Project Economic Refugee

I have been working for the past two years as a community organizer in South Los Angeles with four different community groups.  Last April 28 2010, I hosted an Open House to feature these community groups’ grassroots greening projects. Here is the video of the welcome by yours truly:

Here are the links to some highlights of the event (videos) of the four community groups that were featured:

Washington Elementary PTA (Compton)

Association of Communities United for South L.A. Part1

Association of Communities United for South L.A. Part2

Youth Opportunities High School (Watts)

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists (Southeast L.A.) Part1

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists (Southeast L.A.) Part2

For the background of the program that these four communities have been participating in, click this link (video).

This will be the 3rd annual event that the Heal the Bay staff will have pulled off in L.A. County.  I remember my first “A Day Without A Bag” event like it was yesterday, being assigned to an El Monte site.  I was interviewed by the L.A. Times in 2007 and again in 2008 by La Opinion; my most recent interview with them was about Heal the Bay’s Summer Beach Report Card 2009; of course, this time around I hope that both press outlets will show up for this year’s event to cover the story unfolding at the Downtown L.A. giveaway site in 7th Street & Figueroa Shopping Center.

This year is going to have a pretty cool event: Heal the Bay staff will be doing three live segments with Gayle Anderson (7:50, 8:30 and 9:10) on the Day Without a Bag hoopla on Thursday morning on the KTLA Morning News; for the press release in Spanish, visit this site here.  This year, Heal the Bay will be proud to feature four of its South L.A. community partners as part of its brand-new Healthy Communities Initiative to put the issue of protecting the environment against cronic toxic pollution front-and-center at four different giveaway locations:

Youth Opportunities High’s at 1PM

(Superior Super Warehouse) Superior Super Warehouse 10211 Avalon Blvd. Watts, 90003.

Washington Elementary School’s starting at 9AM

1421 N. Wilmington AVE, Compton 90222.

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists’s starting at 9AM

706 E. Manchester AVE, Los Angeles, CA 90001.

A.C.U.S.L.A.’s at 9AM (Association of Communities United for South L.A.)

(Numero Uno Market) 9127 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90044.

Personally, I will be going to the Downtown L.A. event just to watch the Thriller Dancers in action … what about you? (well, besides going to the South L.A. events):

Update: for a recap of the day, please visit Heal the Bay’s President’s Mark Gold’s blog here.  To view the video of the “Thriller Dancers” performing at the actual A Day Without A Bag press conference, click here.

Here’s an article I wrote for Heal the Bay’s “Currents” magazine (intro based on previous work of Heal the Bay’s James Alamillo):

As part of Heal the Bay’s new Healthy Communities Initiative, we have been doing intensive community organizing work in South L.A. to empower residents to heal their environment for the sake of L.A. County’s coastline.  We are all interconnected, and this is especially true with our street trash, storm drains, rivers, watersheds, and ocean.  At Heal the Bay, we believe that a healthy community is one that embraces the belief that health is more than merely an absence of disease.  A healthy community is a product of a healthy environment; and as part of the feedback loop, a healthy environment enables a healthy community.  Most all human health issues witnessed in urban areas have at their root an environmental component. Whether it is air pollution and asthma, water pollution and infectious diseases, urban blight and psycho-social disorders, or poor planning (no parks and lots of junk food outlets) and obesity; there is a nexus between the built environment and human health.  So how can we even begin to heal our environment?  Four community groups from South L.A. have taken up the call to fight for a healthier future in L.A. They have partnered with Heal the Bay to develop several green community spaces in the hopes that these sites would serve as filters that will naturally catch and treat urban runoff before it reaches the storm drain system.    

St. Michael’s Church Community Group 

St. Michael's Catholic Church Community Leader Jose Estrada

Heal the Bay’s partnership with St. Michael’s community group (housed at 1016 W Manchester AVE) in the area has been a very inspirational one.  Through the leadership of a council of community leaders headed by Jose Javier Estrada, they have engaged in planning and developing much-needed green spaces and building neighborhood beautification projects.  Last year, they worked on building their so-called public “Living Rooms” in a couple of street corners and this year they are focusing on re-energizing their long-term “Vermont Avenue Median” project that would stretch from 89^th to 90^th ST.  Mr. Estrada explains: “this project has been a very positive experience because it has involved multiple sectors of the community: neighborhoods, colleges, churches, Bernard Parks’ staff, Southeast Neighborhood council, and others.”  In order to make sure that the project has the support of the local community, their group has embarked on a process of incorporation so they can function in a more independent manner and begin to have further name recognition.  For this purpose, they have recently elected their officers as the first step to become a nonprofit group so that they may better represent their constituents and move forward their goals and objectives in order to fight for better neighborhoods because as Mr. Estrada often declares, “everyone deserves a beautiful community.” 

Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists

Wisdom Academy students learn about marine animals.

The staff and parents at Wisdom Academy of 706 E. Manchester AVE have chosen a wonderful site for their WAYS Reading & Fitness Park, an outdoor classroom/community green space.  It is a median located behind their school, on the corner of McKinley AVE & 87^th ST.  Located in a residential area, their WAYS project is a great piece of land with great tall beautiful trees already in place; it is as if the site itself were calling for some attention.  Answering the call, Wisdom Academy Executive Director Krendra Okonkwo and Principal Alake Watson have formed an alliance with Wisdom’s PTA parent leaders Brandy Williams and Evelyn Aguirre to make sure that the project becomes a reality. The road ahead will not be easy, but the folks at Wisdom Academy remain steadfast in their resolution.  “I’m a big believer of reclaiming space for the community”, Executive Director Okonkwo has often said.  In addition, Principal Watson envisions that “The WAYS Reading and Fitness Park will be a driving force to unite the school and local community as we continue through the implementation process.   Local community members will be invited to partake in the building efforts and finishing design of the project.  WAYS proposes to make the implementation safe and fun for everyone by providing a series of educational workshops prior to the weekend of the build … We highly anticipate the participation of the office of our local councilwoman, Jan Perry.  We hope the WAYS Reading and Fitness Park will be the start of a powerful collaborative that extends beyond the border of our school walls and touches the lives of families in need of physical fitness as well as serves as a quiet reservoir where reading is literacy is nourished.”            

Youth Opportunities High

Principal (standing) Kianna Nesbit chats with parents at a Y.O.'s design workshop.

The Principal at Youth Opportunities High 1827 E. 103^rd ST in Watts, Kianna Nesbit, and her assistant Mayra Arroyo have been leading the charge to turn a portion of their school’s parking lot into a community space that would benefit the surrounding neighborhoods.  Principal Nesbit explains: “The Watts Community Garden Plaza will serve as a place where local residents, patrons, and students can commune, relax, and enjoy their community.  This plaza will provide people with a safe, pleasant space where they can partake in recreational activities (basketball and chess), learn about plant/fruit/vegetable life through participation in gardening activities, and/or just sit, converse and enjoy the scenery in our rendition of a serene space.  The Watts Community Garden Plaza will be located in the Robert Pitts Center, the Malfundi building.  This center was constructed in 1965 after the civil unrest.  The goal was to create a space where Watts’ community residents could participate in artistic and educational activities.  The Watts Community Garden Plaza will serve as an extension of this original objective, a viable, real, and tangible manifestation of that original goal.  This community beautification project will allow the original mission of the Mafundi building to be further felt and experienced by people in this community.”

Washington Elementary PTA

Parent members of the Washington Elementary PTA participate in a recent design workshop.

The parents at Washington Elementary 1421 N Wilmington AVE in Compton, under the leadership of School Administrator Ema Escobar and PTA President Martha Barajas, have chosen a piece of land in the front of their school.  Under the supervision of their Principal Ontrece Ellerbe, they have banded together to make sure that they are involved in the process of bringing about the construction of an outdoor classroom that would also serve as a green plaza for the enjoyment of the community at-large.  In order to carry out this project, they have also embarked on leadership development and so they have picked four main parent leaders: Maria Rodriguez, Blanca Rivera, Olga Palma, and Petra Luciano that will assist in getting the rest of the parents involved.  In the coming Fall, Washington Elementary students will join Heal the Bay and other schools (including Wisdom Academy’s) to celebrate our annual “Ed Day”: a day of fun, games, and learning to promote the annual county-wide “Costal Cleanup Day” event at Santa Monica Beach.  To learn more about and participate in Heal the Bay’s Coastal Cleanup Day activities, please visit: www.healthebay.org/ccd

The following is the news-style story (in the 3rd person) that I put together as an exercise for a Communications class.  It’s about my trip to Portland, OR (which I previously wrote about):

On the morning of April 9th, a delegation of community activists from South Los Angeles traveled to Portland, Oregon to study the public transit system.

 “We live in a concrete jungle, plagued by never-ending traffic jams,” environmental activist Refugio “Reg” lamented on a recent trip he took to Portland, Oregon.  He was part of a delegation of community activists and agency representatives from South L.A. that the Los Angeles Department of City Planning flew out to Oregon.  The delegation was anxious to learn about a service that Portland uses to connect its communities, as well as reduce their impact on climate change and air pollution: a world-renown public transit system.  Upon arriving in Portland at the airport, they hopped onto a light-rail train that took them straight downtown, directly connecting them to their streetcar system.  Once there, the streetcar line took them through various major thoroughfares, stopping in front of major points of interest such as businesses, health centers, affordable housing complexes, and libraries. 

The South L.A. delegation was immediately struck with how integrated Portland’s rail system was into the street fabric of the city.  In Los Angeles, the rail lines have boarding stops that are often located on somewhat removed locations — on the edge of town, up some steps, across security fences.  In contrast, the streetcar system of Portland blended in, running through actual streets and stopping in front of actual entry ways — no steps required, quite a relief for the physically disabled.  More of a refreshing surprise was to hear how Portland functioned before it broke ground for its commuter rail line.  From the presentations that various city officials, college personnel, and business leaders gave to the South L.A. leaders, it was learned that Portland’s traffic and downtown area used to resemble Los Angeles’ as they function today.  What became immediately evident was that the key to Portland’s success was that people worked together: from the Portland Office of Transportation to the Portland University Transportation Coordinator to the Transition Homeless Projects Director.  Kick-starting the project, however, was challenging: they encountered institutional skepticism, public resistance to giving up parking lot spaces, and a limited pool of funds, among other hurdles. Presenters also made sure to note that their city is not the utopia that some visitors sometimes seem to think it is at first sight — for example, as of March ’09 Portland had an alarming 11% unemployment rate. 

Yet, their past and current challenges just made their accounts of success more relatable.  Los Angeles may seem like a collection of segregated communities, but it may soon take its first steps to fix that.  One first step that has the potential to revitalize and connect instead of gentrifying neighborhoods, thus laying the framework for further blending of space is the Revitalization of the Los Angeles River, which seeks to restore the L.A. River into its more natural-looking condition and connect communities through bike lanes and open communal recreational spaces along its path.  Another project that has the potential to promote unity in Los Angeles is the development of the Expo Line rail, which is slated to be completed within the next few years and will allow people to travel from Downtown L.A. all the way to Santa Monica beach.  Overall, the South L.A. “infiltration” of Portland served as an inspirational illustration of the inter-connectedness that can be achieved by the cooperation of communities. It also showed that what was achieved provided not merely a convenience but something of absolute necessity.  “The challenges may seem enormous to us Los Angelinos,” Reg cautioned, “but perhaps we should take it one step at a time and do what Portlanders did when they tackled their enormous problems: just start reconnecting.”

I often hear people complain about how our media is further segregating us into compartmentalized categories all for the sake of “target demographics”.  So it was nice to see a use of media that was trying to actually create a feeling of connectedness and community rather than trying to separate it into various niche markets:

Signs promoting an environmental project in the streets of Portland, OR.

The piece of media that I ran into was an advertisement on the streets of Portland, Oregon (picture above) for a Friends of Trees project that reminded me very much of another project local to that city that some enviro activists have told me about before: City Repair.  Below is a video that describes The  City Repair Project more in detail, which started back in 1996 (as one watches the video, one cannot help but feel the striking similarities between where Portland started and the current way things are in the City of Los Angeles):

Additionally, the signage reminded me of another beautificaton community-run & empowering project that Heal the Bay has been working on in South L.A.: their outdoor public “Living Rooms” (pages 8-9) community spaces that are currently installed on the corner of Vemont & Manchester AVE and the corner of Main & 91st/92nd ST (with a third one slated to be installed on the corner of Broadway & Century Blvd).

But I guess I should back up and first explain that the reason I went up to Portland was because I was part of a delegation from South L.A. that included community leaders, agency representatives, and activists that the City of Los Angeles put together and flew out to Portland, Oregon to study the transit system there.  The purpose of the trip was to give us a first-hand experience of the Portland’s so-called Transit-Oriented Development in light of the fact that the Expo Line is in the works to soon be built in Los Angeles, which will touch on a portion of a South L.A.  In the written materials that were presented to us South L.A. folks, the City of L.A. explained why visiting Portland was key:

Representatives from communities around the country and the world visit Portland to see first-hand how good planning around a new rail transit line can lead to successful places for housing, retail, office, and educational uses.  Portland gives visitors a unique opportunity to see both how mature communities work with rail transit and how transit lines reach into newer communities.

Portland has been successful in strengthening communities around transit by focusing on how to make them more walkable, affordable, vibrant, diverse, and sustainable with a mix of building types, public open spaces, and plazas.  The City has also been successful at encouraging better developments near transit lines and in achieving community-wide public involvement in the planning and design process. 

Overall, I was struck with how powerful small incremental, but nevertheless coordinated, steps can be towards creating lines of connections between communities.  The perfect example in Portland of how synergy can be crafted for the purposes of creating a more pedestrian-friendly atmosphere is that of the Pearl District.  The story of how that place came to look like it does now is simply amazing.  It started out as a bunch of “rail yards and empty warehouses” and eventuall became a hub of urban renewal in large part thanks to the business community taking the leadership to work with the city.  The Pearl district is not the only jewel of Portland’s success of blending space and creating more community-friendly atmospheres; other examples include the Sea Change Gallery and the supportive housing projects, to name a few.  Granted, Portland Oregon has very different circumstances than L.A.  Yet, it was striking and quite surprising to hear similarities in the way Portland used to be at one point compared to how L.A. is currently set up.  As I look for our own examples of projects here in L.A. that have the potential for making those kinds of connections among centers of activity (since Los Angeles is basically a cluster of cities) and thus lay the framework for further blending of space, the first that comes to mind is the Los Angeles River Rivatilization project.  As we explored the Portland transit rail lines, what became immediately evident was that a city’s agencies and community groups need to work in concert-it is an absolute necessity.  I mean, for God’s sakes, even Portland State University seemed to be very actively and aggressively involved in the development of public transit and overall landscape of the surrounding areas near the campus.  Will USC and/or UCLA ever be like Portland State U.?  Will the different mismatched groups that make up L.A. ever work in concert just like Portland’s?  I hope so, for the sake of our future.