Community Park Addresses Open Space, Air Quality Disparities in L.A.

Wedged between a 15-lane highway and unincorporated L.A. County industrial zones, Ramona Gardens is a Boyle Heights community where children suffer from asthma at twice the state average. TPR interviewed Legacy LA Founder Executive Director Lou Calanche and Community Conservation Solutions President Esther Feldman to discuss the Natural Park at Ramona Gardens, a green solution project initiated by the youth of Ramona Gardens that marries ecosystem science and state-of-the-art engineering with a community-driven design process to improve air quality and community health in one of the most polluted neighborhoods in Los Angeles:

"As a community-driven design, married with ecosystem science and state-of-the-art engineering, we're putting the technical pieces together with what the community told us they needed." —Esther Feldman

Calanche and Feldman share how community priorities were incorporated into the project design in collaboration with CARB and South Coast AQMD to fund air quality monitoring and pollution reduction strategies using AB 617. In Part 1, TPR speaks with Asm. Cristina Garcia on AB 617’s role and future in addressing environmental justice despite budget uncertainties.