New pathways—literally with yellow bricks—and redesigned intersections now guide pedestrians and bicyclists safely through what used to be a very car-centric, dangerous neighborhood. 

It all started back in 2008 when a group of kids in Richmond’s “Iron Triangle” area, one of America’s toughest inner-city neighborhoods, came up with the idea of stenciling in yellow bricks on sidewalks and across roads to indicate the safest route to follow between school, homes, parks and transit, to avoid speeding cars. The neighborhood gets its name from three major railroad tracks that form a triangle and define its boundaries. It’s the heart of the City’s Black and Latino communities. But the streets had no traffic calming measure at all, the sidewalks had little to no shade and it was definitely not welcoming for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Inspired by the kids, the community, advocates and the City got to work on streetscape improvements. We trained community facilitators—from high school students to senior retirees to neighborhood leaders—to canvas the neighborhood and chat with everyone who would be affected about where/how they wanted to see their area improved. Outreach continued with walking tours, open houses and pop-ups at key points int the neighborhood, to ensure community members could participate at times and places that worked for them.

We helped the City receive a Caltrans Environmental Justice Transportation Planning Grant to complete the Iron Triangle Yellow Brick Road (YBR) Walkable Neighborhood Plan. And in 2018, The Iron Triangle community was awarded $4.2M in implementation funds. Improvements included adding plantings and street amenities and rebuilding 25 intersections to make it easier and safer for community members to walk, bike and gather on their streets.

A novel element is that the tree and stormwater plantings and long-term maintenance is done by paid neighborhood residents, administered by the Pogo Park Foundation. This will ensure five full-time jobs for three years or more for local community members.