# When citizens paint their own crosswalks > Frustrated with slow city governments, guerrilla urbanists across America are building benches, painting crosswalks, and installing bike lanes themselves. Cities are starting to notice. - Title: When citizens paint their own crosswalks · Vox | Shortify - Summary: Frustrated with slow city governments, guerrilla urbanists across America are building benches, painting crosswalks, and installing bike lanes themselves… - Keywords: jonathan hale, los angeles, crosswalks, tactical urbanism, diy infrastructure, guerrilla urbanism, karen bass, street safety, civic engagement, municipal governance, bus stop benches, bike lanes - Source: Vox — https://vox.com/future-perfect/505575/tactical-urbanism-diy-benches - Author: Sara Herschander - Published: 2026-10-08T12:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 4 min - Topics: jonathan hale, los angeles, crosswalks, tactical urbanism, diy infrastructure, guerrilla urbanism, karen bass, street safety, civic engagement, municipal governance, bus stop benches, bike lanes ## A law student paints illegal crosswalks Jonathan Hale, a law student turned viral road safety advocate, painted DIY crosswalks across Los Angeles's most dangerous intersections and was arrested on vandalism charges in December. ## He negotiates with the mayor In a meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass earlier this year, Hale said he would stop his vigilante activism if the city committed to making streets safer for pedestrians. ## The city breaks its promise After weeks of unresponsiveness from Bass's office despite emailed assurances that a new executive order was coming, Hale grew tired of waiting and picked up his paint again. ## Hale's frustration with paralysis Hale said: We're so focused on looking for reasons why we can't do stuff instead of ways that we can, and it's just paralyzed our institutions. > We're so focused on looking for reasons why we can't do stuff instead of ways that we can, and it's just paralyzed our institutions. ## Guerrilla urbanists across America In Boston, cyclists used duct tape to build a bike lane where a truck killed thirty-six-year-old Louisa Gag in July. In Nashville, Kansas City, and the Bay Area, volunteers built benches at bus stops. ## These projects show what's possible Every time guerrilla urbanists paint a crosswalk, fill a pothole, or build a bench, they show that making cities safer and more pleasant is not actually that hard or expensive. ## Cities fear lawsuits more than inaction Anthony Garcia, a Miami-based urban planner, said cities are less constrained by money than by fear of litigation. A crosswalk takes half a million dollars in five years when it's really a bucket of paint in an afternoon. > a crosswalk takes half-a-million dollars in five years to do when it's really a bucket of paint in an afternoon ## Garcia on different standards Garcia said: You don't have to hold a crosswalk to the same standard that you hold a bridge. He and Mike Lydon pioneered the study of tactical urbanism. > You don't have to hold a crosswalk to the same standard that you hold a bridge. ## A deadly delay in Koreatown Los Angeles sat on funds for over a decade to improve a perilous Koreatown intersection. Last summer, a drunk driver hit and killed nine-year-old Nadir Gavarrete there. ## The Crosswalk Collective responds The Crosswalk Collective LA started painting after Gavarrete was killed. Three months later, the city scrubbed the guerrilla crosswalks and replaced them with official ones and a temporary traffic circle. ## Hale's real motivation Hale said the point of the crosswalks is the protest, to draw awareness to the issue, not to create a permanent class of illicit crosswalk painters. We need to hold the government to a higher standard. > The point of the crosswalks is the protest. It's to draw awareness to the issue. ## Reclaiming agency over cities Carter Lavin, co-founder of the TransBay Coalition, said building benches helps people reclaim a sense of collective agency. Every screw you drive, every board you sand makes your neighbor's life better. > One thing about building benches is that every screw you drive, every board you sand makes your neighbor's life better, and it does it for hundreds of people. ## Nashville's cat and mouse game Pastor Robin Owen, a nonprofit leader in Nashville, has spent a year installing DIY benches that the city removes, then replacing them again. For many municipalities, removing useful changes is easier than implementing them. ## Owen on meaningful action Owen said building a bench and putting it on a street corner actually does something that impacts someone's life, more meaningful than hours in meetings or emailing elected officials with slow progress. ## Rochester's permitted partnership Reconnect Rochester partnered with Rochester, New York for over a decade to lay out brightly colored bus stop cubes at transit corridors. Critically, these boxes were permitted by the city. ## Nashville's insurance barrier Owen tried for months to get a permit for her benches in Nashville, which has one of the nation's only programs for tactical urbanism. But a new liability insurance requirement costs thousands for benches that cost thirty-five dollars to build. ## Owen on moral liability Owen said: There is this massive moral disconnection where cities are not concerned about liability when it comes to people dying in traffic violence, but are concerned about liability when citizens take action ourselves. > There is this massive moral disconnection where cities are not concerned about liability when it comes to people dying in traffic violence, but are concerned about liability when citizens take action ourselves. ## Productive tension drives change Mike Lydon said citizen action exerts productive tension on cities, compelling static governments to act much more quickly than they would otherwise, even if changes take time to materialize. ## From protest to policy In the nineteen seventies, wheelchair users in Berkeley took sledgehammers to sidewalks and poured their own cement ramps, leading Berkeley to become one of the first cities to mandate curb cuts, now nationally required. ## Key takeaway Civic paralysis has driven ordinary citizens to illegally improve their neighborhoods with DIY infrastructure, forcing cities to reckon with how slowly they move on basic safety.