functional. He’s worked on information graphics and icon systems at frog, and web development and ethnographic research at Kaiser Permanente Innovation Consultancy. More recently, Shawn designed a user interface for data visualization and built interactive installations for public outreach at NASA/JPL. His design practice is profoundly interested in leveraging technologies that can foster communication, introduce delight and lead to moments of discovery in our everyday transactions.

Together, María and Shawn make up Supercommunity, a social design and technology collaborative in Los Angeles.

David De La Torre is a long-time resident of Elysian Valley. He is the head of the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch, the Chairperson of the Jardín Del Rio Community Garden, and served as a neighborhood council board member and community organizer.

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HOW IT STARTED 4 - LOS ANGELES

How it Started María has previously worked with residents of Elysian Valley, including collaborating on the community vision project Futuro de Frogtown and working on other related projects such as the Elysian Valley Knowledge Hub. María and Shawn first connected with the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch during a community-building workshop in 2014.

As María and Shawn began conversations with David De La Torre and the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch, they learned about residents’ concerns surrounding the Los Angeles River Trail, a bike and pedestrian path along the Los Angeles River in close proximity to many homes. Previously a dirt pedestrian path used by families and elders from Elysian Valley, the trail was paved over and branded as part of the Northeast Los Angeles Riverfront District (NELA), as part of efforts to revitalize the river’s waterfront.

María and Shawn learned that many residents felt the changes in their neighborhood, including the rapidly rising housing costs, were directly related to the installation of the Los Angeles River Trail bike path. Tensions grew as the narrow path was used by an increasing number of cyclists. Several collisions took place between resident pedestrians and cyclists from outside areas speeding through the neighborhood. In one such incident, a 65 year old woman was hit by a cyclist and fractured her arm. In another incident, a man in his mid-70’s was knocked over and sustained a major leg injury from a

“Everyone is aware of the need: the neighborhood, the bike coalitions, but the city is not responding appropriately.”

passing cyclist, and instead of stopping and offering aid, the cyclist threw his water bottle at the man and rode on. Incidents such as these led to resident-led walking protests on the path to block

– DAVID

cyclists. Seniors who previously walked in groups along the path for exercise became fearful and disbanded. And while neighborhood residents have been working with the city to find solutions, David expressed the need for greater awareness of the problem and stronger measures to protect walkers, and welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with María and Shawn on the neighborhood's “Share the Path” campaign.

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PLANNING 6 - LOS ANGELES

Planning María, along with David’s daughter Jazmin De La Torre, attended a two-day capacity building workshop led by CPCP in Chicago during the summer of 2015.

From those conversations and other planning sessions that also included Shawn and David, the team began to design an event that would bring both cyclists and pedestrians together in a fun and light-hearted environment.

Shawn and María attended meetings of the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch to connect with residents. During one of these meetings, residents questioned members of the LAPD about a recent police car chase on the bike path and how they can secure the path from vehicular access before a greater tragedy occurs.

“We had our neighborhood watch meeting this last Wednesday and it was well attended, with the local police chief present.

The biggest topic for conversation was a police chase on the bike path, with both cyclists and pedestrians present, as high as 50 miles per hour. It is the most alarming of issues to date, we're fortunate no one was killed.”

– DAVID

These additional incidents motivated the team to develop a different type of engagement around this contentious space. Both María and Shawn were interested in finding ways that playful interventions with technology could visually make the Elysian Valley neighborhood more present in the minds of the cyclists using the path; to ask cyclists to acknowledge the people and places they are sharing space with; and to envision themselves as part of the same community.

They, in conversation with David, decided to host a series of free public art and technology workshops along the path focused on creating a safety zone for both cyclists and pedestrians.

“We're coordinating a more robust workshop, which we're calling "PathHack: A Day of 'hacking' the Los Angeles Greenway Trail," to create a slow-zone in direct reaction to the lack of action by the City to institute safety measures on the path.”

– MARÍA

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THE EVENT 8 - LOS ANGELES

The Event PathHack took place on Saturday, November 21, 2015 at the Spoke Cafe in Elysian Valley, just off the L.A. River Trail. They partnered with the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition and hosted a series of playful workshops and interactions for both neighborhood residents and cyclists to: create individualized safety signs and shirts build safety lights for increased visibility add bells, neon lights, and other sound devices to bikes for boosted awareness share strategies about how cyclists and pedestrians can safely co-exist in the same space As a strategy to get the cyclists from outside the area to see more of the Elysian Valley neighborhood, MarĂ­a and Shawn invited path users and residents to take photos of personally significant places in the neighborhood and post them on Instagram at #evpathhack.

The photos were then displayed digitally on a monitor mounted to a stationary bike outside the cafe. As the riders pedaled, they would see a personalized view of the neighborhood they were passing through. They also gave a free bike away to an Elysian Valley resident and the cafe gave out coffee. The event was attended by over 50 residents and cyclists.

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“Within activism there’s the idea of marching and forming protests as a way to discuss injustices - for me it was really nice to discuss gentrification through bike safety in a really delightful event. A lot of kids came out and made safety signs and talked about what they’d like to see in their neighborhood - seeing things from a different angle was really great.”

– M A RÍ A LOS ANGELES - 11

LEARNINGS 12 - LOS ANGELES

Learnings During the event, María and Shawn encountered several challenges.

The day began with a misunderstanding with the cafe owner.

Additionally, María and Shawn discovered that opinions of the cafe, which had previously been viewed as a neutral space for both residents and cyclists to enjoy, had shifted. A local group protested just outside the event, upset about the cafe’s application for a liquor license and intention to begin construction on a new microbrewery on site. The protesters were unhappy David and the neighborhood watch partnered with a business that would bring vices into the community.

After the event María expressed that, while David was more present in promoting the event on the ground in the neighborhood, she and Shawn did the bulk of the logistical and partnering work for the event, spending more time than she had anticipated. She was disappointed that only about 10 local residents came to the event and she wished that they would have been more involved in attending neighborhood councils and watch meetings, to build a stronger rapport with the residents.

“I learned a lot. If I were to do the same event again - we’d need another partner to help with logistics, in addition to David. Because we were both small, it constrained our ability to do a lot of other work that we wanted to do.”

– MARÍA

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IMPACT 14 - LOS ANGELES

Impact To follow-up on both the partnership process and event, María, Shawn, David and Jazmin met up with Shannon Scrofano, CPCP Director of Design, for a conversation several months after PathHack. David spoke about how the vibe on the path has shifted, relating many of these changes to PathHack and the partnership between the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch and María and Shawn.

Recent Successes There have been no recent incidents between cyclists and pedestrians.

They have observed sustained increased politeness from cyclists.

There is an upswing of recreational activity along the path.

David attributed the visible increase in recreational activity to a changed perception by both cyclists and residents of how the space is utilized.

“The more active people become in the space, everyone is forced to share it and share it safely.”

– DAVID

“It goes through phases - with more types of people using the space - people from neighboring communities, and it’s becoming a space where you can meet new people.”

- JAZMIN

David and Jazmin reported that they helped start a new running club in the spring of 2016.

Groups of neighbors come together on Saturday mornings to run on the path. They are sharing the path with the cycling community and feeling a new sense of friendliness from cyclists.

“It actually has proven to be really useful to slow bikers down. The neighbors are overtaking the bike path without it being a protest or a traditional march, where people are decrying an injustice but instead they are literally 10-15 people running through the bike path, occupying the space, they’re exercising, they’re taking back the space, protesting in a more delightful way. That’s amazing. A more important strategy.”

- MARÍA

“I’m getting to enjoy the space like I used to, when I was a kid.”

- JAZMIN

“Maybe it’s because I’m being more friendly too; there is definitely more engagement.”

- DAVID

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Ripple Effects David mentioned that since the PathHack event, there have been other bike-centric events held by organizations, such as the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition, who shifted their strategies to include more input from neighborhood residents. For these events, the organizations made it a point to reach out to residents on multiple occasions, to understand the dynamics of the path through Elysian Valley and to route accordingly. They also added children-oriented components to their events, promoted their events directly to the neighborhood, and made the events free for Elysian Valley families, offering free membership to all who participated.

“We’re building relationships and getting to know one another. It’s a partnership on both sides that gets things done.”

- DAVID

In response to the PathHack event and frequent requests from the neighborhood to improve safety measures along the path, the city deployed a striping prototype in one of the neighborhood streets to create a slow-down zone for bikers, and plans to add magnified rumbling components to the areas of the path where pedestrians enter.

David has begun working with the city council and with developers to plan 3 new gate locations to restrict dangerous vehicle access to the path. He reported that planning conversations on this level was something they hadn’t been able to achieve before.

“Ten or twelve years ago when the path appeared, I was the militant guy. But now - how do we come together as partners in safety? I started out frustrated that they city government wouldn’t hear our concerns and frustrations, and then they did what we had told them not to… but now we’re working on - how do we collectively improve the path?”

- DAVID

“What I enjoyed the most about working with David is learning how he interacts with his neighborhood; I really enjoyed the ability to give them the resources to direct something that is different. It’s easy for an organization as small as a neighborhood council in a neighborhood as small as Elysian Valley to get overlooked as a key player beyond what they do reporting on safety issues and criminal activities.”

- MARÍA

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The Catalyst Initiative is an action research initiative — a model for supporting, advancing, and learning from innovative artist and community partner collaborations in order to reveal new possibilities for artistic contributions to community problem-solving and growth.

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