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‘It’s kind of a melting pot’: how one US city transformed a highway into a leafy oasis

<p>The BLVD is home to 250 enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums and a performing arts centre</p><p>Passing through the Mojave desert on State Route 14, going by landscapes Hollywood uses to represent alien planets, a driver might not expect to find a walkable, tree-lined boulevard. <br> <br> But there are nine beautiful, leafy blocks on West Lancaster Boulevard, a piece of what used to be Highway 14. They were redeveloped as part of a mixed-use urban streetscape in the city of Lancaster, California in 2010. <br> <br> The BLVD, as it’s been rebranded, is home to 250 public and private enterprises, from banks, tattoo shops and restaurants to museums, a performing arts centre and a public library. City Hall is just a block south. <br> <br> The city invested $11.5m (£8.5m) to transform a busy thoroughfare into an inviting public space. The three lanes in the centre of the former five-lane road were replaced by a series of tree-lined <em>ramblas</em> – Spanish for “avenue” and “watercourse,” because dry stream beds served as streets in early cities.</p><p>The redesign was planned and funded by the city of redevelopment agency. Within four years of completion, it <a href="https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build-great-places/lancaster-boulevard">had generated</a> more than $270m in economic output, attracted $130m in investment, created hundreds of jobs and prompted the building or renovation of hundreds of housing units, according to the city. <br> <br> The revitalisation has also created more intangible benefits, residents say.. The city centre the feels like a gathering space, they said — somewhere where they can feel like part of a community.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/nov/05/lancaster-california-transformed-highway-leafy-oasis">Continue reading...</a>