It was bittersweet, turning right on 41st Place off Alameda. The South Central\r\nFarmers were celebrating the opening of their community center. There they\r\nwere, the Farmers bringing fresh organic vegetables into South Central, where\r\nWhole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's dare not tread.<\/p>\r\n
The Farmers had lined the tables at the tianguis with chard, radishes,\r\npomegranates, almonds, squash, and grapes. Grapes not too sweet, grapes\r\nthat tasted like a crisp, slightly fruity wine. Four dollars could be\r\nswapped for two plastic bags of fresh produce, all from small farmers in the\r\nlocal food shed.<\/p>\r\n
The center itself is four freshly painted rooms, lined with art and photos\r\nand reminders of the fight to save the Farm, waiting for more art, music,\r\ncomputers, and eventually a storefront. It is here that the Farmers and\r\ntheir supporters will meet to assess the community's needs and how best to meet\r\nthem, where they will continue their efforts to engage and educate the\r\ncommunity.<\/p>\r\n
And they will use the center, just yards from the now-bulldozed Farm, to\r\npressure local officials to take \"a principled stance,\" as Tezozomac,\r\none of the Farm leaders, put it. With pride, he added, \"We delivered\r\nwhat we promised: we said we'd raise the money to save the Farm, and we\r\ndid. We promised to deliver healthy food to the community, and we\r\nare. We'll be here every month.\"<\/p>\r\n
The Los Angeles City Council approved the sale of the land--abandoned by the\r\nCity and cultivated by local Mexican and Central American Farmers for years--to\r\na local developer for $6M. The developer, Ralph Horowitz, promptly raised\r\nthe price to $16M. In spite of an international outcry, hundreds attending\r\nnightly vigils, pleas from celebrities and ordinary residents, the Annenberg\r\nFoundation and other sources' offer to buy the Farm, and a standoff with\r\nsheriffs that ended in protestors being plucked from trees and jackhammered out\r\nof concrete-filled barrels, Horowitz ultimately refused to sell the land to the\r\nFarmers.<\/p>\r\n
A band of musicians played, sang, and danced in the street, while children\r\nromped in one of those big, blow-up balloon houses. Perhaps four hundred\r\npeople were coming and going, streaming by with bags of groceries. Friends\r\nfrom the Farm struggle smiled and hugged. New Farm supporters were\r\nintroduced to old. One newcomer, Irene, had helped facilitate a small\r\ngrant between the Farmer and the Community Research in Cancer Network, a project\r\nof UCLA Public Health Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network. The\r\nmoney produced DVDs for South Central residents on healthy eating. Irene\r\nhad spent her day helping children make gift cards printed with fruits and\r\nvegetables.<\/p>\r\n
She cited a Community Health Councils initiative to bring quality food to\r\nSouth Central. Although the CHC was working to use existing local\r\noutlets--she mentioned Vallarta Market--she feared that the City would end up\r\nsubsidizing large chains and, as always in Los Angeles, developers would suck up\r\nthe subsidies. A Farmer chimed in, \"Vallarta has three types of\r\npotatoes, all tasteless sugar. Here today we have twelve types of fresh,\r\nhealthy potatoes.\"<\/p>\r\n
Some of the original Farmers have relocated to a community garden at Avalon\r\nand Stanford, last month inaugurated by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the third\r\ntime. Both the L.A. Garden Council and Councilmember Jan Perry have opened\r\nthe same garden in past months. The Stanford Avalon gardeners, where sixty\r\nof the three hundred and fifty original South Central Farmers now labor, have\r\nchosen to use chemical fertilizers on their fields. High tension\r\nelectrical lines, suspected of causing cancer, leukemia, and brain cancer, cut a\r\nswath across the land, but the L.A.\r\nGarden Council notes that the electrical towers and their electromagnetic\r\nfields guarantee that \"the land is not threatened by development over the\r\nlong term.\" Villaraigosa's \"grand opening\" ride on a\r\ntractor was heralded by mainstream media in an obvious ploy to distract his\r\nlargely Chicano and Westside base from his disastrous handling of the South\r\nCentral Farm.<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile, according to The\r\nPlanning Report, Perry is enticing developers with \"300 acres of\r\nindustrial land in South Los Angeles,\" noting \"there is no shortage of\r\nopportunity\"--except for the South Central Farmers and healthy food.<\/p>\r\n
One of the struggle's organizers stepped up. Dele went to the political\r\ncore: \"Villaraigosa's boulevard to higher office is plowed straight through\r\nthe South Central Farm.\" His jaw was clenched, his eyes\r\nsparked. \"And Jan Perry won't do anything that doesn't satisfy the\r\nreal estate interests.\"<\/p>\r\n
Before the Farmers began reclaiming the fourteen acres at 41st in Alameda\r\nback in 1992, it had been an informal dump and drug hangout. Today, in the\r\ncustodianship of Horowitz, uncultivated nopales and corn stalks struggle against\r\nthe intrusion of countless of styrofoam cups, yards of broken glass, car\r\nbumpers, abandoned sofas, and dozens of discarded tires. It's easy to\r\nimagine dealers and customers once again scurrying in and out of the holes in\r\nthe fence, crouching in the shadow of the bulldozer or sliding under the black\r\nwalnuts that had nestled tree-sitters in their limbs just four months ago.<\/p>\r\n
It's difficult not to despair. The Annenberg Foundation has boxed up\r\nthe trees for Mr. Horowitz who, by city statute, has to preserve or replace\r\nthem. The sister walnut trees are still in the ground, but a shallow\r\ncircular trench marks where their roots will be cut.<\/p>\r\n
Villaraigosa has offered to find the trees a temporary sanctuary in Griffith\r\nPark. There's an odd irony there. The city has just completed a $93M\r\nrenovation to Griffith Observatory--nearly six times Horowitz's asking price for\r\nthe Farm--and admission now requires reservations and three fees to get into the\r\nobservatory there: for parking, for a shuttle, and for the observatory\r\nshow. Villaraigosa and the city council couldn't find a dime to save the\r\nFarm, and now, if the low-income Farmers want to visit their trees, it's\r\nunlikely they'll be taking their children to Griffith Park's chief attraction.<\/p>\r\n
I asked a middle-aged Farm supporter why he had come out today. He\r\nsaid, \"Eighty percent of the youth volunteers have not given up on the\r\nland. This is their Oaxaca. And now they're fighting for Oaxaca and\r\nAtenco. They're fighting police oppression. And they're still\r\nfighting for the Farm. I'm here for the kids--they keep me fighting. \r\nWe're getting hundreds of calls from young people across the county today. \r\nThey want to know what they can do.\"<\/p>\r\n
On one side of the sidewalk was a neighborhood dump where a Farm has once flourished. \r\nTrees are yanked from the earth, their roots imprisoned in wooden cages. \r\nOn the other, hundreds of Farmers, shoppers, supporters selling fresh produce\r\nwhere no Whole Foods will go, with Azteca dancers, bouncing children, and a\r\nbright art-laden community center. It is an act of will, a leap of faith,\r\na commitment to the power of the people to believe the Farmers can win.<\/p>\r\n
Aqui estamos y no nos vamos.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"leslie@radiojustice.net","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"The South Central Farmers opened their new community center today, across the street from the bulldozed site of the South Central Farm","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2006\/12\/fruits_and_veggies6.jpg0awmeo.jpg","filesize":"30.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2006\/12\/190025.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2006\/12\/fruits_and_veggies6.jpg0awmeo.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2006\/12\/fruits_and_veggies6.jpg0awmeo.jpgthumb.jpg"}},"attachments":[{"id":190026,"heading":" musicians warming up","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/musicans4.jpgvuu2fk.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/musicans4.jpgvuu2fk.jpg"}},{"id":190027,"heading":"art at the centro","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/art3.jpg3qpkxl.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/art3.jpg3qpkxl.jpg"}},{"id":190028,"heading":"fresh veggies","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/fruits_and_veggies8.jpgdlae3f.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/fruits_and_veggies8.jpgdlae3f.jpg"}},{"id":190029,"heading":"trashed","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/trashed4.jpgw9kono.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/trashed4.jpgw9kono.jpg"}},{"id":190030,"heading":"trees in boxes","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/imprisoned_trees2.jpgqj98sz.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/imprisoned_trees2.jpgqj98sz.jpg"}},{"id":190031,"heading":"waiting","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2006-12-05 06:27:18","modified":"2006-12-06 09:42:25","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/bulldozer2.jpgp9o1j3.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2006\/12\/bulldozer2.jpgp9o1j3.jpg"}}],"comments":[{"id":190057,"heading":"wondered","article":"I was wondering what was up with them.","author":"a friend","parent_id":190025,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-12-05 18:28:41","modified":"2006-12-05 18:28:41","fileurl":""}]}