Save the South Central Farm!
May 25, 2006 6:30 AM   Subscribe

Save the South Central Farm! (video) Sure, Daryl Hannah is a little nutty, but she got behind a good cause here, helping urban farmers in LA.
posted by usedwigs (14 comments total)
 
Hey! Proof that CO2 is good for the environment! I'm gonna start calling it "life."
posted by sourwookie at 6:43 AM on May 25, 2006


Eh. It seems like if they took land by eminent domain to build an incinerator and they're not building an incinerator, they ought to give the land back to whoever had it before. Abuse of eminent domain is problematic enough without cities taking land for one reason and then doing something entirely different with it once they've got it.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:09 AM on May 25, 2006


In related news, Joaz Baez is "up a tree."
posted by exogenous at 8:06 AM on May 25, 2006


Sorry: "Joan Baez"
posted by exogenous at 8:07 AM on May 25, 2006


Enough with this liberal bull ! Let me make it clear : the poor rich need surface to build stuff, they are needy ! The poor rich do that primarily to benefit you, it's a fight against aids, terrorism, liberalism, corruption, cellulite, premature ejaculation, war, paedophily, talibans, premature ejaculation and drugs. Yes it is, who are you to oppose their project ? What the fuck do you demand, an house ? The Nerve !
posted by elpapacito at 8:33 AM on May 25, 2006


What?



This really is the City of Los Angeles' clusterfuck. They seize the guy's land, let it sit unused for a decade while it's squatted on by "urban farmers", and when the owner finally manages to win it back in the courts (since it was never used for the purpose that allowed eminent domain to be invoked in the first place), he's made to look like the bad guy. I find it kind of hard to see it that way. He offered to sell the farmers the land; the city should make this right and pony up the money.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:04 AM on May 25, 2006


Does 'urban farming' of this sort strike anyone else as a bad idea to begin with?
posted by kickingtheground at 9:40 AM on May 25, 2006


Daryl Hannah has a daily? video journal? Which is apparently called a VLOG? I'm feeling dizzy... when did I miss the 'VLOGGING' meme?

Though I guess, after viewing the 'VLOG', Daryl's seems more like a self broadcasting sort of thing.. not just a bizarre thing or job resume. I found those two searching for 'VLOG'.

And I'm not trying to be a hater, I'm just being judgemental, which is my fundamental #1 personality trait I like least about myself. :p
posted by cavalier at 10:42 AM on May 25, 2006


Does 'urban farming' of this sort strike anyone else as a bad idea to begin with?

Perhaps not as bad an idea as building a city on prime farmland. Until 1950, Los Angeles County was the biggest agricultural producer in the nation. The soil is incredibly fertile and the weather permits growing year round, but most of that potential is now paved over.

Keep in mind that most of the people who benefit from South Central Farms are already working full-time, but still struggle to provide sufficient and healthful food for their families. Many also use the land to grow traditional medicinal herbs since few of them are provided healthcare by their employers, and such traditional medicines are often the only recourse to medical treatment within their means.

It seems the city did screw up here by not allowing the original owner to exercise his rights of first refusal when they abandoned the incinerator project and gave the land to the food bank, who in turn made the land available as a community garden - it wasn't exactly "squatted" on. As I understand it, they believed they were there with the permission of the apparent, legal owner: the food bank.

What really pissed me off about the whole ordeal was Mayor Villaraigosa telling people not to send him emails but to send money, because the city couldn't afford to buy and preserve the property as a community garden, when that same week it was being reported that the city was seizing thirty local businesses at Hollywood and Vine for a $500m redevelopment project and luxury hotel. I mean, they're ten million short of the asking price: Surely, a city the size of LA can find a spare $10m for the good of the community ...
posted by bcveen at 10:47 AM on May 25, 2006


bcveen writes "Perhaps not as bad an idea as building a city on prime farmland. Until 1950, Los Angeles County was the biggest agricultural producer in the nation. The soil is incredibly fertile and the weather permits growing year round, but most of that potential is now paved over."

Was there ever any real agriculture in this part of town, though? I mean, in the valleys and North LA county, certainly, but South Central LA has been settled pretty much since the mid-19th century, hasn't it?
posted by mr_roboto at 11:34 AM on May 25, 2006


Did the city offer to give them land elsewhere? A similar thing happened to an urban garden in downtown Sacramento. Yes, Julia "Butterfly" Hill showed up and everything.

The garden is now a nice little condo complex. The city had offered them several other plots of land, but the farmers had complaints about each one. As far as I know, there isn't squat for a garden anymore.

Harsh reality - money talks.
posted by drstein at 12:08 PM on May 25, 2006


mr_roboto writes: "Was there ever any real agriculture in this part of town, though? I mean, in the valleys and North LA county, certainly, but South Central LA has been settled pretty much since the mid-19th century, hasn't it?"

You're right, I'm just saying that the potential is certainly there for successful agriculture. And it seems a little backassward that Southern California agriculture seems to be increasingly pushed out toward the more arid inland areas in order to build more sprawl on arable soil. I understand how such things happen historically, more or less, but it just seems odd ... Not really an argument, just an idle observation ...
posted by bcveen at 1:49 PM on May 25, 2006


NPR had an interesting January segment give some backstory:

In one of the most industrial areas of Los Angeles stands a 14-acre garden with banana trees, sugar cane and every vegetable you can imagine... For more than a decade, hundreds of mostly immigrant families have farmed the plot of land. Gloria Hillard reports that the property owner's plan to raze the garden has sparked community protest.
posted by smbird at 2:30 PM on May 25, 2006


Was there ever any real agriculture in this part of town, though? I mean, in the valleys and North LA county, certainly, but South Central LA has been settled pretty much since the mid-19th century, hasn't it?

Until the early part of this century, a massive orange grove stood on the eastern edge of what is now Little Tokyo, a barren zone of fruit warehouses and wholesale pinata shacks. Well into the '40s, one travelled through bean fields and barley when passing from Palms or Culver City to L.A. proper.

And the artichokes, tomatoes, grapefruit, guavas, mint and Meyer lemons from my own little farm next to the 5 are pretty tasty.
posted by Scram at 5:53 PM on May 25, 2006


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