Turning blight into parks

One morning in September, Pacoima residents were greeted by a curious sight: A white tent pitched outside a long-shuttered, foreclosed home on Kagel Canyon Street. Under the tent sat eager staffers from the Department of Recreation and Parks, holding notebooks and questionnaires. Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

As the team explained, the foreclosed home was set to be bulldozed and replaced with a small park, one of 50 planned by the city.

The sidewalk meeting represents one piece of an ambitious plan announced last week by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to build 50 new parks throughout the city, including transforming 10 foreclosed homes into green spaces.