Spring Street Parklets

Drunk driver crashed into the stupid parklet in front of LA Café 3 months ago.
There’s STILL POLICE TAPE around the parklet. What the hell, Jose Huizar?

I like the additional patio area, and the extra greenery is awesome! The tiny swings are a bit silly.
Since another reviewer pointed this out… yes, public toilets would have been a much better use of money. However, the parklets themselves are pretty awesome.

How cute! I always appreciate random pop ups where you can semi-​work out, haha. This place is right across from Exchange nightclub too, so come on over and get some more cardio done!
There’s bikes, swings (don’t know how you can really swing from them, though) and my fave-​foosball! Just give your ID or credit card to the LA café to get a ball.

the spring street parklets are a duo of green spaces that take up a couple of parking spots along the west side of the six hundred block of south spring street in downtown los angeles. one is directly in front of LA café and the other is just a short distance down the street in front of syrup desserts.
the parklets basically consist of metered parking spaces that were re-​purposed with the intention of creating public, communal spaces that extend the sidewalk into the street in hopes of enriching an already existent and vibrant street life.
according to the website, these parklets are the result of a two-​year-​long process fostered by a collaboration between the downtown los angeles neighborhood council, council members josé huizar and jan perry, the city of los angeles departments of transportation and city planning, the UCLA complete streets initiative, the business community, local property owners, the historic downtown BID, downtown residents and a professional design team. whew! that’s a lot of involvement by a wide spectrum of stakeholders, no wonder it took so long to develop this project.
the parklets, which cost about $ 40,000 from conception to realization, were also funded by a generous grant from the gilbert foundation and built with in-​kind donations. accordingly, it cost the city zero dollars to bring about these green spaces but i’m not sure where the money to maintain them will be coming from.
i like ‘em.
they’re fun and inviting spaces with some interesting features. i’m not sure i dig the location of the one in front of LA café because it looked like restaurant patrons just co-​opted the parklet as an extension of that place’s outdoor dining area but we’ll see how it goes. both parklets also have these exercise bicycles in addition to fun-​looking little yellow swing seats but be careful! i damn near killed myself trying to sit and swing on one of them, it’s not really the best design.
there’s plentiful seating in the form of benches and a bar with stools and one of the parklets even has a foosball table! there wasn’t any ball to play with though, so i’m not sure how useful it will be– it’s got to be difficult to keep someone from stealing those things.
i’m excited to see what happens with these little green spaces. they’re definitely better than the york boulevard parklet in highland park so i’m hoping that these will be effective at their goal of enriching the environment.