Is it possible to turn a Los Angeles neighborhood into a green project? The Elmer Avenue neighborhood project is an important green street initiative in the Los Angeles area that more people need to learn about. The Elmer Avenue is an initiative where people work together in order to improve the neighborhood they live in. Elmer Avenue is known as an active neighborhood where families have neighborhood parties and dances, and people listen to pop or electronic songs from the comfort of their homes. According to the article by Elson Trinidad, it is located on 7700 Elmer Avenue between Stagg and Keswick. 
    

The reason Elmer Avenue was chosen for the project is due to the problems it used to be and how people came together to save their neighborhood. From the past it did not have sidewalks for people to walk on, there were also no streetlights to light up at night, or drains for the rainy weather. Flooding made driving the street more difficult including parking at their houses. What it mentions in the dry garden from Los Angeles times, many homeowners, who moved in to the neighborhood, had trouble managing during the rainy seasons. Water would over flow the road, including front yards, due to a lack of any drains to remove all the water that would build up each time there was a massive storm. This issue would cause problems to community members in this area. People who got trapped in the floods would have a hard time avoiding flood waters. 



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Plants panted in the neighborhood. Picture by Adolfo Can

Plants planted in the front yard with bricks around it. Picture by Adolfo Can

        Another example from the dry garden article mentions a women named Veronica Avalos, who is one of the homeowners who moved to the neighborhood during the El Niño in 1997-1998 experiencing the problems of ElmerAvenue. Avalos described the flood as a swamp due to no sidewalks for people to walk on. She also explained the problems with flood control. Veronica mentions that every two inches of rain created massive flooding on the street. One day the teams from the Department of Public Works started to show up. The dry garden article also explain that they began to talk about building new curbsides and promoting the new water system in order to repair Elmer Avenue. Teams were formed to turn this project into a reality. 

The teams involved in this project were Los Angeles, San Gabriel Rivers Watershed, Tree People, and Urban Semillas. Avalos liked the idea of repairing Elmer. As a long time, community member, Avalos was a supporter in allowing these teams to repair Elmer Avenue in order to have a better living. Green’s article explain that Many community members also agreed that this project would benefit the community. All homeowners in this area had to sign a deal to repair Elmer Avenue. It made many residents realize that their living conditions were a big problem. 

 The residents decided to work together to rebuild Elmer Avenue including adding new “sidewalks, curbs, plants, and trees”. Residents of the community followed the advice the organizations gave them to help maintain and repair any damages that were done. Author Green also mentions all twenty-four homes on the block donated their own front lawns to efficiently start constructing bioswales to prevent floods. The watershed manager named Edward Belden, created the concept of bios Wales to control the massive floods on Elmer Street. Green explains, the Bios Wales were able to drain out any run off water from the surface letting it slowly infiltrate into the ground, which is then sent to the galleys.

Buckets: Use to collet water from the gutters in order to water the plants. Photo by Adolfo Can

Solar panel: Use to receive energy for light. Picture by Adolfo Can 

They extended the galley, so the water would go underneath the ground faster. Avalos and the other residents started to become more eco-friendly by adding rainwater buckets to the gutters and using the collected water for the plants. Many new solar panels were added on top of the street lights in order to save electricity. A small description from LA city website mention that they began to do phase two by turning a dirty old alley into a walkway project that was converted into a paved 20’ x 270’ pocket park which allowed the water to be better preserved and is designed to reduce, capture, treat and infiltrate the storms’ runoff from forty acres. 

 It's important for students and members of other communities to visit Elmer Avenue to learn how the people in this community created a better living. The Elmer Avenue story can help influence others to do the same and improve their neighborhoods. This is a great way for people to work together and get to know the people living in their neighborhood. People can learn to use the project in order to make their own neighborhoods green. 

Student crossing street: Every semester 
Ricard Matzen Woodbury University 
writhing professor takes student’s to 
Elmer street to able to learn about the 
neighborhood green project. Picture's by Adolfo Can

A field trip of Woodbury University students with Professor’s Matthew Bridgewater and Michael Sonksen.