From Graffiti to Garden : Neighbors Band Together to Turn Alley Into an Urban Park

The back alley was in the forefront of Ruth Walker’s mind Saturday.

Gone were the piles of illegally dumped trash behind the 91st Street house where she has lived for 30 years. Missing were the graffiti scrawled on fence posts, the hulks of abandoned cars and the menacing groups of loitering gang members.

In their place was a block-long walkway that meanders beneath freshly planted apple and peach trees and past planters filled with shrubs and blooming flowers.

The transformation of a crime-plagued “nuisance alley” into Los Angeles’ first alley park was putting Walker and her neighbors into a celebrating mood.

“For the first time in a long time I don’t have to worry about anybody climbing over the fence and breaking into my garage,” she said over a plate of barbecued chicken and potato salad. “I’m so happy about this. We’re all excited.”

The food was being cooked on a huge mobile grill that will be permanently stationed in the gate-guarded park between 90th and 91st streets and San Pedro Street and Towne Avenue. The barbecue was served to dozens of South-Central Los Angeles families on hand for its grand opening.

Los Angeles developers originally envisioned alleys as a way to hide garage doors, utility poles and trash cans from the fronts of neighborhoods. These days, there is no hiding the problems that some alleys cause.

Until Saturday, 94-year-old Velma Lewis was afraid to set foot in the narrow driveway behind her home of 45 years. “We couldn’t even come out our back door. We can now,” she said proudly.

Neighbor Roberto Rivas, a 40-year resident of 92nd Street, said “drug addicts, winos, people starting fires and shooting guns” were becoming uncomfortably commonplace until residents seized control.

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The alley’s redesign was promoted by the 90th-91st-92nd Block Club, which worked with the city’s Bureau of Engineering. Young members of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps handled the landscaping and decorative construction. Homeowners contributed $50 each for the gates.

“It’s a blessing we have it. We’re all going to enjoy it,” club President Jeanette Hughes said. “The neighbors will chip in to help water the trees and plants. Everybody has agreed.”

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City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas helped snip a ribbon at a Japanese-style entryway to the alley after saluting residents for refusing “to allow alleys and streets to be turned over to people who will ruin and destroy our neighborhoods.”

Community police also stopped by to celebrate.

“The tough part is over. Our work is simplified a thousandfold,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Al Landry. “People here have said they’re not going to put up with blight and criminal activity. There’s power in numbers: That’s the way gangs work--that’s the way neighborhoods work.”

City officials said they anticipate other neighborhoods to follow the lead of 91st Street. A city-commissioned survey conducted by students from Cal Poly Pomona has pinpointed 1,080 problem alleyways in the South-Central region.

Residents who do not want to completely give up alley access can close them off to outsiders by agreeing to share the $3,000 cost of gates, said Engineering Bureau spokesman Bob Hayes. He said the city is eager to reduce the annual $5 million it spends cleaning debris from alleys.

The only hitch in the 91st Street alley conversion came from Maxine Johnson’s back yard. That is where a disabled 1987 Nissan is stored, awaiting repairs. City officials promised that they would temporarily take down the new park’s gateway so Johnson can drive the car out when it is fixed.