Streetsblog Los Angeles

TONIGHT
Sitting in a room full of California journalists and their editors last week as part of my training for a journalism fellowship, I was incredibly surprised to learn that few of them knew that fracking was going on in L.A.’s back yard. The lack of awareness has been of great concern to many of the local environmental organizations because it makes it harder for them to gather support to counter powerful lobbies in favor of the practice. It is one of the reasons representatives from a number of the organizations have gathered this weekend for a California Fracking Summit; they hope to cobble out a common position against regulations proposed by the Department of Oil And Gas (DOGGR) and decide upon strategies that will facilitate their fight. While the summit itself is closed to the public, the festivities of the evening are not.

Join activists tonight at the Concert to Ban Fracking in California, presented by Food & Water Watch.

The concert, held at The Joint from 7:30 – 11 p.m., will feature music from the Make Peace Brothers, Dúo del Sol, and Magnolia Memoir. Tickets are $10 online and at the door. The Joint is located at 8771 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035. (Ok, so that’s not technically South L.A., but drilling in the Inglewood Oil Fields affects its inhabitants.)
****
TOMORROW: Farmers’ Markets, Free Yoga, Garden Workshops, and Bike Rides for Justice
With the recent conversion of an Albertson’s into a Superior Foods, the impending closure of the Ralph’s on at Rodeo and Crenshaw, and the uncertainty of the future of the few Fresh & Easy stores in the area, fresh, healthier fare is getting harder and harder to come by in South L.A.

Enter the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. While “the mall” may not be the first place you think of when you ask yourself where you can go to get healthy, the plaza owners are trying to change that. Every Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., more than 30 farmers participate in the Certified Crenshaw Farmers’ Market, located on the outside lower Sears level of the mall. Recipes are available at their information booth, and there is often entertainment to accompany as you peruse the produce.

But, wait! There’s more. You can also participate in a free Yoga class while you are there. They are held every Saturday, from 10 – 11 a.m., on the Macy’s Bridge. The yoga classes join the already super-popular free Zumba classes held every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and free Cardio Kick classes held every Thursday at 7 p.m. Classes are free as part of their Bfit Club, but they request that you sign up to get a key tag and spread the word about getting healthy via social media. Signing up isn’t mandatory, however, and classes will only cost you a dollar if you decline membership. For more information, click here.
****

If you’d rather grow your own food, no worries. We’ve got you covered. Read more…

"Mama" (center) takes a moment to talk to the cyclists about her partnership with Community Services Unlimited and providing fresh, healthy food to a community where such resources are scarce (photo: sahra)

“They’ve been receiving it pretty decently, I must say,” Karen Whitman, the “Mama” of Mama’s Chicken, told the riders with the Healthy Food tour regarding her customers’ response to the fresh produce she recently began offering at her shop. “The more people that know about it, the more that’s coming in.”

Located at the corner of Slauson and 4th Ave., the market (and the produce she offers with the help of Community Services Unlimited (CSU)) fills a unique niche for neighbors in the area that want healthier options than those found at the “grocery” across the street offering candy, sodas, incense, body oils, and hygiene products.

And, she added, “it makes me really happy to know that they can come here because, a lot of times, they don’t have transportation to even get to some of the stores,” referring to the Ralph’s at Crenshaw, 1/2 a mile away, or the Food-4-Less almost a mile down Slauson at Western. Although those distances may not sound great, for people who struggle to afford transit fees, the elderly or disabled, or those with children in tow, lugging groceries back and forth by bus or along streets where safety is a concern may not be viable options.

Whitman is so happy about offering healthier fare, in fact, she’ll be remodeling the store later this year to feature refrigerated shelves that will allow her to display the organic collard greens, grapes, green beans, mustard greens, carrots, cabbage, and celery right up front to tantalize customers.

The makeover is a long time coming.

A few years ago, the Community Market Conversion Program (CMC) – a now-defunct partnership of the Community Redevelopment Agency – Los Angeles (CRA-LA), The California Endowment, and the County Department of Public Health that funded the conversion of small, locally-owned stores in under-served communities to offer healthier choices — had identified Whitman’s store as ripe for transformation.

The financial and technical support the CMC program would have provided her was vital to the conversion process. Whitman and others in her position are rarely able to scare up the capital and expertise necessary to secure the permits from the Department of Public Health, invest in compliant infrastructure and facilities (refrigeration, drains, etc.), source and maintain produce — something that is not a big money-maker for grocers in the first place — and try out different marketing techniques on their own. It is too risky and the rewards are too few to do it without assistance.

Read more…

The "Planted Dreams Garden" outside the All Peoples Community Center at 822 E. 20th St. in South L.A.

The little boy tearing through the hallway at the All Peoples Community Center pulled up abruptly when he spotted Crystal Gonzalez, the Peace Education Coordinator with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

“When are we going to do the garden class?” he asked excitedly, jumping up and down. “I want to do the worms again!!”

Gonzalez occasionally held garden workshops for the youth involved in the after-school programs at All Peoples, she explained, and one of the previous workshops had involved letting kids get their hands dirty while learning about composting and the role of worms.

Garden workshops are a special treat for the younger kids because she usually works with high-school age students in continuation school and, more recently, parents of some of the youth involved in activities at the center.

In fact, it was her work with the parents that had brought me to the Center.

Last year, with the help of a donation from the Mayor’s Good Food Day LA campaign, Gonzalez, along with other AFSC volunteers and members of the community spent a weekend breaking ground on a 50′ x 15′ plot outside All Peoples. After clearing weeds and building garden beds, the plots were raffled off to parents and planting began.

“The first [season] was a disaster!” parent Alejandra told me, laughing.

They had either watered too much or too little and hadn’t had the right soil.

“It was like sand,” she said.

Now they used compost from their own bins and things seem to be moving along much better, Gonzalez told me. Read more…

Local gardening renegade Ron Finley will be one of the speakers at this February’s TED2013, themed “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.”

Finley is one of the co-founders of L.A. Green Grounds, an informal organization dedicated to transforming South Los Angeles front yards into edible gardens.

At his inspiring TEDx talk last year in Vancouver, he discussed the origins of his interest in gardening as stemming, in part, from the lack of access to fresh food in South L.A. and encouraged attendees to just go out and “plant some shit.”

He had done just that in late 2010, digging up the 10-by-150 foot parkway (the strip of turf between the sidewalk and the curb) next to his home off Exposition Blvd. and planting tomatoes, peppers, chard, melons, squash, pumpkins, onions, broccoli, eggplant, celery, kale, and herbs.

While the spot quickly became popular among neighbors and people who needed access to fresh healthy food, the city wasn’t so impressed.

Finley hadn’t gotten a permit to do the work ahead of time and was soon issued a citation. The city wanted him to either remove the “obstructions” and all “overgrown vegetation,” according to the L.A. Times’ Steve Lopez, or seek a costly landscaping permit. Finley, with help from the other founding members of L.A. Green Grounds, resolved to do neither. Armed with a petition signed by several hundred people, they took the city on. Finley finally earned a reprieve in late 2011, when the hearing on his case was postponed indefinitely. Read more…

Drum Circle at Leimert Park Artwalk (photo: sahra)

TONIGHT! The Crenshaw Line, Neighborhood Bike Ambassadors, and Fracking — way too much fun for one person to handle!

Interested in seeing bike lanes come to your favorite street? Want to help educate the community about why they should ride and how to ride safely? Would you like to connect with other people in the community that care about making the area safer and more bike-friendly? Join the South L.A. Neighborhood Bike Ambassadors tonight at 6 pm at 8475 South Vermont Avenue (the Council District 8 Constituent Service Center). Need more convincing? Check out this article about a previous meeting with city planning staff.

Want to learn the latest on the Crenshaw Line and take a virtual tour of the LAX Transit Corridor Project? Hear more about the construction schedule, the work of the CLC’s Transit Safety discussion group or  the Project Labor Agreement and Construction Careers Policy? Then join neighbors, local business owners, and community leaders for the Quarterly Meeting of the Metro Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project Community Leadership Council (CLC) tonight, between 6 and 8 pm at the First Church of God, 9550 Crenshaw Boulevard, Inglewood, CA 90305. Meetings are open to the public and they are invited to speak on agenda items discussed during the meeting. To RSVP or find out more, please contact Donald Taylor, CLC Lead Consultant, by phone at (310) 308-2136 or via email at oscompdt@aol.com.

Finally, on tap tonight: Fracking. The Community Advisory Panel (CAP), established to foster productive communication between the community, the County, and PXP (the corporation drilling and fracking in the Inglewood Oilfield), meets on the fourth Thursday of every month at the Kenneth Hahn Recreational Area Community Center, located about a mile inside the park from the 4100 S. La Cienega Blvd. entrance. Tonight’s meeting will run from 7 – 9 pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend. If you have some free time on your hands and would like to immerse yourself in the issue, please visit their documents page to catch up on the latest regarding health surveys, noise complaints, drilling plans, and responses to public comments.

ONGOING (but starting today is recommended): What would you ask the mayoral candidates? Read more…

Voting is great and all, but it is only one part of democracy.

Democracy works better when people take an active role in making their communities better year round. That theme of service was more actively promoted after the election in 2008, when Obama asked people to channel their enthusiasm and energy into community service. But, somewhere in the wake of the financial meltdown, that national spirit of commitment seemed to lose some momentum and fizzle out of the spotlight.

That’s certainly much less true among our readership, but I’m guessing you all know neighbors and friends who could use a little community engagement in their lives. If you’d like to capitalize on the excitement generated by the election and turn that into action, this is your week. Grab an apathetic friend or neighbor and teach them the wise ways of community engagement by dragging them to one or more of these South LA events:

SEED: A Weird Act of Faith (ongoing)

Experience the second play in Cornerstone Theater Company’s Hunger Cycle. The play weaves a fantastical tale that travels between an urban farm, a rural haven, and the contested space of agribusiness. SEED takes its inspiration from activists within South Los Angeles who have been fighting for sustainable and healthful food choices for their communities. SEED follows a neighborhood whose struggle for survival depends upon the success of their urban farm. Many of the shows are linked to opportunities for engagement or discussion with community members about the issues raised in the play, so please check the schedule.

If you aren’t familiar with Cornerstone Theater Company, they are a multi-ethnic, ensemble-based theater company that commissions and produces plays that are the result of intense collaborations between artists and community members. Their approach has generated unique and memorable works, such as Day Laborer Theater Without Borders, that not only educate audiences about challenges faced by those on the margins, but empowers the subjects of the work to tell and use their own stories for catharsis. The Hunger Cycle will be comprised of nine world premiere plays exploring people’s relationship to the most elemental of needs – hunger — through the lenses of food equity, urban and rural farming, food addiction, and community gardens. Read more…

Ali helps a neighbor at CSU's produce stand at King Blvd. and Bill Robertson Ave. (c) sahra

If you’ve been paying attention to our calendar, you already know that RideSouthLA and Community Services Unlimited, Inc. (CSU) are holding a Healthy Food Ride this Sunday, Sept 9. The ride/walk event is designed to take participants on a tour through the neighborhood and show them the fresh food opportunities that do exist in the area. The ride/walk meet-up site is Mercado La Paloma (3655 S Grand Ave), and the event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

What you may not know is that CSU has only recently moved its offices into Mercado La Paloma in order to be able to provide neighbors with easily accessible, fresh, and sustainable produce. The 1,300 lbs of produce they handle in any given week are grown in their own set of urban farms and sourced from local farmers. They hope that the new space will move them towards their goal of helping 1,000 local families access high-quality organic foods on a weekly basis.

On Saturday, Sept. 8, they will be celebrating this expansion of their Village Market Place program. They invite you to come by between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. for music, cooking demonstrations, and tastings. They will also have a number of products for sale, including their jams, sauces, pickles, herb-infused oils, and vinegars, and baked goods. Proceeds go toward helping pay for their move to the new space and supporting their other programs. Click here for more about CSU, their work, and their indiegogo campaign to raise funds for their move.

Nina, an intern with Community Services Unlimited, stands in front of the mini-urban farm at Normandie Elementary (photo: sahra).

Community Services Unlimited, Inc. (CSU), a great organization that I’ve profiled here, is featured in a short documentary by USC students Mindy Guilford and Adam Joe. The piece explores the Garden Gateway program, CSU’s interactive workshops designed to empower South L.A. residents with the tools and know-how to grow their own healthy food. The monthly workshops often feature cooking segments as well, to give gardeners ideas about how to use the produce they grow. The program is currently on hiatus for the summer, but will pick up again in the fall.

CSU is also in the process of moving to a new site at Mercado la Paloma, from which they will be able to offer area residents more regular access to organic fresh produce and a new line of baked goods. You’ll be hearing more about CSU here in the next week or two, as I talk to them about the role non-profits can play in helping corner markets and convenience stores offer patrons healthier options.

Summer is officially here and South L.A. is celebrating in style.

Tonight, the East Side Riders will host their Friday Night Ride. The low-key ride starts in the Watts area and heads in a different direction every week. Check out their event page for more details and look here for my story on the night ride we did to Long Beach a few weeks ago.

Get your hands dirty on Saturday with not one but TWO awesome gardening extravaganzas.

First up, Community Services Unlimited is holding its last Garden Gateway to Community Health workshop of the summer. They plan to celebrate by sharing a pot-luck of dishes featuring recipes from the workshop series as well as making dishes together with participants that feature summer produce. While munching away, you will learn about crop rotation, why it works, and ways that you can use it in your home garden. You will be offered seedlings for your own summer garden. CSU asks that you come prepared to attend the entire workshop, which runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at their Urban Farm. You are welcome to bring a dish to share at the pot-luck. Please RSVP to Neelam@csuinc.org. The EXPO Center/CSU Urban Farm is located at the corner of King Blvd. and Bill Robertson Ln. (formerly Menlo Ave).

L.A. Green Grounds, a cool group of folks that garden out of the sheer goodness of their hearts, will be holding their monthly dig-in on Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. They will dig up neighbors Roberto and Sandra’s front yard and re-sow it with edible herbs, vegetables, and fruit tree seedlings. They break mid-day for a pot-luck lunch, so bring something to share if you can. Meet up at 3820 S. Harvard Blvd. and come prepared to work hard (in a fun way, that is) with hat, sunscreen, and water bottle. Find more information about the event here.

Don’t want to root around in the dirt on Saturday? Activists from SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education), the League of Young Voters Education Fund, and Cashmere Agency will be hosting Ignite L.A.: Uprising Remixed from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mercado La Paloma. The event seeks to highlight the innovative work of community youth organizers, cultural workers, and unsung civic heroes throughout the LA area. With an eye to the elections in the fall, the organizers will take stock of the issues facing South L.A. 20 years after the riots and engage area youth and residents on the role that L.A. can play in influencing national trends. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the livestream at YoungVoterLive.com.

If you’ve had your fill of politics this week, head farther South to Watts where several organizations are reaching out to communities with messages of peace and wellness.

The East Side Riders (ESR) will be helping the Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) with the Vibes for Peace event. Held at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), located at 10950 S. Central Ave., the event will feature a dog show, barbeque, skate competition at the skate park there, and water gun/water balloon fight. Members of the ESR will be on hand to help fix bikes for the community. The event begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, the Watts Men’s Health Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Watts Healthcare Corp. (10300 Compton Ave.) Get screened for cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, STDs, and other fun things. OK, maybe getting your prostate screened is not so fun but, hey, it’s all FREE. After making sure your parts are all in working order, check out the car, motorcycle, and bike show.

Sunday, tour South L.A. with the Real Rydaz. Then stick around for the South L.A. Peace, Love and Family event at 86th and Vermont. Shuntain Thomas of the Rydaz and other members of the group We Are Responsible People (WARP) are shutting down the block for a party focused on health, community, and peace. Registration for the ride (which is free) begins at 8:30 a.m. in Exposition Park. Riders will roll out around 10 a.m. and head south on Vermont to El Segundo Blvd., before heading back up to the event site via Figueroa. More details on the event are here. More information on how Thomas hopes the event can inject hope and investment into the community is in my story here.

Stanford Alumni volunteer with L.A. Green Grounds to put a garden in at a home in Leimert Park

If you want to save the world, what’s the best way to go about it?

The question plagued me all through grad school and sent me off to track relief and development efforts and organizations of all sizes in Colombia, Malawi, and elsewhere around the world. Across the board, it was clear that bigger was almost never better.  Smaller, more flexible, organic efforts were the ones most likely to be sustainable and have a genuine and transformative impact in a community.

I was therefore intrigued to learn about L.A. Green Grounds, an informal organization dedicated to “changing turf into edible gardens in South Los Angeles,” that seemed to embody the organic, smaller-is-better approach.

Leader Craig Dietrich describes the effort as a “labor of love.”

He created L.A. Green Grounds with his wife, Vanessa Vobis, and other gardening activists in 2010. They sought to build a corps of volunteers willing to set up gardens for those in South L.A. who wanted them. Volunteers come together at monthly “dig-ins,” where they spend up to six hours digging up a neighbor’s yard and planting edible crops and herbs. Whenever possible, the gardens are put in front yards so that people in the area can see them as they walk by and, hopefully, come to view gardens as beautiful and appropriate replacements for lawns. Read more…