Farmers Vow to Prevent Garden Demolition

Actress Daryl Hannah, center, wipes her face as she and farmer Rocio Cardozo, left, holding her son Adrian, 3, await the start of a news conference outside the South Central Urban Garden Wednesday, June 14, 2006, in South Los Angeles. On Tuesday gardners and their supporters were evicted from the 14-acre urban garden. (AP Photo/Ric Francis) (Ric Francis - AP)

LOS ANGELES -- Workers tore down fences Wednesday inside a 14-acre urban garden while evicted farmers and their supporters kept watch and vowed to prevent bulldozing of the inner-city greenspace.

"We're still not giving up hope," said Alberto Tlatoa, 20, a day after sheriff's deputies enforcing an eviction order arrested dozens of protesters, including actress Daryl Hannah.

Tlatoa, sitting in a chair on a sidewalk outside the fenced garden, said he and his family had grown pears, broccoli, tomatoes and edible cactus for eight years.

"We are just trying to grow food for our own selves," he said. "And that's not a crime."

Landowner Ralph Horowitz won a court order last month to remove about 350 farmers, although the city said many already had left to farm other city-provided plots.

On Wednesday, a handful of workers were busy removing interior fencing that separated individual plots under the eye of private security guards in black T-shirts.

However, there were no vocal protests and no arrests, police said.

Horowitz, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has indicated he wants to raze the gardens and find tenants for the property, which is zoned for factories and warehouses and is surrounded by a gritty mix of industrial businesses.

Garden supporters enlisted the aid of celebrities such as Hannah, folk singer Joan Baez and famed tree-sitter John Quigley, pitching the fight as a battle to preserve a scrap of nature in a concrete jungle.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of the growers is scheduled to be heard July 12 in Superior Court. Attorney Dan Stormer said the evictions were merely a temporary setback.

"What happens next is we keep fighting. Fighting in courts, fighting in politics," the attorney said.