Murakawa Communications, a leading public outreach and engagement firm in Los Angeles, recently received the Advancing Diversity and Social Change Award of Excellence from the American Planning Association (APA) Los Angeles Section.
The honor was presented at the APA Los Angeles Section 2025 Awards Gala on June 26 for the firm’s work on Los Angeles County Metro’s Vermont Transit Corridor Project Community Engagement Program.
The APA Los Angeles awards recognize outstanding planning work throughout the region, celebrating projects and programs that demonstrate vision, innovation and meaningful community impact. The Advancing Diversity and Social Change Award of Excellence honors planning efforts that elevate equity, inclusion and authentic engagement.
Murakawa Communications partnered with Metro to deliver a robust community engagement program for the Vermont Transit Corridor Project, which will bring bus rapid transit (BRT) service to the county’s busiest bus corridor with over 36,000 daily boardings. The program prioritized meaningful dialogue with historically underrepresented communities along the corridor, ensuring that the project reflects local needs and values while advancing access, mobility and equity.
“We’re truly honored by this recognition,” said Trisha Murakawa, the firm’s principal. “Our goal is to help public agencies listen deeply to their communities and design projects that advance social equity. Working with Metro and the communities along Vermont Avenue has been an inspiring opportunity to help shape a more connected and inclusive future for Los Angeles.”
Murakawa Communications helped Metro create partnerships with 40 local community-based, faith-based and community development-based organizations to reach stakeholders who have been historically underrepresented in transportation planning. MC and its partners helped host workshops, canvass businesses, gather feedback at bus stops and ensured thousands of residents could weigh in on how the project could serve their needs.
“As a community partner, we appreciated Metro’s and Murakawa Communications’ commitment to meeting people where they are and truly listening,” said Jose Esqueda, director of youth and family programs at Asian American Drug Abuse Program, a nonprofit organization providing social services in the South Los Angeles community. “Their approach helped ensure our neighbors’ voices were heard and respected in the planning process. It’s the kind of engagement our communities deserve.”
The Vermont Transit Corridor Project’s engagement program included multilingual outreach, culturally competent strategies, targeted stakeholder partnerships and inclusive public events designed to lower barriers to participation. Through this approach, Metro and Murakawa Communications gathered diverse feedback to inform project planning and build lasting trust.
The Vermont Transit Corridor Project is a 12.4-mile BRT line that will bring faster, more reliable and more equitable bus service along Vermont Avenue from Sunset Boulevard to 120th Street.
The BRT will feature elevated stations with platforms, shelters, seating, lighting and real-time arrival information and will operate in dedicated curbside lanes supported by transit signal priority.
Following near-term bus lane and service improvements, the full BRT is scheduled to begin operation in 2028, in time for the Summer Olympics. With this project, Metro anticipates a 24% travel time reduction and a projected weekday ridership growth to around 66,000–75,000 by 2045.