Last weekend, I traveled back home to my southern California suburb and hometown of Rowland Heights in the San Gabriel Valley. I grew up here, driving everywhere, not really knowing my neighbors, and going to the mall all the time to shop. For a long time, suburbs, to me, have represented a gross problem of poor regional planning & development characterized by mind-shattering traffic, social isolation, and drab iterations of tract homes/shopping centers. Over time, however, I am beginning to see past the infrastructural frame of the suburb and into the cracks and corners - spaces that house unique cultural resources, social organizing, and innovation. Like amazing food & restaurants, church communities, and start-up businesses. In the San Gabriel Valley, the area also has the advantage of having immigrant populations on land with sunny skies = the know how & tenacity to grow culturally important (yummy) foods.
For example:
During my visit, I stumbled upon the Growing Home: a house in Diamond Bar that transformed itself from a typical green lawn & cement landscape to a suburban farm & learning center. To me, this place represents a beacon of light that illuminates the darkness of suburban sprawl. The people of The Growing Home are starting a chapter of the international Slow Food Movement in the San Gabriel Valley. The first meeting is next Saturday.
URBAN FARM Earthworks
Also during my visit, I spent some time at Earthworks in South El Monte. I taught a workshop on the basic principles of irrigation (to elementary school kids)! The farm is in a period of transition and development, hopefully a place that will soon capture the huge potential that is offered by the combination of youth, immigrants, land, and year-round sun.
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