This week, Streetsblog begins its month-long series examining the impact of five public health grants awarded by the L.A. County Department of Public Health in 2008. The goal of the Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) Grants is to change the character of community plans to encourage more walking, bicycling and active lifestyles. The grant program is the first attempt to try and link transportation policy and the creation of healthy communities that support active lifestyles.
In short, it's the first time L.A. County has created a program to create better streets to encourage public health.
This week, we'll be looking at Culver City, who used their PLACE Grant to create the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative to provide real transportation options for residents and visitors to move around the city. At the end of the week, we'll be using Storify to track your reactions to our series on our site and other social media outlets. If there are any pictures or video in your archives you want us to include, or if you want to make it easy to track your social media, use the tag #CCSB (short for Culver City Streetsblog). Most importantly, check in with us for more about Culver City as the week goes on.
Damien Newton wrote this story while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of USC’s Annenberg School for Communcation & Journalism.