In the upcoming issue of Shelterforce, we look at how urban agriculture brings not only food to communities, but also provides an opportunity to fill in vacant lots through programs like the Reimagining Cleveland project and the nationally recognized Greensgrow Farm, located on a former brownfield site in a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Now, in Los Angeles, as the city council places a moratorium on fast food restaurant openings in a low-income tract of South LA, Michael Pinto, who teaches in the Community Design Program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and his students have concluded a plan to reuse a 2.5-acre plot called Mudtown Farms. Ideas included gardens, a community kitchen, and a venue for cooking programs. The project, according to The Los Angeles Times, is working with the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, which bought the land in 2005.
We hope Mudtown Farms can be the hub for food awareness and community building that it sets out to be.
