Tuesday, April 28, 2009

EHNC Declares East Hollywood a "Pedestrian Oriented Community"



Feet First Campaign kicks off East Hollywood SoleMates™ Project

The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has set the standard for Los Angeles by declaring East Hollywood a "Pedestrian Oriented Community" and committing to an ambitious five-step "SoleMates™" program that will engage the community, establish a standard and fund the improvements.

David Bell, President of EHNC board, said "We're excited to declare East Hollywood a Pedestrian Oriented Community and we're looking forward to working with our neighbors to make our vision of a walkable, livable community a reality."

East Hollywood is transit rich and has three Metro Rail stations within its boundaries. At the same time it is park poor with the least parkland of any Los Angeles neighborhood council. its boundaries are Hollywood Boulevard to the north, the 101 Freeway to the south, Western Ave. to the west and Hoover to the east.

With 54 thousand stakeholders, East Hollywood is one of the densest communities in LA and with over 100 languages spoken it is definitely one of the most diverse. Locals are proud of the rich variety of restaurants, theaters, clubs and galleries that make up East Hollywood.

East Hollywood is one of the youngest Neighborhood Councils in Los Angeles, having just celebrated its 2nd anniversary, but it has a rich legacy of leadership positions on everything to communications to land use to policy.

The EHNC used a music video as part of its certification process and was a pioneer in social media with YouTube videos, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook all complementing the more traditional styles of communication.

Last year, East Hollywood was the first Neighborhood Council to endorse the Cyclists' Bill of Rights and two months ago, they took thousands of people to the streets with ArtCycle, a street fair that included guided bicycle tours of the art galleries in the neighborhood.

The SoleMates™ project is an innovative approach to developing walkable, ridable, livable communities that put people first and positions access and mobility as basic human rights that serve as the foundation for a complete and sustainable community.

For more information, contact Stephen Box at 323.962.6540 or FeetFirst@ThirdEyeCreative.net.

Download the SoleMates Project in pdf here.

2 comments:

Alfredo said...

I want to sit down with you one of these days to update the P+B C's development guildlines to reflect Soulmates.

Anonymous said...

No phrase for "bicycle and pedestrian" oriented community?