Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson
By Adrian Florido
Published May 30, 2011 on
For close to three decades, a group of mostly poor Cambodian refugees eked out a subsistence living by farming a parcel of land at the end of a southeastern San Diego cul-de-sac. The sprawling farm was impressive. Over the years the refugees had erected a fence, huts for resting and their own irrigation system.
But the land was owned by the city of San Diego, and the farmers didn’t have the right to be there. Last year, the half dozen who remained were evicted.
In the 10 months since, what was once a rare expanse of productive green in a poor residential neighborhood has fallen into unsightly disrepair. The fences have folded in on themselves. The rare Southeast Asian crops that the aging farmers grew, like bitter melon and Cambodian green beans, have all died. A pile of old mattresses has been left at the farm. It has become a dumping ground and a blight.