The Sad Tale of the South Central Farm

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It's both interesting and sad to follow the case of the South Central Farmers. It's been getting a lot of publicity lately, though largely the coverage has been lacking in perspective (not that I'm criticizing boing boing... the article they linked to is just a good example).

This week the farmers got a short stay while they make another legal appeal to stay on the land (noticed at LA Voice. Just judging by the very limited legal verbage in the announcement, I would wager a guess that the farmers are filing a claim of adverse possession on the property. It would be interesting to know if that's the case, and if so what duration of hostile possession they're able to claim.

From the surface I can't see these legal claims panning out. It would seem that the original property owner has been dilligent in pursuing his title claim, and I would expect to see that hold up in court. It's sad that it's had to come to this, though, and that the City couldn't have found some sort of a solution much earlier in the process.

Update (Wednesday): There's a good article in today's LA Weekly about negotiations to keep the farm open.