Tours

OUR REGULAR IN PERSON TOURS ARE HELD 75% OUTSIDE WITHIN THE LA ECOVILLAGE.  SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS

PLEASE NOTE;
Reservations required: 213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org
Please include your zip code and phone number.

ALSO PLEASE NOTE: If you have sent a tour reservation and if you have not heard back with an initial confirmation within a day or two, please phone your reservation to 213/738-1254.  Sadly our email has been kind of messed up lately.

Fee:  Tour only:  $15 to $25 (self-selected sliding scale ok; cash, or checks made out to “CRSP” accepted at the door.  Time dollars 2.5 hours accepted.).  Children under 12 free.

TOUR DATES:
2024
Sun., Nov. 17, 2024 from 10:30am to 1pm
Sat. Nov. 30, 2024 from 10:30am to 1pm
Sat., Dec. 21, 2024 from 10:30am to 1pm
Sun., Dec. 29, 2024 from 10:30am to 1pm

Date or Time Changes: Do check back regularly because sometimes these dates and times change.  If you make a reservation and the date or time changes, we will also notify you.

• Special Tours can be arranged by appointment. Minimum charge is $75 or $25 per person, whichever is more.   Fees for school tours are negotiable.
• Location:  L.A. Eco-Village,  Los Angeles 90004.  Tour starts at
  3554 W. 1st St at the corner of Bimini Pl.  (enter thru chain link gate on Bimini Pl.)
  .
• PLEASE NOTE:
  Please do not bring your pets on the tour.  We love dogs and cats but do not allow visiting pets on our main property.

  The tour covers the following:

1. 1. Introductions and interests among members of tour group.
   2. History and context for the L.A. Eco-Village
   3. Definition of an ecovillage and our place in the international movement for more sustainable communities.
   4. Walking tour to observe actual conditions, actual and planned changes to the neighborhood as well as visionary possibilities.
   5. On-going questions and answers throughout the tour with Eco-Village guide(s).
   6. Problems and progress in healthy development of an intentional community.

• What you need to know if you are considering entering a resident membership process with us or starting ecovillage processes in your own neighborhood.

• * For “what else you will see and hear about on the tour,” scroll toward bottom of this page.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE IN-DEPTH INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS,  PLAN TO STAY FOR THE “AFTER-TOUR” DIALOG FOR  ANOTHER HOUR OR SO.

o  Introduction to Permaculture concepts.
o  The Ecological Systems of L.A. Eco-Village: water, energy, wastes, housing retrofits, transportation, food production, land use.

• The Economic Systems of L.A. Eco-Village: Urban Soil/Tierra Urbana Limited Equity Housing Cooperative, Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust, Ecological Revolving Loan Fund, Arroyo Seco Network of Time Banks, Green Business Development.

•  Our membership process.

•  The Social Systems of L.A. Eco-Village: meeting processes, committees, communications, decision making, conflict, education and training, community meals, work parties, housekeeping, children, art, social activities.

•  Working with the Public Sector: Housing Department,  Neighborhood Councils, School District, Council Office, Mayor’s Office, Health Department, Congressional Office.

Let us know of your particular interests.

If you have already been on a tour, you are welcome to attend the “after-tour” dialog at no charge, gemerally from 1 to 2pm after any regular tour.  Let us know if you are planning to attend.

SOME GROUPS THAT HAVE TOURED L.A. ECO-VILLAGE

Colleges and Universities
– Antioch University, Masters Program in Urban Sustainability
– Azusa-Pacific Student groups
– Cal Poly Pomona Architecture class
– Cl Poly Pomona School of Landscape Architecture
– Cal Poly Pomona Lyle Center Green Team
– Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 4th year Architecture class
– Climate Designers, LA Chapter
– Emerson College Environmental Urbanism class’
– Free School of Architecture
– Golden West College class on culture and zero waste
– Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) – Japanese student group
– Institute for Postmodern Development of China (IPDC) at Claremont
– Loyola-Marymount Womens’ Studies class
– Loyola-Marymount Student Sustainability Group
– Loyola-Marymount College MA class in Science & Engineering
– Montreal Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre urbanisation, culture et société
– Mira Costa College
– Occidental College: Urban & Environmental Policy Institute
– Princeton Architectural Field Trip class
– Santa Monica College – Sustainability Systems & Technology
– Soka University
– Thomas Mann/Villa Aurolla House fellows
– UCLA Faculty in Residence
– UCLA class on Social Sustainability
– UCLA School of Landscape Architecture
– UCLA Sustainable Community class
– UC Irvine Environmental Health & Sustainability Alternative Break Group
– USC Impact group
– USC Senior Architect & Engineering class
– USC Sea Grant Program
– Vancouver University, Environmental Aesthetics class
– Woodbury College, Dept. of Marketing

Public Sector Tours
– City of Burbank staff
– City of Los Angeles Planning Dept. staff
– Council General of Thailand and staff
– National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
– Rampart Village Neighborhood Council
– Taiwan EPA staff
– U.S. State Dept. Sister City Youth Ambassadors

K-12 Schools
– Armenian Sisters Academy Middle School, Montrose
– Camino Nuevo charter high school
– Camino Nuevo charter middle school
– Flintridge Preparatory
– Frank del Olmo 4th grade kids
– Innovative Micro Technology (IMT)
– MEMS High School students from Japan
– King Middle School kids
– Hale Charter Academy
– Oakwood school
– Port of Los Angeles High School Charter
– South High School charter AP Environmental Science class
– Virgil Middle School
– West High School, English and TV Production class

Organizational Tours
– Alexandria House
– American Planning Association, Calif.
– Bresee Foundation
– BuroHappold Engineering
– Camp Balboa Harbonam Dror
– Camp Helping Hands
– Christian Community Development Association
– Collective Remake
– Community Corporation of Santa Monica 
– Deloitte Services, LP
– Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellows
– Echo Park Time Bank
– Girl Scouts, So. Pasadena
– Harbonim Youth
– IKOR Group
– Institute for Post Modern Development of China at Claremont
– Japanese student tour from Tokyo
– LATCH Collective (Los Angeles Tiny Co-Building Haven)
– Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, SoCal Leadership Network
– Making Housing Happen
– Mount Hollywood Congregational Church – garden
– National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
– Neighborhood Youth Alliance 
– Occidental College, Dept. of Religious Studies
– On the Move Riders Club
– Perkins & Will Architects
– PSJM (Canary Islands Performance Group)
– Santa Monica Community College, Sustainability class
– Silverlake TimeBank
– Sustainable Living Tour
– Thai Trade Commission
– Turning Points Foundation
– TWG Architects Inc.
– US-China Business Training Center
– Verde Concepts

---

   The LAEV neighborhood
   consists of the two blocks of
   Bimini and White House Place in 
   the north end of the Wilshire
  Center/Koreatown area of Los
  Angeles, about three miles west
                                                                          of downtown LA. 
Los Angeles Eco-Village is a place name, not a legal entity.  The three legal entities responsible for the development of LAEV include LA Ecovillage Institute (a project of CRSP), the Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana limited equity housing co-op, and the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust, all nonprofit 501.c.3 organizations (happy to receive any donations).

The LAEV Intentional Community consists of approximately 40 persons who have moved to the LAEV neighborhood intending to demonstrate more ecological and cooperative living patterns: socially, economically and ecologically.  We’re about reinventing how we live in the city in ways that can expand public options for a higher quality of life at a much lower environmental impact. 

Here is a sampling of how we’re doing it so far and
WHAT YOU WILL SEE OR HEAR ABOUT ON THE LA ECOVILLAGE TOUR:

SOCIALLY

• Twice monthly co-op community meetings where decisions are made by consensus, along with many standing and ad hoc committees
• Shared meals one or two times each week attended by 15 to 25 members.
• Celebrations of holidays, birthdays, equinoxes and solstices
• Shared art projects
• Community work parties
• Conflict resolution team that mediates conflicts, as needed
• On-going public education, training and outreach activities to expand public awareness about sustainable urban living patterns via the internet, public talks, fairs, conferences, tours and the media

 ECOLOGICALLY

• Permaculture approach to land use, demonstrating the integration of social, economic and ecological systems
• Grey water systems
• Solar energy and water systems
• Developing and caring for organic gardens and orchards
• Beekeeping and chickens (we don’t eat them)
• Primarily human transport via bikes rather than cars
• Composting of kitchen and green wastes on-site
• Energy and water conservation consciousness and practices
• Radically reducing conventional consumption patterns by sharing and exchanging material possessions
• Emphasis on use of local, recycled, least polluting, least toxic building materials
• Development of multi-school learning garden on northeast corner of Bimini and White House Place

ECONOMICALLY

• Development of the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust for stewarding land in the neighborhood, currently owns land under three multi-family buildings, and manages quarter acre learning garden.
• Development of the Urban Soil/Tierra Urbana limited equity housing cooperative, whose members own two adjacent multi-family apartment buildings consisting of 45 units of permanently affordable housing
• Development of a local produce and bulk foods cooperative known as the Food Lobby
• Development of ecological revolving loan fund for green business development and land and building acquisitions and retrofitting within the Los Angeles Ecovillage
• Incubating of small green businesses/nonprofits: the original Bicycle Kitchen, Cafecito Organico (now has two cafes), Relampago Wheelery (battery free lighting for bicycles).
• Providing a fiscal umbrella for the Arroyo SECO Network of Time Banks (now its own nonprofit organization), the former LAEV Family Childcare Center, the Food Lobby co-op, and currently Re:Ciclos and Bike Talk.
• Training of LAEV residents in building management and building trade skills
• LA Ecovillage Community Hub, a former auto shop at the SW corner of Bimini & W.First Street being transformed for multiple activities, including on-site soil remediation, resource library, workshop and public forums space, gardening in pots, demonstration tiny house, and Re:Ciclos for training youth, neighbors, and others in how to build cargo bikes from spare bike parts.