Big Enviro-Coalition You've Never Heard Of

LOS ANGELES, CA - In a way, becoming an environmental activist in L.A.'s easy. The city certainly has no shortage of enviro groups. Love the beach? Join Heal the Bay. Like clean air? Try Breathe L.A. Miss trees? Plant a few with TreePeople. But if you think all these things are important, the huge number of environmental groups vying for your attention can get overwhelming. You might start wishing these organizations would consolidate themselves somehow, so you don't feel like you're choosing between clean air and clean water.

Enter Green L.A., a coalition of 50 or so environmental and community-based organizations in L.A, working to shape city policies. According to Jonathan Parfrey, director of Green L.A., the coalition basically came together when Mayor Villaraigosa got elected, because many groups saw the new mayor's enviro-commitment as an unprecedented opportunity to push the city into a greener direction. After all, back in 2005, Villaraigosa said "Let's dare to imagine Los Angeles as the cleanest and greenest big city in America." So enviro and community-based groups linked arms and launched Green L.A. in Dec. 2005 to take Villaraigosa at his word.

Why haven't you heard of Green L.A.? For one, the organization doesn't have a website yet. For another, Villaraigosa's own plan for greening L.A. is also confusingly named Green L.A. But more to the point, Green L.A. the coalition works mainly with the city, not with grassroots organizing. According to its brochure, Green L.A. provides "environmental guidance and expertise to the City of Los Angeles in an exciting model of collaboration between decision-makers and advocates, helping to inform City policies and programs." To that end, Green L.A. has formed collaborative work groups, each with a couple co-chairs from environmental and community organizations, as well as advisors that serve on City of L.A.'s commissions.

While Green L.A. may be most concerned with working directly with the city, one of its major projects is to get the public involved in environmental issues. To that end, I'd say Green L.A. really needs a website! After all, it's rather difficult to find out about and get behind ancoalition that few have heard about, and even fewer can find out about.

Then again, Green L.A.'s goal isn't to work directly with the general public; the coalition works with its participating organizations so that they can better reach the public. So to get involved, you'll still want to get in touch with the individual environmental organizations. Hopefully Green L.A. will put together a list of them on its website, once it's created, making it easier for the would-be individual environmentalist to take green action.