A Garden Grows on Burlington

On one of the most crime-ridden streets of Los Angeles, Burlington Avenue in the Westlake area, a group of community residents have teamed up with former prison inmates now living in halfway houses to build an urban oasis. A little over a year ago, they started the arduous chore of cleaning up a vacant lot near Fourth Street that had been a magnet for crime and broke ground for what would become the Burlington Avenue Community Garden. Project director NOLA-MARIE MOTT, who is also an office supervisor for the Department of Corrections, talked with MAKI BECKER about the role the garden plays in her neighborhood.

This used to be a hellhole. It really and truly was. An encampment. A dump heap. A lot of drugs, prostitution and a hotbed for gang activity. The owners of the land were getting cited by the city and they were getting lots of complaints.

So, the local police officers asked us if we wanted to take this on and we said, sure. Some volunteers from VISTA, the domestic Peace Corps, became involved. They came over and started talking to the people who were here.

The police told us just throw them [the squatters on the property] out, throw them out. But we wanted to do this gradually. We didn’t want to start out with people angry at us because we have no defense. So we slowly started encouraging people off the lot.

There was tons of garbage. Cars that were abandoned. It was a real chore.

The halfway houses have given us a lot of labor. They installed our plumbing. They laid down the bricks for this patio. I’m particularly proud of the part that the [former] inmates play. They do a lot of the physical work for us. Really intensive. They do an incredible job.

We have, right now, 23 plots and about 19 families. They pay $5 a month for a plot and that pays for the water. It’s a lot of money for some people who live here. One lady told me though that even if she gets only one tomato for her family, then it’s worth it. And she got much more than one tomato.

First of all, they have a source of good food for the family. People plant onions, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, corn, squash, melons, mint, certain types of foods from Central America, various herbs and spices. Whatever.

We even have a little Christmas tree farm. We planted a bunch of cuts. We’ve got 20 of them that were given to us. Maybe in a few years we will be able to give the farmers their own little Christmas trees.

Involvement from the community is sometimes a little bit difficult. A lot of people here are undocumented and are hesitant to sign up. I say, you live here. You are a resident. You can work on the garden with us.

In this area, very few positives happen. People here are just struggling to survive. It’s very hard to do anything for your family or yourself. We try to make this a little bit better than that. We’ve had a few problems; we can’t leave our tools here. This area wasn’t just ugly, it is a source of danger.

But by taking this over, we reclaimed it for the neighborhood. I really believe that. A year ago July, we had a grand opening. The councilman was here. A lot of people came. We had a band. It was just something you would not have believed. I don’t think Burlington Avenue had ever seen anything like this.

I live in the neighborhood. I work just around the corner, and to me this was a a chance to see something happen and make a difference. You sit here and smile. You see the kids and grandmothers. To me, that’s a good feeling.