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City removes DIY crosswalks around popular West LA park. Organizer says, game on
On Friday, the Department of Transportation sent crews to remove a set of DIY crosswalks around Stoner Park in West L.A.
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Courtesy Jonathan Hale
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An organizer who led a group of residents to paint a set of crosswalks around a popular West L.A. park says he's not giving up after the city scrubbed away their creations on Friday.
Jonathan Hale lives in the Sawtelle area and frequents Stoner Park, which includes tennis courts, a dog park, a recreation center, and a skate park.
"It's just a busy area and I didn't want to wait for somebody to get injured or killed before we did something," Hale said.
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So he reached out to Crosswalk Collective, a group that paints crosswalks across L.A. — guerrilla style — for know-how. Then, in late May, Hale rounded up some friends and neighbors to take on their own DIY project around Stoner Park.
It took two Saturdays, a couple hours each time, using official traffic marking paint.
A closer look at the finished project.
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Courtesy Jonathan Hale
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The DIY crosswalk painters used traffic paint.
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Jonathan Hale
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Jonathan Hale
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"We wanted to get the crosswalks done so that kids would be able to navigate the neighborhood safely before they started summer camp," Hale said. "I'm proud of that."
The finished products looked seamless, Hale said. And no one was the wiser.
" I don't know if a lot of folks realized that it was unsanctioned," he said. "I think folks just assumed, 'Oh, the city put in new crosswalks."
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But on Friday the city sent crews out to strip away the paint job — just three days after a neighborhood newspaper reported on the DIY project.
Hale was there in person and said it was a "bummer" to see their work destroyed, even though he always knew that was a possibility, given the experience of the Crosswalk Collective.
At the same time, he says the removal has given him new insight.
A pedestrian walking across an intersection in West L.A., after the crosswalk was removed.
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Courtesy Jonathan Hale
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A heavy machine is seen removing yellow paint from pavement.
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Courtesy Jonathan Hale
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" It was within 72 hours of the first story dropping that they sent a crew out there," Hale said. "And if they actually wanted to do the right thing and put in official crosswalks. They could do it within three days."
Admittedly, Hale did not take the issue up with the city before he and his group took matters in their own hands.
After the removal, he said he put in a request on the 311 site for new crosswalks around the park. Furthermore, he's turning his energy to organizing residents to pepper the park with flyers to raise awareness and ask people to put in 311 requests themselves. (LAist reached out to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, as well as Council District 11 seeking comments.)
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Crews removed a set of DIY crosswalks around Stoner Park in West L.A.
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Courtesy Jonathan Hale
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Jonathan Hale
)
And he's ready to do it all over again.
"I'm going to keep painting these," Hale said. "I'm going to press the issue until either the city condones what I'm doing or replaces them with official crosswalks."
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