"Trees that are planted on either side of a stop sign… There's a sidewalk that's busted up a hundred feet away. All of these things seem like, to me, a higher priority than, um… squash," says Angel Teger, a South Los Angeles resident who was ordered by the Los Angeles city government to remove her front yard garden within 48 hours.
Teger is part of a larger movement to make urban spaces more green by planting gardens in otherwise abandoned "parkways," which are the strips of land in between the sidewalk and the street. LA Greengrounds, the group that helped Teger plant the garden, has run into problems with the city before, but Teger's situation was particularly troublesome because the city cited the parkway in front of her own house.
"The city does not own the parkway," says LA Greengrounds gardener Florence Nishida. "But the city has an interest in it."
That interest includes the need to regulate water lines and curbside parking. LA Greengrounds has pushed for relaxed regulations of the parkways for years, but only after Teger's case garnered media attention did City Councilman Herb Wesson suspend enforcement of the ordinance banning parkway planting until a proper review could be conducted. That review is still underway. In the meantime, Teger gets to keep her garden.
Watch the video above, or scroll down for downloadable versions.
Approximately 3 minutes. Produced by Zach Weissmueller.