LA Neighborhood Solves Many Problems with a Little Less Pavement
Posted January 8, 2010 in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably
This week, the LA Times reported on the welcome plan to create a new park by narrowing Grand Avenue in the South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The story does a good job of describing how the project will make the avenue more pedestrian friendly and create much needed green space for residents.
One thing the story does not mention is that the park, and ones like it, can also help reduce water pollution at LA beaches. How? By cutting down on dirty stormwater runoff.
Though the article doesn’t mention it, narrowing streets and creating green space with unneeded roadway follows classic green infrastructure principles.
Green infrastructure--things like urban forestry, street-edge gardens, and pervious pavement--is a proven and cost-effective way to prevent polluted runoff. It can also help with water supply challenges by providing a place to infiltrate rainwater that would otherwise runoff and deliver pollution to rivers and the ocean.
Here is an example of a small piece of LA green infrastructure that will helps capture stormwater (photo credit: Haan-Fawn Chau).
Basically, less hardscape means less water rushing over pavement, filling up city drains, and getting dumped into ocean beaches. The extra plants and porous surfaces in a park like the one proposed for Grand Avenue can catch the rainwater before it even hits the streets.
And if the Grand Avenue park is designed with an eye toward the city’s water quality obligations, it could even route runoff from nearby streets toward the park, which would act like a giant filter.
Green infrastructure generates a broad spectrum of rewards. It increases property values, it is often cheaper than conventional development, and it has been linked to lower crime rates. More recently, as my colleague Nancy Stoner blogged about, studies have shown that green spaces actually make people happier and more community-minded.
To that long list, add the fact that green infrastructure is a potent solution to stormwater--our most problematic water pollution challenge--and is an increasingly important water supply source.
A little less pavement can go a long way these days.
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Comments
Global Patriot — Jan 9 2010 03:41 PM
Our modern habit of paving over everything, with either asphalt or concrete, has created serious problems in most urban areas with regard to stormwater runoff.
Rainwater that was supposed to soak into the ground to nourish plants, as well as recharge our aquifers is swept away and sent directly to the ocean, along with the oil from our cars.