September 20th, 1997
IS IT ANY WONDER?
By Jackie Giuliano
Remember, it is forbidden to live in a town
Which has no garden or greenery.
-- Kiddushin 4:12
The Los Angeles Unified School Board (LAUSD) met at 1 pm on Monday. At least it was
supposed to meet at 1 pm. I, and many other concerned citizens from all over Southern
California, were in the Board Room at 1 pm. But none of the board members were. They began
wandering in at 2 pm. It seems that they had an executive session that kept them.
I have attended and testified at many city council meetings, and the disrespectful energy
of elected officials in this city is all too familiar to me. I was there Monday because I
heard that the LAUSD was planning to bulldoze the headquarters of Ecovillage, a vision by
Lois Arkin for a sustainable community in the Los Angeles inner city.
While I was parking my car after finally finding the meeting hall, (I got lost in the maze
of downtown streets and freeway off-ramps) I pondered the huge infrastructures we create
to manage our lives. So many Board Rooms are filled every day, filled with indecision,
confusion, and hours and hours of wasted time.
Not that I would mind spending hours at a real community meeting - one where relationships
are cultivated, people are known, food is shared, and ideas are exchanged. I have never
been to one of those, but I have read about them. The LAUSD meeting was videotaped by the
school district's own television channel for broadcast to the community later that
evening. It is not the kind of thing that attracts a wide audience. In fact, while I write
this, the meeting is being rebroadcast right now on TV. It is quite eerie to see something
you experienced in person a few hours ago, on television later that evening.
The LAUSD has an imposing responsibility and challenge of managing the 700,000 children
and hundreds of schools in the district. Yet the activities in that board room in downtown
L.A. are far removed from the challenges, difficulties, and joys experienced by the
teacher in the classroom.
The board meeting began with student representatives from two local high schools sharing
their concerns. One young woman asked why the restrooms at her school are locked and why
there are broken water fountains and overflowing trash cans in the halls. In response, the
superintendent of the school district spoke of block grants, bond money, and fiscal
accountability. Meanwhile, the faucets continue to leak.
Another item on the agenda was a discussion about a consultant that the school district
hired who is being paid $99,000 per year for two to three years. That money could pay to
fix a lot of leaky faucets and for three or four new teachers.
Someone once said that a committee is a group of the unwilling, staffed by the unfit, to
do the unnecessary. Yet the majority of the issues in our culture are being addressed in
rooms like the one in which I spent this day, with just about as much effectiveness.
The rigidity and formality of these meetings is stifling. "Madame Chairperson,"
and "Do I hear a second for this motion," and "I will take the matter under
advisement and ask my staff to study it," are some of the phrases often spoken.
No one calls each other by their real names. Never do you hear about what people are
feeling or what is important to them. One emotion can be detected quite easily though -
fear - fear of angering a more powerful colleague; fear of not getting your own way; fear
of legal or public censure; fear of not getting re-elected; fear of hearing too much
detail about an issue. That last one is insidious. When you exceed the three minutes
allotted to speakers from the audience, a bell goes off and two lighted signs rise from
the podium that say, in bright red illuminated letters: TIME.
A lengthy discussion took place about whether or not the Armenian community needs a school
board commission to represent the needs of the 15,000 Armenian students in the district's
schools. Currently, there are 8 commissions, each examining the needs of an
underrepresented group. There is one for Native Americans (the smallest student
population), Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, and others. Each commission
costs about $100,000 per year to run.
A board member asked whether or not other underrepresented groups that do not have a
commission should have a voice. Amazingly, a fragmented discussion took place over the
next hour arguing this point. With this model of governance, is it any wonder that
progress in managing our world's issues is so painfully slow? The language of distancing
combined with the fears mentioned above are powerful obstacles.
The issue I came for finally came up, four hours after the meeting's original start time.
The Los Angeles Ecovillage is a dream slowly becoming an embryonic reality. It is hardly a
"village." Rather, it is a group of six intentional neighbors who live in two
fourplex dwellings across the street from each other in a "not-so-good"
neighborhood about three miles west of downtown Los Angeles. They grow about 20 percent of
their own food (in soil that has been analyzed and found to contain levels of lead) and
attempt to get the rest of the neighborhood interested in intentional living.
There are about 500 people representing 13 ethnic groups from very low to moderate income
levels in these two city blocks taking in about 11 acres. Most of them have very little to
do with those intentional neighbor folks who garden in their front yards and walk around
the neighborhood being nice to each other.
The non-profit organization run by members of the Ecovillage group recently purchased a
40-unit apartment building in the neighborhood. They are attempting to make it a
permanently affordable cooperative housing project within two years and conduct an
"eco-retrofit" of the building over the next 10 years. They are at the beginning
stages of trying to understand how to make the inner city, which will continue to be the
home to many, many people, a sustainable urban community where people feel safe and at
"home."
Lois Arkin is the heart and soul of Ecovillage. The fourplex she lives in is owned by the
LAUSD. They use three of the units as offices for the primary school down the street and
rent the other one to Lois. She uses her home as the Ecovillage office, handling her
international correspondence and the weekly tours from there. In front of the fourplex is
a community garden.
Below is the text of the statement I gave:
"Good afternoon. I am Jackie Giuliano, a Professor of Environmental Studies at
Antioch University, Los Angeles and for the University of Phoenix's Southern California
campuses. I also manage educational outreach programs for NASA at Caltech's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
I was dismayed to learn recently that the LAUSD has plans to demolish the four unit
building at 3551 White House Place (L.A., 90004). I urge you to reverse this decision and
create a planning process that involves the entire community.
Paving over this simple building would be a tragic loss for the community, for Los
Angeles, and for the nation. As I am sure you know, Lois Arkin lives in one of the units
in that building. She pays full rent and has been a good tenant. But more importantly,
Lois is an internationally published author who has taught people all over the world about
sustainable visions for living in urban communities.
That simple, four-unit building (and the one across the street) represents a vision that
is known in scholarly circles around the globe. This embryonic vision, known to many as
"Ecovillage," is an attempt to create a style of living that may be the only way
that the Los Angeles inner city is going to survive into our future.
Lois has been creating a series of vital links to the community in the few blocks
surrounding that building. She is trying to encourage people to care for their homes, to
have pride in their community, and to feel a part of something. In Los Angeles, those
feelings are sorely needed. Through her simple and mindful actions and style of living,
Lois has been trying to show people that they can live in the inner city, have fulfilling
and satisfying lives, and have a happy and healthy place to live.
Her efforts are anchors for the community.
People who are living in the inner city need hope. They need to learn a way of living that
encourages family, safety, and satisfaction. Lois and her activities are providing that
hope. Without her efforts, I really don't have much hope for the future of our inner city.
Lois' efforts are a powerful teaching tool. I speak about Lois' work in my classes, and I
take students there on field trips. Without Ecovillage, I will literally have nowhere else
in the city to use as an example of how our communities can live well together.
I am not exaggerating when I say that people all over the world follow Lois' work and
watch the development of Ecovillage. To lose this simple but powerful vision would sully
the name of Los Angeles and of the school board literally across the globe.
Please end the plan to demolish the building. Allow a community process that involves all
that have a stake in the issue. Hear alternatives. The LAUSD should not be looking to end
Lois' work, but should be searching for ways to include her vision in its school programs.
Block off the streets to traffic. Expand her operation. Include the community garden as
part of the teaching.
Bulldozing the inner city is not the answer to our overcrowded schools. Lois and other
members of the community have some great ideas that would be cheaper to implement than
demolishing the building and would accommodate the needs of the school board in dealing
with the overflow issue faster. Destroying the building to put up a couple of bungalows is
a temporary Band-Aid for the problem. More than just a building would be destroyed. Buried
along with it would be a vision for the future of Los Angeles.
Please do not do anything that would result in the destruction of Ecovillage - a vital
vision for the future of our children."
A representative from the Los Angeles Planning Commission spoke, offering to help to find
a different space for the overflow students. Happily, the members of the School Board
changed their minds about Ecovillage - for now. They said that they would also entertain
offers from Ecovillage (that is, Lois) to buy the property. This is a bittersweet victory
for an activist - the dreaded postponement while gathering further information. It is
difficult to follow the activities that will occur over the next few weeks, and the next
board meeting is at a day and time when I have a commitment that I cannot break.
Lois will be vigilant. We all should be. In the noise of board rooms around the world,
decisions are being made that will bulldoze many dreams. It is difficult and time
consuming, but we have the power to show up in those rooms and change minds, to let them
know we are watching. If more of us watched and saw the incompetence, the pettiness, and
the arbitrary nature of most decisions, we might take elections more seriously.
Until today, I never paid much attention to school board elections. I will from now on.
To be a chemist, you must study chemistry; to be a lawyer or a physician you must study
law or medicine; but to be a politician you need only to study your own interests.
-- Max O'Rell (1848-1943)
The strife of politics tends to unsettle the calmest understanding, and ulcerate the
most benevolent heart. There are no bigotries or absurdities to gross for parties to
create or adopt under the stimulus of political passions.
-- E.P. Whipple (1819-1886)
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES
1. If you would like to help Ecovillage, please considering writing a letter to:
Ruben Zacarias, Superintendent
Los Angeles Unified School District
450 N. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
FAX: 213-626-2815
Julie Korenstein, President of the School Board
Los Angeles Unified School District
450 N. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
FAX: 213-626-2815
Be sure to send a copy of your letter to Lois Arkin at crsp@igc.apc.org
Tell them to do what ever is necessary to save Ecovillage. Tell them to sell them the
property at a fair price and not try to make money off of Lois Arkin. You can get some
information about the LAUSD at their web site at http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/welcome.html
2. Other visions for communities can be found at http://www.context.org/
3. To learn about communities, visit the Intentional Communities web site: http://www.well.com:80/user/cmty/index.html
4. Visit the Los Angeles Eco-Village home page at http://alumni.caltech.edu/~mignon/laev.html
{Jackie Giuliano is being eternally vigilant in Venice, California. He is a Professor
of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, the University of Phoenix,
and the Union Institute College of Undergraduate Studies. He is also the Educational
Outreach Manager for the Ice and Fire Preprojects, a NASA program at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory to send space probes to Jupiter's moon Europa, the planet Pluto, and the Sun.
Please send your comments, ideas, and visions to him at jackieg@jps.net}
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