South Central Farm Eviction in Process Now!

Despite weeks of negotiations, getting funding to purchase the land, and really putting their hearts and lives on the line, the farmers and their supporters are being evicted from the South Central Farm right now. A true gem and beautiful example of what cooperation and working together can accomplish is going to be destroyed to build a fucking Walmart warehouse.


Please fax or email city hall ask Mayor Villaraigosa to continue peaceful negotiations for purchase of the 14 acres of farmland in urban South Central LA. The mailbox on the phone is full and no one is answering.

mayor@lacity.org


CITY HALL

200 North Spring Street, Room 303
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Mayor's Staff Roster
213/978-0600 (Phone)
213/978-0750 (Fax)


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Press Release
SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS
Tuesday June13
Media Contact Fernando Flores 909-605-3136 Leslie Morava (310) 428-9380
Harold Linde 323-382-7554






URGENT BREAKING NEWS


SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS EVICTION HAPPENING NOW
5 A.M. SQUADRON OF HELICOPTERS & SQUAD CARS CAME TO EVICT FARMERS & PEACEFUL SUPPORTERS

WHEN: Tuesday June 13, NOW

WHAT: Eviction of South Central Farmers and Supporters
Darryl Hannah and John Quigley still inside the property, other peaceful protestors conducting nonviolent civil disobedience.

WHERE: South Central Farm
4000 S. Long Beach Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90058
(Media enter on 40th Pl. through Long Beach Ave. Park on 41st )

WHY:
For over three weeks supporters have been onsite at the South Central Farm, the nation’s largest urban farm, which serves as a 14-acre oasis in the middle of L.A.’s concrete jungle. This 14-year-old community gem functions as an active farm for more than 350 families and fills a local need for fresh produce, green space and a safe haven in a poverty-stricken region of Los Angeles. The farmers, community volunteers and celebrity supporters are in a daily state of peril anxiously awaiting the farm’s fate.


“The South Central Farm is a gem in the Los Angeles landscape. It supplies local communities with fresh, organic produce, gives children a safe environment to play and learn in, and provides a successful example of urban sustainability for the rest of the world to follow…”
- Dr. Joseph Hurwitz, Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Isaiah, Palm Springs

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hit it pls

Walmart is the Beast!

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/hannah%20joins%20baez%20for%20urban%20farm%20protest_27_05_2006

Owner ROB HOROWITZ insists the best way celebrities could have helped the cause was by digging deep and helping fund non-profit group The Trust For Public Land's failed bid to buy the site. In a statement released yesterday (26MAY06), Horowitz said, "It would be nicer if all those theatrical people would have volunteered to make a contribution to the trust so they can buy the property. "None of them have offered. They have all refused to contribute. If they really wanted to help, that's the way they could have helped."

such farms bring peace to dificult parts of town.

better way to place a warehouse.

When i was in NY city, a visit to the green space of Central Park had a remarkably calming effect on my nerves.

Man was not meant to live in a concrete jungle. We evolved amid leaves, and we seem to need leafy trees to stay calm and cheery.

Many are those on the LW who have planned ways to end cities. A good idea. Some time in the future, let robots in the city factories do all the work, while man spends his time relaxing in the rural woodlands and enjoying good conversation over grape juice and cheese. { I am not a fan of booze, its drunk drivers and mean drunks}.

for once, I don't think Wal-Mart is behind this one, it's an individual person that owns the land, Ralph Horowitz. The land was STOLEN from him under dubious eminent domain (the way the City of L.A. generally does things, "below board", as opposed to "above board"). The deal with the city's developer/campaign contributor then fell through, so Horowitz bought the land back.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

get 14 acres of land to farm?

You'd think a few Hollywood liberals with 'walking 'round' money could have taken care of all this months ago, put their name on a plaque and proclaim a bright shiny future--but NO...

. . . the owner just won't sell it to the farmers. Too much bad blood. Too much greed.

Just to clarify, it's not Walmart who owns the land, it's a developer named Ralph Horowitz.

Sure sounds like it.

Too bad I'm a thousand miles away and can't help. Best of luck to everybody there.

Why reward fat greedy fuckers like Horrowtz?

and the "eminent domain is evil" crowd when it's Wal-Mart using the iron fist wrapped in dollar bills versus a poor community?

Strangely quiet over there . . .

a good idea then, and still is.

did you know ... AFAIK... every large town's police force has an "eviction squad" that does nothing but go around all day throwing families into the street, and leaving all their stuff on the curb for them to carry off if they can, and the trashman to get, if the evicted cannot carry it all fast? It is a crime IMO.

In CA the landlord is required to store any abandoned property that isn't obviously trash for several weeks after an eviction or any other termination of tenancy. In my experience the stuff is rarely picked up (actually when I was working as a property manager I don't think I ever had a tenant collect thier property after moving out, though I did have one come back and scream at me almost a year after her eviction for not having her stuff anymore.)

America is turning, more and more, into a nightmare for so many.

while you LA folks are here, pls verify or not..

are there parts of LA where the police have informally decided not to regularly patrol and control? Because gangs are so powerful in those areas and dangerous?

I seem to recall reading that years ago.

I don't think there are areas where the LAPD doesn't patrol, if anything these areas get more police presence not less.

I have spent time in some of LA's biggest shitholes. There are cops everywhere. Now what they do there is another question...

it appears the city used eminent domain to force Horowitz to sell to build an incinerator. the project fell through and Horowitz sued to get it back. He bought it back for 5 million.

he offered the farmers to purchase it for $16 million. they didn't come up with all the money.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060613/ap_on_re_us/urban_garden

paid for it. Horowitz wanted to make a $10 million profit off the farmers. Fuck that pig.

I sold my last house to a young couple for $355,000, even though I only paid $225,000 for it. Why? Because the market had climbed and the value of the house had increased since I purchased it. You could easily make the argument that I profited $130,000 off of a couple who really couldn't afford it. Does that make me a pig too?

Horowitz offered to sell the land for its current market value. Unless you can show that he was jacking the price over market just to screw with them, I don't see where he did anything wrong by asking $16 million for it.

. . . as of several days ago. And he wouldn't sell it to them at any price. Hatred, pure and simple.

Horowitz is a greedy fucker, plain and simple. It not the farmers, the families and the people who live there for years going to come up with that kind of money.

I have no sympathy for Horowitz but its his land.

the city expropriated the land for the trash incinerator and then the project fell through they gave it to another agency. he sued and bought it back.

I blame the city.

This is a big chunk of land, not a single family home sized lot, it's 14 acres, (the average home sized lot is 1/8 to 1/5 of an acre). That's worth alot even in South Central. $16 million sounds fair.

the Annenberg Foundation agreed to donate/loan the remaining monies needed to match the 16 plus million that horoshit wanted. He refused just because he could and just because he really wanted to hurt the farmers.

33 people have been arrested already. Darryl Hannah is tied up in a walnut tree. The CNN anchors are laughing about it. F them!

But "Darryl Hannah is tied up in a walnut tree" does make me chuckle a bit. :+

I would make the most of it

I'd say a community farm is far more beneficial than a Wal-fucking-mart warehouse.

the basis for taking the land as a public need for the gardeners would be dubious since the public benefit would not extend much beyond those who are currently utilizingng the property.

Regardless, something need not effect the entire public to be public.

Preserving a community garden would certainly qualify.

The farmers had plans drawn up to include a community center, two soccer fields, and a job training center as part of the master plan for the farms future.

And the entire area around it is used by warehouses, wrecking yards, shipping operations and it's right beside a stinky river of street run-off we laughingly call the "Los Angeles River". Sure the community farm is perhaps nicer than a wrecking yard, but the owner has a right to fair market value as well. I'd like to hear of a developer buying it for fair market value and selling leaseholds on the property for farming. That way everyone would win, but I bet then the farmers would not be willing or perhaps able to pay for the leaseholds.... it's not as black and white as it seems...

. . . the full amount Horoshits was asking was raised by the farmers. 16 million plus. But he wanted to destroy the farm and would not sell it to them at any price.

I seem to recall reading something about it.

:(

Why can't Darryl Hanna and her friends put their money where their mouths are? They could easily cut a check for this guy and keep the land as is. But if they did then they couldn't get all the P.R. thay are getting now hanging in trees. $16 Million is pocket change to these people. This Horowitz guy got screwed over by the City of L.A. once already when they STOLE his land, he just wants to make some money.

always out for PR, and don't really care one whit about anybody but themselves.

Am I right;) ?

In this case at least you are totally wrong.

. . . and the full amount of money was raised. The owner just refused to sell it to them at any price as he wanted basic, hateful revenge.

If you can not see that, well, then your part of the problem.

If anyone wanted to know why you want a liberal democrat in ofice, its to stop the greedy bastards like Horowitz and company.

I hope they win out. Time is short it seems...