Sahra Sulaiman

Sahra is Communities Editor for Streetsblog L.A., covering the intersection of mobility with race, class, history, representation, policing, housing, health, culture, community, and access to the public space in Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles.

The vacant lots encompassing the 8400 and 8500 blocks on Vermont have held the community hostage to blight for over 26 years. The 8300 block (from which this photo was taken) had also remained vacant for a number of years and was originally going to be incorporated into the Vermont Entertainment Village project. In the mid-2000s, Eli Sasson sold off his 8300 block parcels (helping to doom the mall project) and the County services building rose on it instead in 2007. Source: County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas

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Transit Public School Set For Blighted L.A. Lots

By Sahra Sulaiman | Oct 22, 2018

For black stakeholders eager to shed the despised "Death Alley" label and address the damage rooted in segregationist policies, the stakes feel especially high

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“I Can’t Go Everywhere that I Thought I Could Go”: When Black and Brown Cyclists Need Safety from More than Traffic

By Sahra Sulaiman | May 2, 2018

“I knew where I was,” muses Slimm, the 25-year-old road captain from the Los Ryderz Bike Club regarding his fateful decision to roll past 65th on Broadway – the heart of East Coast Crips territory, “but I was just riding by…” Keeping track of whose territory you are in is key to survival for many […]

Untokening Co-founder Naomi Doerner listens to a participant during the Policy/Advocacy/Power workshop at the Untokening California convening November 4. Sahra Sulaiman/Streetsblog L.A.

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Mobility Justice Advocates Gather in Leimert Park for Untokening California

By Sahra Sulaiman | Nov 10, 2017

She had had enough of hearing her community spoken about in offensive ways by well- (and not-so-well-) meaning planners and advocates, enough of giving 110 percent of herself only to realize a fraction of what she put forward was being seen as having value, enough of how disinterested those with power over what happened in marginalized communities remained in the larger picture, and enough of being tokenized.

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Twitter Chat on #Untokening of Mobility Advocacy Explores Costs of Tokenization

By Sahra Sulaiman | Oct 4, 2017

"But whatever you do," the head of the history department told me, "do not use words like 'multicultural.' Parents will call to ask what on earth we're teaching their kids."

In Los Angeles, redlining had its deepest impacts in areas of South L.A., Central L.A., and the Eastside. The book, The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein, details how redlining was just one of many ways in which policy was used to enforce segregation. Source: HOLC

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America Walks “Walking Toward Justice” Webinar: The Color of Law & Residential Segregation

By Sahra Sulaiman | Oct 2, 2017

A conversation about how to have uncomfortable conversations, moderated by Charles T. Brown and featuring Tamika Butler, Sahra Sulaiman, Sonia Jimenez, and author Richard Rothstein.

Tamika Butler, Executive Director of the LACBC, in a photo she shared of herself during her powerful NACTO talk last fall.

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Tamika Butler to Step Down as Head of LA County Bicycle Coalition

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 16, 2017

Perhaps the most powerful thing Butler did during her tenure was to consistently give of herself to create space for others on the margins in a field where there is currently precious little.

Justice-Oriented Mobility Advocates to “Untokenize” Active Transportation Movement at November Convening

By Sahra Sulaiman | Sep 21, 2016

The Token One He was so glad I had “talked about people of color committing violence against other people of color,” he gushed, shaking my hand. My eyebrows shot up. The focus of my talk at last October’s CalBike’s annual summit had been the extent to which the socio-economic and cultural landscapes of a community […]