... still empty

this series of pictures was taken from a moving blue line train.  they show a 14-acre plot of land in south central l.a. (or technically now "south l.a.") that was devoted to farming for 12 years, starting in 1994. 

the satellite image (google maps) shows a pretty striking patch of green in the middle of an urban jungle.  certainly bigger patches exist, but this is an area that captivated america as the epicenter of west coast gang activity for over a decade.

farming in the city is gaining many city planners' attention (detroit was in the news not too long ago regarding this).  the people who farmed this land had to push the city to make it happen, not the other way around.

in 2006, the south central farmers were forced off the land by the l.a. county sheriff's dept.  i won't recount the events, as the details are readily available elsewhere on the internet (wikipedia's a decent start).

i feel hopeful about this land being put to good use some day.  after all, the south central farmers did and history has a habit of repeating itself.