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How Can Saving a Historic Bridge Bring Northeast L.A. Together?

By The Community Planners
December 16, 2013
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The Riverside Figueroa bridge spans the L.A. River connecting Northeast L.A. to Elysian Valley and Downtown

Youth Voices is working with students from the Los Angeles River School to re-imagine the L.A. River and the surrounding communities as part of the Northeast Los Angelels Riverfront Collaborative. The students have formed teams to explore and investigate their communities, map assets, collect and share stories, data and community input for their projects. All the while they are learning and expanding their knowledge of digital media and civic engagement. Follow their work here and on Instagram and Twitter by using #kcetyv.

Team Members
Yunuenm Guitierrez
Arturo Rodriguez
Isaac Santiago
Moises Ortiz
Oscar Gomez
Alexander Jarquin
Jenny Blanco Jimenez
Perla Rincon

What is your vision for improvement in your neighborhood and why is it important to take action?
Our vision is to combine all of our communities together by building the Landbridge. This is a re-envisioning of the Riverside Figueroa Bridge as a green space that was originally proposed by RAC Design Build, an architecture firm in Elysian Valley. The idea is to save the bridge from demolition and turn it into a green space that can be used by people from the community and connect all the surrounding neighborhoods. It's important because people can get to other neighborhoods faster and it can create a better sense of community.

What is something you want to improve in your neighborhood?
What want to improve the cultures of all of the communities surrounding the bridge. We want to reunite all five communities once again.

Why is it important to improve this aspect of your neighborhood?
By doing this we will have a place to relax, meet up with friends or be able to meet lots of new people and learn more about our surroundings.

The Riverside Figueroa bridge today
RAC Design Build's idea for the LandBridge

How does this issue affect the people in your neighborhood (including you,) and how will things change once it's improved?
It affects us by allowing us to get to other neighborhoods faster. The Landbridge will also allow us to have a place to hang out with friends and meet our neighbors.

How do you plan to advocate for this issue and get people on board with your goal?
We plan to advocate for this by having our group members place flyers around the Landbridge area. We will also go house to house explaining the situation and providing information.

If anything was possible, what would you do to improve this aspect of your community?
We would improve the parks in the area and build the Landbridge.

The Community Planners Team

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