To preserve and expand green space in our community, SLATE-Z successfully worked with Baldwin Hills Urban Watersheds and Conservancy to launch two major initiatives, the Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan and California Senate Bill 1052:
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE & ACCESS PLAN
“Community Resilience and Access Field Trip to the Baldwin Hills Parklands”
- Video courtesy of Climate Resolve
Photo courtesy of Climate Resolve
South Los Angeles is one of the most heavily urbanized areas in the country. Compared to other neighborhoods, it has more buildings and pavement, but less greenery and shade cover, making it significantly hotter than other areas of LA. This problem is only made worse by increasingly extreme heatwaves in California. These conditions have created an “urban heat island,” where residents face higher energy costs, increased air pollution levels, and more heat-related illnesses and deaths than people living and working in other neighborhoods.
The Baldwin Hills Parklands (the Parklands) cover 480 acres of public parks and offer a rare haven of green space in South Los Angeles. While the Parklands provide space to cool down and enjoy the outdoors, they are hard to access for many nearby residents.
In 2020, Climate Resolve received an 18-month planning grant to develop the Baldwin Hills Community Resilience & Access Plan.
SLATE-Z proudly served as the community engagement partner for the project. By engaging with stakeholders and prioritizing the voices of South Los Angeles residents, the project team discovered how infrastructure improvements and new programming can combat public health challenges like COVID-19 and climate change.
READ MORE:
PROJECT MAP
Courtesy of Baldwin Hills & Urban Watersheds Conservancy
Courtesy of Climate Resolve
PROJECT PARTNERS
CA SENATE BILL 1052
Courtesy of Jon Christensen, Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
The Baldwin Hills Urban & Watersheds Conservancy is a critical community asset that provides access to open space, nature, and overall wellness.
SLATE-Z is deeply committed to promoting equity and access to existing green space in South Los Angeles and increasing green infrastructure in the region - but our initial efforts to address the breadth of the conservancy’s scope and permanency were unsuccessful in 2020 and 2021.
Thankfully, we worked closely with key environmental justice partners and yielded a better result in 2022. SLATE-Z strategically advocated for the introduction and passage of CA Senate Bill 1052 (Kamlager-Dove) to expand Baldwin Hills Conservancy’s boundaries east and south to fully incorporate SLATE-Z’s catchment area.
The successful expansion of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy will promote access to green space in South Los Angeles and bring additional resources to the South Los Angeles Promise Zone and surrounding communities.
