L.A. Urban Farm to be Razed for Wal-Mart
For more than a decade, hundreds of mostly immigrant families in Los Angeles’ South Central neighbourhood have been using a 14-acre plot of industrial land as a community farm. These residents - of one of the poorest urban areas in the US - have fed themselves with healthy and organically grown produce on soil that was once paved over, depleted and ignored.
The site of the farm is land that the city of L.A. originally got via eminent domain with the intention of using it for a waste-to-energy plant. When that project flopped, the city made arrangements with a local food bank to use the space as community food plots.
Meanwhile, the original owner of the land kept fighting the city for their land back. After almost ten years of legal wrangling, the city recently decided to wash their hands of the mess and sold the land back to the original owner.
This last week, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept posted an eviction notice calling for the farm to be vacated by March 6th. The owner wants to build a warehouse that’ll primarily be used to serve Wal-Mart.
Now obviously, as a writer of a web site on simpler living, I’ve got some issues with this. In my own socialist views, I believe that the members of this particular community should have the right to keep their farm. While the amount of time that they’ve been occupying this space may not equal that of traditional squatters, here you have hundreds of poor families who have worked hard to provide for themselves and I think they should be able to continue to do so.
What do you think, folks? If and when should we put our collective feet down and say no more ‘progress‘, especially when it involves selling more cheap crap made in China at your local Wal-Mart?
Here’s an article from BoingBoing that provides an overview of this situation as well as links to deeper parts of the story.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: General
2 opinions for L.A. Urban Farm to be Razed for Wal-Mart
Blaine Moore (Run to Win)
Mar 6, 2006 at 8:02 am
Just based on your summary (I didn’t read any of the links) then I think that they should leave and the warehouse should be built.
Personally, I think that the farm is a much better use of the land. However, I am not a fan of eminant domain, and the land should have been sold back to the owner when the reason for seizing the land in the first place never came to fruition. It should not have been reappropriated.
While I would prefer that the guy who owns the land do something more useful with it, such as leave the farms, I respect his right to do whatever he wants (and can get the permits for).
Kevin Humphrey
Mar 6, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Good points, Blaine. Upon reflection, I’m seeing the city as the villian here now. Like you say, the city shouldn’t have re-purposed it in the first place, or perhaps they could have fought to keep it. Either way, it’s a shame. Thanks for your thoughts.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: