Community Walk in The Avenues

 

Waiting for the bus in The Avenues with no bench and no shade at an empty lot on MLK Jr. Way

On Thursday, April 19, WALKSacramento and partner Ubuntu Green led a community walk around The Avenues neighborhood (roughly northeast of the Highway 99 and 47th Avenue intersection, as well as MLK Jr Way) to document challenges to transportation, access to healthy food and other services and, and safety.  15 parents and five youth from the school participated.

The parents and youth came together to make initial findings and develop initial recommendations from their observations.  Safety issues, access to transit and empty lots in place of needed goods and services were noted.  Earlier, the youth had reviewed the green space called Pacific Park adjacent to the school and made recommendations on how to make it a vibrant place for families.  The next step is returning to the school to envision a strategy for bringing all of the recommendations to action.

Pacific Elementary was the site of a WALKSacramento walk audit in 2005 that led to a report and successful application for Safe Routes to School funding for curb and intersection improvements on the way to the school.