I’m still shaking my head after reading this piece in the LA Times about a savvy, forward-thinking restaurateur who convinced a developer to let him transform an old railroad spur into a bountiful urban garden with more than 500 tomatoes plants and 40 fruit trees.
His idea was to use the fruits of his labor to feed his restaurant customers and maybe do a little U-pick business. Brilliant use of space. Or so I thought.
But that’s not what Culver City officials are thinking. The Times notes that they’ve informed Vincent Trevino that while it’s OK to grow your own food in Culver City. It’s against zoning to grow food to sell.
I hope city leaders come around and get behind the urban farming effort.
Trevino’s neighbors are already benefiting from his “pocket farm.” A once derelict lot is brimming with veggies. And all those on the urban garden’s street have been promised bags of tomatoes.
The new city manager, Mark Scott, seems to get it. After a recent visit to the area, he told the LA Times, “We’ve entered into a new kind of urban world, and maybe some of the codes on farming are a little outmoded.”
Photo: VFG archives
Virtual Farmgirl 