A typical Green Street from the sidewalk
Rendering by author
GREEN STREETS
What if the famous boulevards of Los Angeles were paved in grass?
The intersection of the street and sidewalk, the roadway lane usually reserved for on-street parking, could be redesigned as a flexible zone, doubling as both roadway surface and park space. Time-based restrictions similar to those governing parking would permit this part of the street to function as parkspace, expanding the sidewalk for streetside festivals, markets, and socializing, activities already common on Los Angeles' sidewalks. Today's technology of grass pavers and porous asphalt would create a contemporary parkspace also capable of absorbing stormwater, instead channeling it from private properties directly into storm drains, the river and the ocean. Green Streets would distribute groundwater recharge areas across the watershed, thereby reducing stormwater introduced into the rivers. Without requiring massive land acquisitions, Green Streets would additionally increase the region's parkspace by improving the quality of streets at a pedestrian level.