The California Wellness Foundation’s Advancing Wellness Poll shows a deep desire among Californians to improve their neighborhoods, but there’s little agreement on how to do it. Is it really true that small gestures—like planting trees, cleaning alleyways, or painting bike lanes on streets—can add up to big transformations? Or does neighborhood improvement require dramatic action—like reform in how police fight crime, or changes in how we regulate industrial pollution? And how do we measure neighborhood well-being anyway? UC Irvine professor of criminology, law and society Charis Kubrin, GRYD Foundation president Adrienne Newsom, St. John’s Well Child Center pediatrician Chris Mink, and Los Angeles City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson visit Zócalo to explore the best ways to make a neighborhood healthier.
This event is part of a Zócalo Inquiry into what makes a healthy neighborhood, produced in conjunction with the California Wellness Foundation’s Advancing Wellness Poll.
*Photo by Steve Hymon.
The Takeaway
To Fix a “Bad” Neighborhood, Connect the Neighbors
Even If Your Community’s Got 99 Problems, Disconnectedness Is Number One
The California Wellness Foundation President Judy Belk introduced a Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event at MOCA Grand Avenue by explaining to a large crowd why she was intrigued to hear …