The South Central Farmers have won a key victory in our fight to restore the Land.
It buys us essential time to move forward, to advance and consolidate our efforts in other key arenas - and you made it happen!
Hundreds of you sent letters and emails and signed petitions to the City Planning Department demanding an environmental impact report on plans by Ralph Horowitz to build a mega warehouse on the Farm land, after planners had tried to waive the required report. The sheer volume of letters caused the Planning board to reconsider the waiver, even before a scathing commentary to City Planners from the Air Quality Management District was weighed. The planners had been called on the carpet, both by the community and by the authority most responsible for oversight of air quality in a four county area of Southern California.
In 2003, Mayor James Hahn and City Council members, including Councilmember Antonio Villaraigosa, approved a transfer of the land at 41st and Alameda from the Los Angeles Harbor directly to developer Ralph Horowitz for the construction of a trucking distribution center for clothing manufacturer and retailer Forever 21, in a deal brokered by City Attorney Rockard Delgadillo. As the Los Angeles Times reported ("Forever 21 Development on South Central Farm Site Is Protested") on August 18, 2008, Mr. Villariagosa has accepted $1.3M from Forever 21 for his mayoral campaign and for projects that advance his political agenda. Public records show at least three other City Council members, Nick Pacheco, José Huizar, and Jan Perry, have also received monies from Forever 21 during and since 2004. City Council records show that Ms. Perry's approval was key to finalizing the sale to Mr. Horowitz. Further, according to the article, Forever 21 threatened City officials that it would remove its operations from the City if it did not obtain use of this site.
Suggestions of fraud, misuse of public funds and lands, and public officials' machinations to the benefit of private parties pervade the story of the sale and ultimate destruction of the South Central Farm. The City's questionable transactions around South Central Farm point to a pattern of manipulating both public and private land ownership and distributing public development funds for political gain. The Farm was beloved by thousands of supporters across Los Angeles, the State of California, and the world. If this treasure was lost to us because of graft and greed, the residents of this City, the State, and the world need to know, and we implore you to tell us.
What can you do?
Help us by encouraging Attorney General Jerry Brown by doing an ethic investigation of LA City Officials involved in the "pay to play" development deals. Press on the image or follow the link.
There will be a movie screening of the The Garden where you can witness corruption first hand by Rocky Delgadillo, Jan Perry, and Villaraigosa. Please join us for the one week run of The Garden, winner of the Sterling award for best U.S. feature at Silverdocs, at Laemmle Fallbrook 7, West Hills, CA. Thank you for your support.
"We award this film for its tenacity in storytelling in the face of injustice, and the filmmaker's singular vision in bringing a gripping, dramatic, and important story to the public eye. THE GARDEN has raw emotion, visceral energy, and nail-biting twists and turns. It unravels a complex and layered tale of the destruction of America's largest urban farm that must not be forgotten."
The Silverdocs Sterling US Feature Jury
The Garden
A Film by Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Laemmle Fallbrook 7
6731 Fallbrook Ave, West Hills, CA 91307
818 340 8710
free parking
8:00pm and 10:00 pm, daily
Friday, August 22-Thursday August 28, 2008
***Q/A with filmmaker and other members of the film after both screenings on 8/22 and 8/23***
If you are heading to the DNC you will have an opportunity to see it there.
The Garden will also be screening on Wednesday 8/27 as part of the Democratic National Convention
in Denver Colorado as part of the THE SEACHANGE IDEAS FORUM At the STARZ GREEN ROOM
please check their website for
further information and updates: http://www.seachangecom.com/
On October 15th, 2008 There will be a screening of The Garden at the Schindler house, located at 835 North Kings Road West Hollywood, CA 90069,p: 213-453-6449, starting at 6:30 pm.
It's tempting to call "The Garden" a story of innocence and experience, of evil corrupting paradise, but that would be doing a disservice to the fascinating complexities of a classic Los Angeles conflict and an excellent documentary that does them full justice.
Produced and directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, "The Garden" takes us behind the scenes into one of the most incendiary L.A. situations of recent times. That would be the fierce battle over a 14-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda streets known as the South Central Farm, a dispute that turned so bitter and protracted it is still going on.
It's especially fitting that Kennedy is the director. As he showed with his fine "O.T.: our town," about a production of the Thornton Wilder play at Compton's Dominguez High School, he's a filmmaker with a nice sense of unforced drama and a knack for recognizing and capitalizing on stories in unglamorous parts of the city.
It's also appropriate that "The Garden" took the top prize in June at the Silverdocs documentary festival in Washington, D.C., because its lessons about the levers of power and politics, about rebels becoming the establishment and how easy it is to get co-opted, are relevant everywhere.
Despite its virtues, "The Garden" is still a film in search of distribution, and the only way to see it theatrically is during its one-week Oscar-qualifying run at Laemmle's Fallbrook 7 in West Hills. It's worth the trip.
Producer-director Kennedy, who also had a hand in the cinematography, editing and sound, spent four years on this film, and that length of time has contributed to "The Garden's" tone. We see that all the participants in this intricate drama are convinced they are right.
South Central Farm, sometimes called the largest community garden in the U.S., came into existence in 1992 on a parcel of city-owned land as part of a desire to do something positive for the community after the Rodney King verdict-inspired riots. Says Doris Block, one of the prime movers in the garden project, "land, people, food -- it's a pretty simple idea. Happy days."
In fact, what we can see of the group of 372 largely Latino families who work the land indicates that they are as happy as they can be with the chance to grow crops including corn and beans, papayas and bananas. Until the eviction notice comes.
It turns out that Los Angeles had paid developer Ralph Horowitz $5 million for this land in 1986 when the city wanted to build an incinerator on the property before an activist named Juanita Tate organized the community to stop the project.
Suddenly, in 2003, the city sold the land back to Horowitz, who planned to develop it. Though everything was strictly legal, the deal was initially done in secret and, remarkably, given how much real estate values had risen in the last 20 years, for virtually the same $5 million the city had originally paid Horowitz. It was a move supported by Tate and Councilwoman Jan Perry, two individuals who clearly understand the nature of power and influence.
The South Central farmers, feeling their rights were being trampled on, found civil rights attorney Dan Stormer and fought back. They were helped by activists such as former Black Panther Deacon Alexander as well as celebrities such as Daryl Hannah and Willie Nelson.
This struggle was not without its costs, including battles that broke out between factions of farmers. As much as it is a potent human drama, "The Garden" is a case study in how hardball politics is played and why it is so difficult to take on the system. Not that anyone has given up the fight. As a story in the L.A. Times this week pointed out, the battle over this piece of land is far from over. What "The Garden" does is demonstrate what it's all about and why it's important.
"The Garden." MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. Laemmle's Fallbrook 7, 6731 Fallbrook Ave., West Hills, (818) 340-8710.
Rendering of h-Warehouse (134)
SCF Warehouse Proposal Public Hearing (163)
There will be a movie screening of the The Garden where you can witness corruption first hand by Rocky Delgadillo, Jan Perry, and Villaraigosa. Please join us for the one week run of The Garden, winner of the Sterling award for best U.S. feature at Silverdocs, at Laemmle Fallbrook 7, West Hills, CA. Thank you for your support.
