Watts Nickerson Gardens CommUNITY Garden

Green Space, Park Access, and Trees

South LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

With the rising threat of climate change, the need to address outdoor inequity and increase access to green spaces in underserved neighborhoods is more important than ever. Nowhere is this more critical than in the Public Housing Projects in Watts. Here's why: Watt's Nickerson Gardens is the largest public housing project West of the Mississippi and home to some of LA's most vulnerable residents: family income is $1,792/mo. and 39% live below the poverty line. It has the most single-parent households (60%) and 95.3% of children get free school meals. All 4,500 residents are people of color: Hispanic (58.8%) or Black (39.7%) and the largest growing demographic is 10 yrs old and younger (31%). The Nickerson Gardens development was built in the 1940s with few green spaces; most trees were cut down during '65 Watts Riots for LAPD helicopter visibility and never replaced. The nearest park is a mile away, and federal housing rules do not permitted residents to plant their own gardens.

GreenSpacesLA has CommUNITY Gardens in 2 of Watt's 3 public housing projects (Imperial Courts & Jordan Downs). Funding from LA2050, will enable us to create a garden in the 3rd housing project: Nickerson Gardens CommUNITY Garden. We plan to reimagine an existing, 10,000 sq.ft. abandoned, weed-infested garden plot in the center of the project. We don't plant to reconstruct the old space where residents were tasked with tending their own individual plots. Most community gardens like this, particularly in low income neighborhoods, quickly languish and are abandoned as residents find it too difficult or don't have the time required to maintain it, move away or lose interest. Instead, we will create a more modern type of community garden that we will maintain; one that will thrive and operate in the same way as our smaller but wildly successful Unity Garden in Imperial Courts. With resident input we will create a vibrant garden with 6 large community-access vegetable/herb boxes; 12 fruit tree "forest"; 200+ plant drought-tolerant meadow walk; & a children's discovery garden. It will be a new kind of outdoor hub for residents: a peaceful oasis for young and old. A garden where neighbors meet to gather vegetables, clip herbs for a recipe, pick wildflowers for a vase, or just stop and "smell the roses." A garden where GSLA partners with community groups to host events, youth nature clubs and meets w/ local organizations to develop programs to get them in the garden regularly.

With the creation of Nickerson Gardens CommUnity Garden, we believe GSLA could redefine what successful community gardens not only look and feel like but also how they are managed and maintained in public housing projects throughout Los Angeles County. We want to create a replicable prototype, plan, program and template for what a thriving community garden can be in one of the most challenging places to do it: Public Housing Projects.

We've developed very successful Community Partnerships and Resident Engagement. We have a strong collaboration with Housing Authority of LA (HACLA) and long-term space-use agreements with them for our gardens. We have robust community outreach partnerships w/ ROC Era, Children Mending Hearts and RedEye/Watts Empowerment Center for our Youth Nature Clubs and Unity Days. LA Dept of Public Works, CA State Parks&Recreation, Supervisor Holly Mitchell, National Garden Conservancy, & Hancock Park Garden Club remain strong community funding partners. We are conducting a residential survey this summer to measure active participation in the gardens and the sense of community they promotes. Key indicators of success will be the # of residents who report participating in the garden outside of GSLA events and % who report an increased sense of community/connection with their neighbors. We plan to develop similar collaborations, partnerships and a survey for the Nickerson Garden CommUNITY garden.