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Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Underprivileged urban communities often have less parks than wealthier communities. Even when new parks are built and are physically accessible to such communities, park design and programming is often undertaken without community input and may result in psychologically inaccessible parks. To address this problem, the California Department of Parks and Recreation piloted a community outreach intervention in a newly created Los Angeles park. It employed the promotores model, which uses community members as outreach ambassadors. Using participant observations, interviews, and a survey, we evaluated the intervention's success in recruiting and training promotores, organizing community outreach, and making the park more accessible to underprivileged communities. We found that the promotores helped increase community involvement in park programming, thus enhancing procedural justice, and also helped enhance park use by previously underrepresented groups. We conclude with recommendations about how the promotores model can be improved and used more effectively in park planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined land use and design controls in three municipalities in Los Angeles County (CA)—Alhambra, Arcadia, and San Gabriel—that have experienced a recent influx of Asian residents. We drew from archival research of newspaper articles, planning documents, city council and planning commission meeting minutes, and interviews with 14 local planners, architects, planning and design review commissioners, and resident groups. We found that the three cities developed stringent development controls, encouraged Anglo or Spanish heritage architectural styles, and issued new guidelines and ordinances during the period of changing demographics. These actions often stemmed from White residents' fear of losing their neighborhoods and interest in maintaining their existing landscapes. We detail here four contestations relating to mansionization, architectural styles, historic preservation, and massage parlors. The study is important for planning practice because it shows that development controls and design guidelines may be developed in reaction to increased anxieties about immigration and in ways that counteract the interests and values of some minority residents. Planners in ethnically diverse communities need to be aware of and respond to the possible exclusionary effects of design and land use controls. They need to better listen to newcomers' concerns, integrate their voices in decision making, and educate both newcomers and long-time residents about the importance of each other's cultural heritage. Planners may seek to exercise professional ingenuity in developing and implementing design and planning regulations that better balance spatial identities and accommodate conflicting tastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sett ings planned and designed with children in mind, playgrounds have a lot to off er to children’s physical, social and educational development. However, US playgrounds are often underutilized by middle-school children, as they become upstaged by electronic and computer games. This article explores the reasons for playground underutilization in the US through a historic overview of playground development and a review of literature sources that discuss the causes and consequences of playground utilization. It also draws from an empirical study of the author, who surveyed 897 middle-school children and 348 parents in twelve middle schools in Los Angeles to examine their feelings toward playgrounds and fi nd out why they do not visit playgrounds more often. The survey found that many children found the playgrounds unexciting and wished for a diff erent and more interactive sett ing. In response to this sentiment, the last part of the article examines the concepts of ‘smart park’ and ‘interactive playground’ and discusses opportunities that smart and interactive technologies present for developing twenty-fi rst century playgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighborhood change is a complex phenomenon that may result in a range of physical, demographic, and economic changes in a locality. Using four case studies of transit neighborhoods in Los Angeles, this study utilizes a mixed-methods approach to examine a particular aspect of neighborhood change—gentrification. The article also compares and contrasts the type of data gathered by different methods to help us understand each method's potential and limitations in capturing gentrification trends in neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gentrification impacts commercial areas in various ways, bringing new businesses and displacing old ones. Recent studies have found links between gentrification and transit-oriented development (TOD) around stations. But little is known about how gentrification affects pedestrian and cyclist safety. This study analyzes collision patterns around 81 rail stations in Los Angeles County and 132 rail stations in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1997 and 2015, examining if such patterns are different between gentrified and non-gentrified commercial stations. We find that in both regions, the mean number of annual collisions at commercial stations that have experienced gentrification is over two times higher than at commercial stations that have not experienced gentrification. We construct multivariate regression models of automobile-pedestrian and automobile-bicycle collisions based on population, urban form, and gentrification data within a half-mile area around the stations, and find that pedestrians and cyclists are at a higher risk of collision around commercially gentrified stations relative to non-gentrified ones in Los Angeles County, but not in the Bay Area. Our final models explain from 55% to 77% of the variation in station area collisions. These findings have significant implications for cities that wish to concentrate development around stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a means for neighbourhood improvement, cultural urban revitalisation seeks to draw business growth and investment by attracting a creative class of young urban professionals. Though criticisms abound that these strategies beneit the wealthy and displace low-income communities, there is little research focusing on how the efforts of social actors can shape or resist this process. The purpose of this study is to offer a micro-level look at the spatial and political contestations and negotiations that occur amongst a variety of community organisations and individuals in two adjacent neighbourhoods in downtown Los Angeles undergoing revitalisation. By approaching 'revitalisation' as an arena where different neigh- bourhood groups can compete to achieve their goals, it argues that we scrutinise prevailing notions of gentriication and seek to understand the values and actions of stakeholders involved in order to enable more equitable outcomes of urban revitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the infrastructural urbanism of Los Angeles (LA), California, with a focus on the city's network created by the transit systems. Topics include the implementation of freeways during the 1950s and the 1960s, the rebuilding of LA County's metro rail system in the 1990s, and the concept of transit-oriented-development (TOD). Other topics include the cities' network of neighborhood streets, the creation of parklets, and the proposed developments near the LA river.

Good urban design is essential if transit stations are to successfully connect to the communities that surround them. Increasingly, transit agencies in the US are constructing light rail systems in and above freeway medians to reduce land acquisition costs, minimize traffic conflicts and increase train speeds. Elevated stations, however, are difficult to physically link to surrounding communities, resulting in lost opportunities for transit-oriented development (TOD). This study examines all 14 elevated and freeway-median light rail stations along the Green and Gold lines in Los Angeles and documents the challenges of integrating them to the surrounding urban fabric. It suggests remedies based on a review of good urban design practices and interventions for different contexts that have been successful in improving station access. The study tests some of these interventions using as case studies four elevated Green Line stations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the last thirty years, ethnic museums have mushroomed in American cities. Although this is certainly a national phenomenon, it has been particularly evident in Los Angeles. In this paper we examine the genesis and evolution of these emerging institutions. We survey the mission, scope, and role of ethnic museums in Los Angeles, and we contrast them with the stated mission and scope of "mainstream" museums in the city. We further present case studies of three Los Angeles ethnic museums. The museums vary considerably in the ways they perceive their role in the community, the city, and the nation and in the preservation and display of ethnic culture. At their best, ethnic museums serve to make new art and histories more accessible and visible and provide a forum in which to debate contemporary issues of polities and identity. The paper highlights some of the tensions faced by ethnic museums as they seek to define their audience and role(s) in multi-ethnic, twenty-first century Los Angeles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implementation of post-disaster US federal assistance programmes for residential reconstruction and investigates the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of places and access to residential assistance following the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. The paper also examines the effects of the distribution of assistance on long-term recovery outcomes. Findings suggest that areas with high levels of socially marginalised populations were at a disadvantage in accessing federal residential assistance. Findings also show that the long-term effects of the earthquake differed depending on levels of assistance relative to damage. Areas that received less assistance experienced losses in population and housing units. These findings indicate that post-disaster recovery programmes in the US do not adequately address the wide range of housing needs that emerge in the case of a major disaster in a large metropolitan area. Implications for post-disaster planning as well as for planning under everyday conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there an open space inequity in Los Angeles? Are the physical and qualitative characteristics of inner-city parks different from suburban parks? Are park uses and perceptions, and level of satisfaction with parks different for inner city and suburban children? This study addresses the above questions by examining the allocation of neighbourhood parks in Los Angeles. It compares the provision and quality of park facilities, as well as the level of satisfaction of children users in both the inner city and the suburban neighbourhoods of San Fernando Valley. More specifically, the study uses GIS technology to map the distribution and facilities of parks and the open space needs of neighbourhoods in which they are located. Observations, interviews and surveys are also employed to study in detail eight case studies of parks (four in each area) and the needs and preferences of children users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the experiences of a Los Angeles inner-city neighbourhood in its attempt for revitalization. The authors headed a Community–University Partnership and worked with graduate students to offer technical support to a neighbourhood-based coalition. The students, local residents, merchants and neighbourhood institutions attempted to follow an asset-based consensus building approach to community development. The article describes the different components of their strategy for physical, economic, cultural and social revitalization, and analyzes the lessons learned from the successes and setbacks of this effort. Finally, the authors discuss some apparent limitations of the asset-based consensus approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the effects of built environment on crime at bus stops in Los Angeles, California. Spatial characteristics of crime settings; Relation between environment and crime; Impact on crime of environmental characteristics.

This paper takes a close look at the representations of social, economic, and physical polarization in global cities. After reviewing therelevant literature, we turn to an empirical study of down workers in Los Angeles to examine if polarization is reflected in their patterns of use and move and their images and perceptions of downtown space. We report the results of a survey with groups of downtown workers (corporate workers, street vendors, and merchants along an 'ethnic' downtown street). The survey investigates the images, meanings, and everyday practices of distinct worker cultures within the downtown space. Our survey debunks the images homogeneous or a dichotomous downtown, but finds instead a more complex pattern of differentiation among worker groups, identified not only in economic or social, but also in spatial, psychological and perceptual terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]