Urban Nature

Urban Nature Projects

Bike Summit LA

In the past few years, Los Angeles has seen tremendous growth and energy in its emerging bike movement, consisting of various organizations, rides, events, blogs, individuals, and more. This grassroots development has been exciting and invigorating, scaling up opportunities for both bike advocacy, new policy developments, and, perhaps most importantly, expanding the number of people choosing to bicycle in the region. Bike riding, as a form of transportation, physical activity, cultural and social activity and leisure time recreation, has moved beyond the margin and is an important visible solution to many urban issues from global warming to lack of physical activity.

UEPI is in the process of organizing a Bike Summitt with many of our partners in the region. To learn more, join the conversation at the Bike Summit LA wiki.

Urban Parks

parks report

UEPI undertook a community, economic, and environmental assessment of the Los Angeles State Historic Park and Río de Los Angeles State Park, also known as the Cornfi eld and Taylor Yard, to highlight the benefits of urban parks, involve the community and stakeholders in detereming the potential uses for the park, and provide a series of recommendations regarding policies and programs that could enhance community benefits for California State Parks (CSP) and the California Coastal Conservancy.

Read the Urban Parks report (PDF).

View Urban Parks presentation (PPT).

ArroyoFest

On Sunday, June 15, 2003 people from across Southern California came together to bike and walk ON the Historic Arroyo Seco Parkway (known to most as the Pasadena Freeway) to show their support for:

For all of us who attended, it was a truly magical day. The positive feedback has been overwhelming.

View publications related to ArroyoFest here.

Re-Envisioning the Los Angeles River

Read an excerpt from the article by UEPI staff Robert Gottlieb and Andrea Misako Azuma: Re-Envisioning the Los Angeles River: An NGO and Academic Institute Influence the Policy Discourse

In 1999 and 2000, the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute hosted a year-long series of 40 different events and activities about the Los Angeles River. The goal of the series, and the Re-Envisioning the L.A. River program that developed from it, was to help transform the discourse around the River and the urban environment of Los Angeles and to encourage actions for community and ecological revitalization.

Since then, awareness about the L.A. River, a critical component of any initiative for revitalization, has grown exponentially. The goal of the L.A. River movement has thus shifted from what could be called a “discourse battle” to a focus on action and actual implementation of changes adjacent to and in the River. . Along these lines, UEPI’s own program now focuses on the stretch of the River near the Occidental campus, including but not limited to the Arroyo Seco stream that feeds into the L.A. River just north of downtown L.A. Learn more.

The Landscapes Project

The Landscapes Project involves research and policy development related to water use and landscape choices, including native and non-native plants. Research goals include a comparative evaluation of the actual daily water use and drought tolerance of selected native and non-native plants that are commonly grown in southern California gardens. Many useful guides for water-wise gardening and/or xeriscaping are available, but actual measurements of the amount of water used by an individual plant either have not been made or are not reported in a format that allows inter-plant comparisons, important information which the project will seek to document. Research findings will also be utilized to help lay the groundwork for the development of policies to encourage a new landscape ethic in southern California.