Skip to main content
Donate

Compiling the Evidence: Solutions to the Vacant Lot

By Sizzle Sizzle Uh Uh
March 11, 2014
Support Provided By

SizzlePic_Panorama_web

The empty lot on Chapman St. in Glassell Park | Photo: Sizzle Sizzle
Youth Voices is working with students from the Los Angeles River School to re-imagine the L.A. River and the surrounding communities as part of the Northeast Los Angelels Riverfront Collaborative. The students have formed teams to explore and investigate their communities, map assets, collect and share stories, data and community input for their projects. All the while they are learning and expanding their knowledge of digital media and civic engagement. Follow their work hereand on Instagram and Twitter (@Burnthesnail) or by using #kcetyv.

Our community cause is an empty lot located at 3324 Chapman St, in Glassell Park. This lot has been empty since the late 1980's. This vacant lot has been making the neighborhood look bad and we would love to change it to a community garden/park because it would encourage people to interact with each other, make new friends and it would give the neighborhood a good image.

We selected this lot to work on because we wanted to revitalize it. Many people in the area have complained that the lot brings rats to their homes. It is also unsafe for people to go in because of broken glass, needles, snakes, and dead animals. The lot is also used as a giant trashcan with golf carts, wheels and large trash scattered all around.

We have learned that this lot is 9,610 sq ft. and has been empty since 1985. This lot used to have a duplex on it but after a fire the structure burned down. The lot has been empty ever since.

We interviewed one of our group members father, Raul Serrano, and landscape architect Michael Hee from Los Angeles SWA Group. Mr. Serrano said, "Yes, having a garden or a resting place sounds like a good idea." Michael Hee told us that he would help us make a plan.

Community members we spoke to also agreed that the garden/park was a good idea. They thought it would bring neighbors and people from other communities together where they could meet and make new friends.

This garden will be unique from other gardens in the area, including the one on Drew St. It will have more plots and a playground. People can bring their children to play while they tend to their plants.

Support Provided By
Read More
An oil pump painted white with red accents stands mid-pump on a dirt road under a blue, cloudy sky with a green, grassy slope in the background.

California’s First Carbon Capture Project: Vital Climate Tool or License to Pollute?

California’s first attempt to capture and sequester carbon involves California Resources Corp. collecting emissions at its Elk Hills Oil and Gas Field, and then inject the gases more than a mile deep into a depleted oil reservoir. The goal is to keep carbon underground and out of the atmosphere, where it traps heat and contributes to climate change. But some argue polluting industries need to cease altogether.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News