The Los Angeles community celebrated the opening of the city’s largest pedestrian plaza Feb. 22.
Beneath a towering blue-and-gold balloon arch, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk led a ribbon cutting ceremony, while community leaders took turns addressing the lively crowd of local families, UCLA students and local business owners in Westwood Village. Children darted around the new artificial grass, dodging groups of roller skaters and local vendor booths. Between speeches, the UCLA Marching Band blasted upbeat fight songs, accompanied by the Spirit Squad and Joe and Josie Bruin.
The Broxton Plaza opening marks the culmination of a several-year effort to revitalize the Westwood Village area. While the Westwood Village Improvement Association spearheaded the renovation, the North Westwood Neighborhood Council also helped coordinate the project.
Raag Agrawal, chair of the Planning, Housing, and Business committee in the NWWNC, has long advocated for increased walkability in Westwood.
“When I moved to LA, I saw that there was so much opportunity to reduce the amount of car usage,” Agrawal said. “Westwood is kind of a dead neighborhood right now. It used to be booming. One of the reasons why is because we don’t have that pedestrian life. We don’t have people walking by businesses. And so we hope this will really revitalize the neighborhood.”
Broxton Plaza is a project of the LA Department of Transportation’s People Street Program, which seeks to expand accessible public pedestrian spaces throughout LA. If the program proves successful, the NWWNC will support a “phase two,” which would extend the car-free plaza up to Le Conte Avenue on Broxton, said Connor Webb, the NWWNC’s Chair of Transportation, Environment, and Public Space.
“That’s one of the goals that we have – to try to keep expanding the community spaces for everybody,” Webb said.
Webb, a doctoral student at UCLA, shares his optimism about the new plaza with Katy Yaroslavsky, the Councilwoman for LA’ Fifth City Council District, who attended the event. While flanked by Joe and Josie Bruin, she spoke to the crowd about the plaza’s role in making Westwood a destination – especially before the 2028 LA Olympics.
“In my mind, this is the first tangible, physical hint of what’s to come, and that’s really exciting,” Yaroslavsky said in her speech.
Local businesses, such as Bruxie, a Southern California-based fast casual restaurant that opened a location in Westwood just over three months ago, hope to benefit from the added foot traffic in the area now that the plaza has opened, said Emil Naim, an employee at the Bruxie in Westwood.
“I think it’ll only increase it (business) just from having foot traffic around here from a lot of younger crowds, who are useful to our business,” Naim said. “We’re excited.”
The development of Broxton Plaza is one of several improvements Naim said he hopes will increase activity and pedestrian presence in Westwood. He added that Bruxie employees are also excited about the D Line Metro extension, slated to open in 2027, which could also bring in more foot traffic to the area.
As the speeches and music wrapped up, the crowd lingered, lounging on the grass and eating free samples from the local vendors. The once quiet street transformed into a gathering place full of conversation and activity.
“After the January we all just lived through, to be able to come out and celebrate together something cool and positive and community-building feels really good,” Yaroslavsky said in her speech. “And to know that this is going to be here every day, going forward for people in this community and beyond, to enjoy makes me feel better about being an Angeleno.”
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