City paints crosswalks around West LA park in same locations as community group

One week after a group of volunteers took to the streets in Sawtelle to paint their own crosswalks around a popular park due to dangerous driving conditions, the city took action, officially installing crosswalks in the exact same locations. 

Jonathan Hale is the neighbor who spearheaded the efforts. He said that he never submitted a request because he knew it would take too long, especially after someone else requested a dirt path be turned into a sidewalk in 2018 and nothing ever came from it. 

"I think they did it as a direct result of the media pressure and as a result of the organizing from my neighbors," Hale said. "I didn't want to wait until someone was seriously injured or killed. There's a daycare right on this block. There's multiple schools within a half mile. Always people with dogs, and there's a lot of close calls."

He was inspired and aided by Crosswalk Collective, a nonprofit that takes crosswalk painting into their own hands across Los Angeles to create safer driving conditions. 

Crews first removed the community-painted sidewalks on Friday before replacing them with the official white paint, which could be seen with SkyCal overhead for part of the operation. 

Many neighbors in the area say that it likely wouldn't have been completed, especially not as quickly as it was, due to the notoriously difficult and time-consuming process for citizens to get pedestrian safety projects pushed through the proper government channels. 

"You know, some of my neighbors took initiative and painted this. At the end of the day, we're getting better, safer sidewalks," said Jarrett Catlin. "I think that's great. Why did they city take 'em out? I don't know. Cities don't like when you don't follow the process is my sense."

Hale said that he's happy that the project was completed, and that while he wasn't in communication with officials the first time around, he'd be welcome to collaborating with them in the future. 

"More kids die from cars than anything else in L.A., and we need to be serious about making improvements to our infrastructure to save lives," he said. 

In a written statement, Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the area, said: "It should be safe for people to walk, roll, bike and drive in their neighborhoods. Before school started last summer, Mayor Bass announced hundreds of street safety improvements near schools across the city."

Bass also said that more sidewalk improvements would be heading to the West LA neighborhood in coming weeks.