Urban Farmers Evicted From South Central Plot
The urban farm in South Central Los Angeles hit the end of its saga today as police and firefighters forcibly evacuated the tenants and their celebrity supporters.
The first national reports of this story sounded like typical government stupidity: Police would be evacuating a group of squatting residents who had started an urban farm that was providing food for many of the locals. As NPR, boing boing, and national newspapers reported on it, however, they revealed a complicated issue with no easy right answer.
The government took the land to create a garbage incinerator that would generate energy. In 1992, city officials abandoned that plan and leased the plot to a food bank that allowed residents to farm small plots.
But the original owner sued the government to retrieve his land, and he finally won the case. He gave the farmers a chance to buy a portion of the parcel, but they weren’t able to raise the money and he decided to evict them. Outrage met his decision, and news of the farm quickly spread. Numerous celebrities stepped forward on behalf of the urban farm, and a number sat in solidarity as the police finally arrived yesterday.
Clearly, the owner was within his rights to evict the tenants, but the result is the destruction of a successful urban farm that should stand as a model for similar plots in the future. Locals will once again be buying their produce instead of growing it, stretching their already tight budgets and probably requiring more taxpayer money to provide them with financial aid.
What do you think? Who was right? Was there a better solution?
Thanks for this post. Since I do not commute anymore I do not listen to NPR so I have missed this.
One could wax eloquent and at great length about the need for the gov to nurture this and MORE urban gardening, how the gov. should not be so scatterbrained with its urban planning, the contradictions and complexities of imminent domain and the recent ruling that allows the city even MORE power to take by imminant domain, but I wont.
I am willing to bet that this is not so much about the complexities of urban planning and community involvement but about who sits on the boards that control this land, pay offs, and who that original owner bought off. To me, it seems like so much more of the same and it depresses me!
Its a darn shame that the garden will be lost.