In Los Angeles, Looking for a Patch of Green

Posted: 12-Aug-2002; Updated: 05-Feb-2008

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The quest began almost three years ago, when a Los Angeles coalition of social justice groups (called Coalition LA) decided to go knocking on doors of residents in densely populated urban neighborhoods and compile a wish list of what they wanted in their communities. Topping the list -- along with affordable housing, better schools and more libraries -- were parks that residents could walk to, babies, strollers and picnic baskets in tow. While residents could look around and see an abundance of vacant lots and abandoned buildings nearby (many the legacy of the '92 riots), finding a green spot in close vicinity was next to impossible. Instead, most residents had to board a bus and travel on average 25 to 45 minutes to get to a park.

Out of that seed of discontent and hope sprouted the Verde Coalition, dedicated to finding ways to turn those fallow decaying city spaces into green oases. Since then, the group of 14 (running the gamut from a local city gardeners' labor union and economic development groups to Environmental Defense, the only national, environmental group) has worked tirelessly to come up with a blueprint for making urban parks a reality.

Knowing it had to work with the City to be successful, the Verde Coalition endured setback after setback as it strived to get the ear of an unsympathetic City Council and reach a consensus among an eclectic coalition with one common goal. Finally, the group's break came last spring when two new City Council members agreed to create the Urban Land Task Force, with Environmental Defense the facilitator, to draft a working plan that would further the dream of a park in every urban neighborhood. The group looked closely at what other large cities like New York, Chicago and Boston were doing to address that need and learned they had created land trusts, an infrastructure that would harness community energy and spirit and work with foundations and corporations to tap into both private and public funding - a kind of one-stop shopping hub for planning and implementation.

The result is the report, Walking to the Park, a nuts-and-bolts plan that marks a big step forward in greening the City's urban core. Says Environmental Defense policy analyst Misty Sanford, who was instrumental in getting the parks initiative off the ground, "this represents the first stage in getting the city to think out of the box. One reason Los Angeles has such poor land use planning is that it was never thought of as a real city, but rather as suburbs strung together. But sprawl has hit a wall in Los Angeles, to borrow the phrase coined by a USC Sustainable Cities Program report. Now we need to deal with these inner-city neighborhoods and make them more livable by using these slivers of land to create oases of green."

What's Next?

In Los Angeles' urban poverty core, even the few parks that have been carved out of vacant land often face an uncertain future. A case in point is the Francis Avenue garden, created from a trash-strewn lot leased from private landowner. Now the patch of grass and trees that residents toiled over for seven years has also blossomed into a real community center, where art, dance and adult literacy classes and seasonal celebrations draw residents daily. But the owner wants to sell, and because the asking price is way out of reach for the community, the garden's fate hangs in the balance. The kind of land trust that the Verde Coalition aims to implement would be the place where community groups could turn to for help in such cases. But now the residents who live near the Francis Avenue garden have one piece of good news to keep them motivated in their fight to keep their little patch of paradise.

 Read our report Walking to the Park (1 Mb pdf).