Josh Newell comments on the under utilization of alleys in this article for Next City.
“The residents of South Los Angeles were initially a bit skeptical about the idea of green alleys. “When we first started talking to community members, they were like, ‘No way,’” says Tori Kjer, a program director of the Trust for Public Land. After all, alleys are often seen as forbidding places in cities. “They’re traditionally very much overlooked spaces for people to put out that couch they don’t want or for weeds to grow,” says Kjer. It was hard for people to imagine them as inviting or useful.”