Recap of the Great Streets Challenge Grant Project: Pacoima Street Values!
At CicLAvia Sunday March 6, Great Streets and our Challenge Grant partners Pacoima Beautiful and LA-Más came together to support the Pacoima community with a full day of fun and engagement.
CicLAvia closed down a four-mile stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard to motor-vehicle traffic, creating a safe pedestrian zone. Just as the Great Streets Challenge Grant events do, this busy corridor transformed a busy street into place for people on bike and foot.
While CicLAvia drew people from all over the Los Angeles region to enjoy the open street, Great Streets invited visitors and community members from the street into the local small businesses.
The great Streets Challenge Grant project, Pacoima Street Values, builds on the existing street activity happening on Van Nuys Boulevard, and the local “DIY” placemaking efforts that businesses undertake to support vibrant sidewalk life.
LA-Más and Pacoima Beautiful helped five businesses along Van Nuys Blvd revamp their storefronts and public spaces to help attract new customers and create a unique sense of place along the corridor. These five revamped businesses were showcased on a tour led by Pacoima Beautiful and LA-Más.
Here is a brief description of the businesses and photographs from the tour:
Botanica San Simon (13412 Van Nuys Blvd) sells herbal healing and spiritual remedies to Pacoima residents. The front courtyard – located between the storefront and sidewalk – has numerous plants and herbs that are used by the botanica. To help encourage more pedestrians and customers to linger, the Challenge Grant team helped enliven the courtyard with a vibrant ground pattern, movable seating, and new planters.
Chabelitas Restaurant (10767 San Fernando Rd) is a family-owned business serving delicious Mexican food. The outdoor patio of this restaurant offers a respite from the noisy and busy intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and San Fernando Road. The Challenge Grant team highlighted the potential of this quasi-public space with colorful signage, ambient lighting, and a faux-tile pattern.
La Raza Moda (13376 Van Nuys Blvd) is a husband and wife clothing store that also provides alteration services. Located on a narrow corner, this business struggles with advertising that has resulted in several City citations. The Challenge Grant team built two movable merchandise display carts contained on private property that also doubles as signage.
Rosa’s Clothing (13366 Van Nuys Blvd) is a secondhand thrift store that provides products at an affordable rate. With limited store space, the business often doubles its footprint by expanding its sales floor onto the sidewalk. To address the rules that limited vending on the sidewalk, the Challenge Grant team created a clothing display system and welcoming floor pattern to encourage customers to linger on the street while shopping.
A & S Tires (13432 Van Nuys Blvd) sells new and used tires, while also providing auto services. As means of advertising, the business previously used banners and tires as an informal mechanism, which often blocks the sidewalk. To address the need for pedestrian access and business advertising, the Challenge Grant team (pictured) built a collapsible and movable furniture piece that doubles as public seating and indirect advertising.
