This Earth Day, something quietly extraordinary happened on the grounds of the shuttered old LA County General Hospital, the building our community knows as the Great Stone Mother. Nearly 280 bicycles had been stored in the hospital's basement for nearly two decades.
They belonged to patients, many of them unhoused, who arrived at the hospital on a bike and, for whatever reason, left without one. Each bike had a small sticker with a name, a date of birth, and a date of admission. No record of what came after.
When our Centennial project team began the first phase of transforming the 42-acre Eastside campus into housing and community space, Project Director Giovanna Araujo stumbled upon them while scoping the basement for geotechnical testing.
“I just happened to go to that corner of the basement and open that door and see all the bikes,” Araujo said. “It came to me immediately. We must absolutely salvage these bikes. They need to be back in the world.”
What followed was a months-long effort rooted in the same values that guide our work at Centennial: circularity, community, and care. Centennial Partners connected with Olin Reyes, owner of Esquina Bicycle Shop in Boyle Heights, who brought volunteers, tools, and heart to the project. Working nights in the dimly lit basement after closing his shop, Reyes triaged the bikes, setting aside the hopeless cases, salvaging parts from the unsaveable, and restoring what could be restored. In December, 42 refurbished bikes were given away as Christmas gifts. In April, 45 more were ready.
On Earth Day, April 22, residents from Boyle Heights and surrounding neighborhoods lined up in front of the hospital’s grand Art Deco entrance to choose a bike, free of charge. People for Mobility Justice volunteers were on hand with helmets, lights, and safety guidance. One 10-year-old girl named Vivian received her very first bicycle. A young couple from Lincoln Heights walked away with two bikes and a new plan to start riding together.
For Araujo, the moment carried the weight of everything Centennial is meant to be.
“She’s going through a healing journey,” Araujo said of the building. “She has had a chapter of 100 years. She was built with a very clear mission that no one would be denied care for lack of means. The need for her to fulfill that mission has changed. And so she needs to transform.”
The bicycles, salvaged, repaired, and returned to the community, are a small but vivid symbol of what that transformation looks like.
The full story was covered by the Los Angeles Times
