South L.A. might soon gain a new public park as city officials consider how to redesign Stocker Plaza, a grassy roadway median located in Leimert Park, a neighborhood roughly 3 miles west of USC.
But some residents question the safety of a park framed on all sides by local streets — Stocker Plaza, Garthwaite Avenue, 8th Avenue and 42nd Street.
“This park could be pretty dangerous because of the traffic and movement of cars over there, but I feel that the park would allow for more space for the kids to go somewhere and play, besides their backyard or front yard,” said Leimert Park resident Parrís Moton, explaining that the park could be a place for kids to meet and interact with neighbors in their age group.
Moton’s 10-year-old son, Elijah, attends the nearby 42nd Street Elementary School.
“I see parks mostly as places for little kids,” said Elijah Moton. “But I would play basketball there if there was a court.”
Alayisah Calloway, whose 5-year-old daughter Raelaunie also attends 42nd Street Elementary, agreed that cars passing by the park could be a safety concern.
“The plaza is busy with cars, but I feel like it could be controlled without any hassle,” she said.
Calloway says that she would like to see a swing set or small play structure built at the location.
The L.A. City Council voted to explore options for park amenities at the location, requesting city staff to explore the cost, design and constraints of the project — which could involve taking right-of-way space from surrounding streets.
Landscaping, seating areas, walking paths and a performance space or playground could potentially be added to the existing plaza.
L.A. City Councilwoman Heather Hutt, who represents the Tenth District, motioned to add park amenities to the Leimert Park median, explaining that the project offers a unique opportunity to repurpose an “underutilized public space” in a city that suffers from a lack of green space.
“Greater access to outdoor exercise space and recreation equipment will improve the mental and physical health of our constituents,” Hutt said. “By replacing this underutilized median with park space, we nourish a new community hub for constituents to enjoy and connect.”
More than 1.5 million Angelenos do not have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home, according to a Trust for Public Land report published earlier this year.
Hutt also motioned for a similar park to be built at Degnan Plaza — the median located at the intersection of Norton Avenue, Edgehill Drive and Degnan Boulevard.
Experts say parks not only impact local residents’ health and quality of life, but also influence communities’ relationships with policing and criminalization.
“We know that nearby parks, green spaces, access to nature within walking distance of your home is highly correlated with positive health and mental health outcomes and general well-being,” said Jon Christensen, director of Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) at UCLA. “This is not just an environmental issue or parks issue, it’s a health issue.”
Christensen contributed to the draft of this year’s L.A. Park Needs Assessment, an evaluation of parks in the city using community feedback and data to pinpoint which neighborhoods could benefit from more investment in green space.
Adjunct professor at the USC School of Architecture Jessica Henson, who also helped draft the report, said that the assessment takes into account how areas have been historically impacted by the criminal justice system.
“One of the things that we’ve been looking at is the JENI (Justice Equity Need) Index, which looks at the criminalization burden, which looks at neighborhoods where youth or populations may have a lot of characteristics that ultimately lead to that pipeline toward incarceration,” said Henson, a partner at the landscape architecture studio OLIN, one of the assessment’s consultants.
Leimert Plaza Park, a public park near Stocker Plaza, ranks higher on this scale relative to other parks in Los Angeles, such as Griffith Park and Ernest E. Debs Regional Park.
“In those neighborhoods, they’re really vulnerable to that sort of outcome,” Henson said. “So proactive investment in parks now in those communities actually changes the outcome of life for children that are growing up there today.”
Residents can still comment on the draft of this year’s L.A. Park Needs Assessment on the city’s website by clicking the button at the bottom of the window, or on the online PDF version of the report. The window for comments closes on Oct. 15.