Neighborhood-Serving Retail
An essential element for livable communities
What is it?
Neighborhood-serving retail refers to small, local shops that serve people’s daily and weekly needs – a grocery store, a pharmacy, coffee shops, jobs, and transit. These elements create a 15 minute neighborhood that gives people the option of living car-light or car-free.
Why is it essential?
There are two key reasons why small shops and Neighborhood-Serving Retail (NSR) are important:
- Small shops create destinations for a wide range of errands so residents can meet their daily/weekly needs within a few blocks from their house.
- Big box stores deaden the street: there’s nothing pleasant or vibrant about strolling from a Staples past a gas station to a Best Buy to a BevMo. And how often does a person need a printer cartridge or a flat screen TV?
What we need to get by
Dan Luscher of the :15 Minute City Project surveyed the research of the average person’s ‘daily and weekly’ needs to create this list.
Los Angeles already has great walkable neighborhoods – particularly our Historic Main Streets and Villages.
LA was once a city of 400 neighborhoods connected by trolleys and bikes (and later by cars.) They still exist: Westwood Village, NoHo Arts Center, Culver Blvd, Leimert Park, NoHo Arts Center – and they still have small local shops and restaurants and Neighborhood Serving Retail (“fine grain retail”) – giving the neighborhood a small town feel that draws in pedestrians to stroll, sit and shop. Almost any street with fine grain retail – small shops with storefronts that are under 50’ wide – has the bones for a livable community.
