Last April, I was in California to do field work research for my thesis on Community Benefits Agreements, of which also an article was published here on The Proto City. Only a few days before I would leave again, a TED-video (see end of this article) on gardening in South LA was shared among Urban Planning students of the University of Amsterdam. I watched the video and immediately decided to contact Ron Finley for an interview; this coincidence was an opportunity and I could not let it slip.
Gardening in South Los Angeles
South LA is formerly known as South Central LA: a name change of the area, which was known for its high unemployment, crime and poverty rates, has been enforced by the city in an attempt to get rid of the negative reputation of the area. South LA is huge: in size and number of inhabitants it is comparable to the entire city of Amsterdam. It is a food desert where it is easier to get fast food or liquor than normal healthy food, and according to non-profit community organization SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy), there are 8,5 liquor stores per square mile versus 0,10 large-scale supermarkets. The website also provides some other interesting statistics about South LA, for instance that 30% of the adults in South LA are uninsured. The point is thus clear: some areas of South LA are poverty-struck and are lacking access to normal food.
Along comes DIY-planning in the person of Ron Finley (http://ronfinley.com/). I will have to warn you; from here on, this text is biased, because Ron is awesome. Ron is a fashion designer and lives in South LA. We sit by his beautiful backyard pool, filled with new plants and flowers waiting to be planted somewhere. As he reflects on the past time, he saw how people, especially visitors, were looking at South LA: many were surprised to perceive the area not being what they expected it to be. Once they started living there, they thought it was not too bad at all. In his opinion, South LA is not a ghetto, several blocks from his house there are houses worth over a million dollar. However, the people are stuck in systems; school systems, prison systems, but also food systems. They are all systems that are nearly impossible not to diverge from. Ron got fed up with driving to another city to find a normal organic apple.
Common in Los Angeles are grass strips between the sidewalk and parking spots. These strips are called parkways. The parkways are owned by the City of Los Angeles, but have to be maintained by the inhabitants living next to it. Therefore everybody chooses to keep it as simple grass strips. Some people grow a tree, but that’s about it.
Ron’s garden (left) and common parkway in Los Angeles (right), picture made by Marten Bolt
Ron saw the parkways as a perfect spot to unleash his food desert frustration and change it to a beautiful garden; his way to maintain the parkway. He started to do it by himself and planted several flowers and vegetable plants. It grew over a period of time until he got ratted by one of his neighbors. The City demanded a termination of this practice because he did not have a permit, but Ron refused and continued the battle for healthy food. The success continued, the plants grew bigger, and more and more people came along to help him. However, the plants were not just there for himself or resale, some people in the area grabbed an apple or some tomatoes. He does not mind that at all. In fact, it’s a confirmation of people wanting to eat healthy but not having access to it. As he watched the responses in the area, it is interesting to see how different people see the plants. An Asian man he had never seen before stopped by every day to take a slow walk through the plants. Latin-American girls going to school nearby loved the sunflowers. He assisted several people across Los Angeles following his initiative. But the City still wanted him to stop.
Ron’s garden. Picture made by Marten Bolt
Then, it was February 2013 and he spoke for TED. The TED talk catapulted him into a new world of connections and people eager to meet him. He had people interviewing him and talking with him from all over the world. It also had another consequence; suddenly the City of Los Angeles gave him a permit and now he works at projects all over Los Angeles: for example projects where homeless people work on gardens. Besides, he travels everywhere to share his thoughts and vision. This truly simple, creative but very effective way of DIY-planning has a very positive effect on an area that is usually not positively perceived in the media. Of course, major problems regarding unemployment and poverty will not be solved with the gardens, and Ron does not see himself as a revolutionary, but it is impossible to deny this (change of use of the) small strip of land has impact. This example of bottom-up initiatives on barely used strips of land maybe could be the start of increased awareness of how people look at food and nutrition; it could change their way of eating. Perhaps they’ll get frustrated driving to other cities to buy organic apples and start their own gardens. Ron sees ‘this future so bright, he needs sunglasses’.
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