L.A. From the Viewpoint of A Walker

Alissa Walker has been observing Los Angeles as a pedestrian and journalist since before Twitter existed. How people learn about their community has changed, and Alissa now works on a newsletter and podcast to inform Angelenos about transportation, housing, urban design, and governance. Her project Torched.LA covers the civic investments and policy decisions that Los Angeles is making in preparation for its megaevent-hosting era.

ALISSA WALKER is a writer based in Los Angeles where she has covered transportation, housing, urban design, public space, and environmental policy for two decades. She edits the newsletter Torched, which tracks the legacy improvements that LA is making for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Alissa is the 2021 recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary for her writing on design and urbanism, and played herself on the traffic safety episode of Adam Conover’s show Adam Ruins Everything, “Adam Ruins a Murder.” She lives in L.A.’s Historic Filipinotown neighborhood, where she is the co-host of LA Podcast, an avid ice cream consumer, and a mom to the city’s two most enthusiastic public transit riders.