SoCal Public Park For Subtropical Fruits And Nuts?

[Epiphyte]

Recently I sent the following email to the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP)...

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Hi,

In Southern Spain there's a public park with a bunch of subtropical fruit and nut trees...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1dPiavc7eY

How would we go about doing the same thing here? 

Cheers,
Carlos

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I received this response...

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Thank you for your interest in collaborating with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP).   In order to fully consider your idea/s and determine the best route to implement actions, we need to obtain some more information about your organization and what type of service you are proposing.  Please find below some basic proposal questions to provide us with initial information.  If any question is not applicable, merely indicate so. 

1.  Provide Organization legal name, address, phone, website.
2.  Brief description of proposed program, idea, project, or general proposal.
3.  What specific RAP site(s) is the Organization interested in?
4.  How will the program/project be funded, and what is the general program/project budget?
5.  Is there any program/project sponsorship or grant funding involved?  If so who, and are they requesting any form of recognition, promotion, or future facility use? 
6.  Will the program or completed project be free to the community to participate/use?   If not, what will the fee(s) be?
7.  Who is the program/project geared towards serving (adults, seniors, youth, women/girls, men/boys, etc.)?
8.  How frequently will the program be provided?
9.  What is the program/project development timeline?
10.  Has there been any community or Council Office involvement in the program/project planning process?
11.  Are there organizations or companies (non-funding related) who may/will be involved in the program/project, and if so, in what capacity?
12. Will the proposed program/ project be implemented solely by your organization or will another entity be involved?
13. Has your organization entered in a similar arrangement/ collaboration in the past with another government agency (local, state, federal)?
14.  What is expected of Recreation and Parks?

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Heh.  I'm hoping that this is something that the local chapters of the California Rare Fruit Growers might be interested in pursuing?     Personally I'd be more than happy to contribute some trees and labor. 

[W.]

You might want to cite the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, Florida to the Los Angeles parks department as an example of what such a park would look like and how it would function. Or not, considering the current antipathy between California and Florida.

Also, taking into account the incredible levels of bureaucracy in California, it would probably take about ten years and $200 million to plant two fruit trees. At least it will after the public hearings, the environmental impact statement, the archaeological survey, the testing of the trees to make sure they will not give Californians cancer, the research into whether fruit trees are systemically racist against minority and indigenous communities, and all of California's other requisite nonsense. And in the end, those fruit trees will provide some homeless, mentally ill, drug addict a very nice place to defile with his or her (or they or whatever) campsite.

[hammer524]

I'd say go for it and try to reach out to local non-profits to see if they can help guide you through the process. Since land is such a premium there, you would probably have to get creative where to place it. For something like this I'd imagine you would face bureaucracy anywhere so don't let that deter you.

And W....which Californian hurt you?

[Bush2Beach]

You can take an underused corner of an existing park and rehabilitate it .
The land is there for the cities to give permission.
You just need water access and a plan .

[K-Rimes]

I donated many plants to a local garden here in Santa Barbara, some really nice cocktail trees as well as tons of little seedlings. It was an absolute pleasure and I am so happy to visit and see my plants living the life. There are other projects like this, you just need to find them and get to work.

https://sbbucketbrigade.org/event/humanitarian-garden-project/

Contrary to what many Americans believe, the local government is actually there to serve you and you only need to engage in earnest with the right person to reach a goal. My experience in CA has been that SB county is actually very excited to work with people who have passion, vigour, and the desire to make the area better. I am able to close down crazy mountain roads with my county annually at a reasonable cost for the express purpose of just skateboarding down them for example, and all I needed to do was engage the local permit dept.

I cannot recommend enough that people actually participate in local government and develop relationships. After all, we're paying for all those people and services with our tax money. If you've never tried, you shouldn't complain!

[Victoria Ave]

I work in Landscape architecture here in SoCal and I have a friend in city of LA park planning. As mentioned by k-rimes you’d be surprised by how engaged city and local government can be in projects. At a park down the street from my house there is an orchard in the part with cool fruits. Of course everything gets stripped from the trees by homeless and greedy folks, but they are there.

Your best bet would be pairing up with active organizations, rare fruit growers is a good idea, but also advocate groups like tree people and google urban farms and related stuff.

Good luck!

[RS]

Food Forward is one group that works with LA public parks to harvest fruit, https://foodforward.org/what-we-do/food-recovery/. Maybe one of those public parks could be a good candidate for planting more?

I've been stealth planting fruit trees in a park near me, but having official approval would be ideal.

Wish you the best with this project!