Los Angeles as a Center for Influential Change in the Green Movement

Los Angeles as a Center for Influential Change in the Green Movement

The city of Los ANgeles was a vast concrete incubation chamber of western society, as interpreted by Southern California. When people try to compare the Dichotomy of North and South California, the are making a distinction between the OUtdoor Lifestyles Crowd and LA. San Diego is so unique, but not a s influential as LA, that it has to be said to be its own entity, in the way that San Francisco as a City does not fully encompass the identity of Nor Cal.

My time in the city has brought upon some cultural/social realizations about where LA as a city is headed in the near future. A city of vast stereotypes, cultural critiques and plastic surgery lays before me nebulas and yet so full of color. Like a melting pot of cultural soup but you can identify all of the parts. From the large and dynamic Persian Population, to the equally stereotyped Jewish community, LA is a place of image and status, more so than any other City, thus far. It is a place where people suffer from self induced personality disorders, societal pressure to conform, the city as theater, and at the same time a place where thousands of people come to realize themselves, and fulfill their identities. Yet individually people are skeptical of the viability for the city to succeed in the green movement.

Discussing the Future of LA

This Transcription has ben edited form the verbatim conversation for clarity. PLease refer to the audio if you would like to hear the program in full.

R777:So last time we asked you a bunch of questions that were just related to Urban Sustainability and your working for a green architect firm SAO?

GF: SCO Studio.

R777: and what kind of work do you do?

GF: Basically we work with home owners, mostly residential, and we are in the city so we are finding ways to reuse water, look at it in a permaculture sensibility, evaluate our resources and use them to our advantage, and its basically green architecture but its much more than that, its dark green because i used to work with Mike Reynolds who does earth-ships, buildings out of trash, Garbage Warrior, and so you understand how a house could be completely off the grid, and how to adapt that to an urban place like Los Angeles, and I think its possible to live self Sustainable in Los Angeles. We can create enough water storage for the rains, that you can have your own water supply through out the year, you can be off the grid with your water, and grey water can water your garden easily. Its crazy to run that off site in such an unsustainable city. Los ANgeles is probably the only unsustainable metropolis on the planet, because theres no natural water source here its trucked in from three different states, we are stealing it. Theres legal consequences and financial consequences, prices are probably going to go up really fast.

“I think its possible to live self Sustainable in Los Angeles.”- GF

R777: I have a Public Works Director in Culver city who told me that one of the interesting things about L.A. is with the aqua duct situation, You've been creating a criminal situation which is about to occurs, when the population finally exceeds the threshold of the capacity, this summer. There’s is a drought, a lot of produce farms in California are being cut away from there original water supplies. Part of the reason is that it {water} is all going to feed alfalfa and hay, for the feed of cows.

GF: Right. The most unsustainable production on the planet, even more than cars.

R777: So what do you think can affect those kinds of changes that we really need at the moment.

GF: You know, I don’t Know, its a good question. I think we may need to make a shift towards veganism, somewhat. Or just vegetarianism, so its just the byproduct of animals. Its a tough one. More sustainable ways of farming. I think people are just starting to break out of the paradigm of corporate driven incentives for sustenance farming. Willie Nelson has been fighting against {this}. Farm Aid and all that stuff. We can’t be buying in to all this Monsanto, Dow Chemical driven program for their{corporate} benefit. This is our food, this is the people we are feeding, this is us. So, It just reminds me that Ocean SPray Cranberry Juice has no fructose corn syrup , because they know, Smarter, that whole foods is doing very well, and that organic things are really being premium. So there doing a beet sugar thing, in a major corporation. There’s an impact to our actions, and we are the consumers, and we are the ones that make the decision. So when the information is out there, there’s no way to go but through the people the new generation that wont allow for that kind of corporate madness.

***"We can’t be buying in to all this Monsanto, Dow Chemical driven program for their {corporate} benefit. This is our food, this is the people we are feeding, this is us."

R777: So when the consumers are informed and we have this reason for behavioral change, what would be the catalyst for those changes to be effectual, because this boycotting-ness, abstinence from meat, doesn't seem to work on the grass roots level. Like if everyone of your friends did this it would not stop the industry. How do you think we would need to effect our congress, our mayors, our governors? DO you think that there needs to be more campaigning from citizens as part of their daily lives?

GF: I really feel like the tide has turned. Its already in our favor. Its just were younger and people are becoming mayors now like in their forties. “Presidents” Yeah, exactly. So its the age of aquarius, I think we all just need to think positively, and not give thought to the reptilian corporate fat people are over us, because we are really over them.

R777: I noticed that you were referenced on Larry Santoyo’s site, Path to Freedom?

GF: Path to Freedom is different from Santoyo’s site its Earth Flow. He’s doing his workshop on our property, in our intentional community that I helped found, 13 acres that is thriving right now. I have been doing permaculture workshops up there because I am an Alumni, from 2003. Which is a 6 month thing, every first weekend of the month. So you spend 15 hours a weekend, 6 times, for half a year, so you just absorb this life altering information about that. How you really designate and plan, its really about design. Looking at the factors that you have. and with my architectural training, I use i with everything i do now. Properties are already inherent in the location, demolish and burn and replace mentality, just reusing as much as you can. So if i were to redo an eco-village in L.A. which i have been composing now for some time, I would choose to do it in a used building, rather than to design some new thing. Resources are already in place, and the energy that we spend can be greatly offset, maybe by one third if we just think smart we design smart.

Break*************

R777: As Empowerment comes back to the people, as the age of Aquarius is here, as we become more informed about the energy crisis, the food shortages, and how our daily live affect the economy and global change, the consumption of energy, how can you frame Los Angeles, in a concise idea of where its going?

GF: I know that the important work that your doing in your class is really about how do you take this urban situation and figure out how it can be sustainable, or prone to emergency, or drastic change. Its so suburban, its sprawled out. The valley there lots of people growing orange trees, and you mention path to freedom, and their only one tenth of an acre, but they encompass enough food to feed a family of four, times three. So they sell most of their produce to restaurants. Really healthy and organic stuff that they can do in the city. It takes a few years to progress but if you have a will, and push though towards self sustainability, than you really feel that you can do that in an urban situation.

END