While Los Angeles can certainly FEEL overstuffed at times, it has a surprising amount of empty space.
Three years ago, CommercialCafe ran a study on which cities in the USA have the most vacant land available. Los Angeles was the highest-ranked West Coast city, clocking in at number 6 “with 42,228 acres of vacant land across 33,747 lots and an average size of 1.25 acres”. (Scroll to the bottom here for methodology.)
The LA Tenants Union puts current numbers at 22 square miles of vacant lots, many of which are owned by investors or developers. LATU feels (as do I) that there is something intrinsically wrong with having so much empty space when so many Angelenos are losing their homes to the Ellis Act, redevelopment, harassment or negligence from bad property owners (yes, there are some bad ones out there), or just unavailability of housing they can afford.
In case anyone can’t view the flyer posted above, there will be an Empty Lot Block Party held at 329-335 South Rampart Boulevard this Saturday, October 24, from 1pm to 5pm. I’m told that the festivities will feature free food, live music, participatory art, resources for tenants, and even seed bombs to throw.
(For those of you who may be unfamiliar with seed bombs, they are safe to use - no explosives here. Seed bombs are little clay balls filled with wildflower seeds and compost, and they are generally used for adding vegetation in hard-to-reach areas…like a fenced-off lot.)
By the way, 329-335 South Rampart Boulevard has already been an empty lot for EIGHT YEARS. If you’d like to know more, LATU also sent a pamphlet.