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One often forgets that through the smog and concrete and poverty of the city this was once a farming paradise. Recently, LA-IMC members had the chance to attend an event at the westside artist residency Schindler House organized by Belgian Kobe Matthy on the topic of Community Gardens. Two speakers, Raul from the Mexico City Anarchist Gardening Collective TierraViva and Al Renner of Los Angeles' Solano Canyon Community Garden caught my attention. Their distinct projects revealed two very different takes on community and democratic movements. They both challenge the idea of what a city can be.
Raul's project is inspired by both the more "western" punk/anarchist traditions and an indigenista blend revealed through TierraViva's utilization of Zapatista style direct democracy. One thing that it reminded me of was the ideas of Social Ecology that adds a lot of energy to the globalization movement. Raul and the collective have a long-term plan to build TierraViva, an autonomous agricultural community in the heart of Mexico City.
Al Renner's project at the Solano Canyon Community Garden complements existing institution. His project within the garden employs the residents of Dome Village. With the city, NGOs and Federal organizations the garden moves towards the idea of an equitable and sustainable food distribution network. Along these idealogical lines, he highlighted the work of the Venice based Community Food Security Coalition which helped write LA's progressive-leaning hunger policy statements. Al suggested that through the direct help of theLos Angeles Community Gardens Council and assistance from government grants and groups like Clean and Green/ LA Conservation Corp there could be a rebirth in the LA Community Garden movement.
While at the Solano Canyon Garden, I bumped into an associate of The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute who is begining a project on bringing healthy localy grown foods to the LA Unified School District.
In addition to this green news; the LA-IMC newswire contained a story on a Federal Judge's ruling that Overturns 'Critical Habitat' designation for land that is the home of two SoCal species, possibly leading to more poorly planed development and more extinctions. Other posts include were from the LA office of the Citizens Campaign for Old Growth's ballot measure.
[ Scary Image of Cars along the freeway after a judge rules against two California species ]
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