Rock the Blvd

Rock the Boulevard is a Complete Streets initiative supported by The Eagle Rock Association, Council District 14, and Streets LA. As a member of Deborah Murphy’s collaborative grant writing team, Lyric engaged with the community to understand issues and opportunities surrounding the mile-long Eagle Rock Boulevard from Colorado to York. Historically, a trolley once ran in the median of Eagle Rock Boulevard with a “merry-go-round” waiting station at the intersection of Colorado Blvd.

The rail line was abandoned in the 1950s. Today, the Eagle Rock community is looking to rebuild a sense of place, with a boulevard that welcomes people of all ages to shop, dine, and stroll or bike to school safely and with comfort. With that understanding, Lyric created a Design Your Street toolkit that addressed pedestrian and bicycle safety and circulation, placemaking, comfort and resilient design.

Synthesizing responses from workshops and a community-wide survey, Lyric developed a mile-long streetscape design that included parking protected bicycle lanes, plazas, bus shelters, enhanced crosswalks, wayfinding, median bioswales and shade trees. The project was ultimately funded, and in 2020 the team won an Award of Excellence for a Grassroots Initiative by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).