Sustainable Habits of Lomita, CA, USA

ResidentsTamara Cook

Brief overview of Sustainable Development

According to the United Nation’s definition, Sustainable Development is “a decent standard of living for everyone today without compromising the needs of future generations”.

A systemic approach of viewing today’s decisions that incorporate the notion that we are all interconnected. Choices we make on part of the planet affect those in another.

Balancing our current societal needs while recognizing the environment’s limitations in meeting those needs.

Economic development that will allow us to meet societal needs without placing the environment in jeopardy

Choices that develop a “strong, healthy, just society”.

Objective

To analyze the lifestyle of the inhabitants of my hometown, Lomita, California, USA and measure whether their lifestyle is in line with sustainable development.

I conducted my analysis through the investigation through city-wide observations of Lomita’s inhabitants, personal experience from living in Lomita for an almost uninterrupted 17 years, research into city data, and exploration of available city and regional programs promoting sustainable development.

Lomita, California, USAI have lived in the city of Lomita since I was 7 years old. It is a small town in the county of Los Angeles, just twenty-two miles south of Downtown. It is approximately 1.91 square miles. Because it is so small, Lomita does not even have it’s own high school. It is in a region known as the “South Bay” of Los Angeles and is just a short 15 minute drive from the nearest beach.

The Population of Lomita

According to the (most current) 2010 United States Census:

There are about 20,596 people currently living in Lomita.

About 36.6% of the residents are “White”, 39% are Hispanic or Latino, 1.9% are African American, 15.5% are Asian, and 5.8% are two or more races.

25% are foreign born.

25% have a Bachelor degree or higher.

The median household income is $62,599 while the median per capita income is $29,227.

The mean travel time to work is 25.9 minutes.

Lomita is considered a middle class city.

Areas Analysis

Understanding that sustainable development is a large, in-depth topic that ranges from access to clean water to sustainable tourism, I have chosen to analyze the topics that are most interesting and worthy of analysis in my hometown.

Built environment (buildings, infrastructure)

Farming and Food Sources

Transportation

Energy

Disaster Risk Reduction

Water

Waste Management

Built Environment

Upon researching the City’s programs and policies regarding the structures, the City itself does not offer programs for building improvements. Some programs are offered through the local utility companies like Southern California Edison which offer rebates to customers who make efficiency improvements to their homes.

Driving through the city, solar panels are visible on a very small number of buildings, the larger and more affluent homes in particular.

The County of Los Angeles offers a program called PACE that assists owners of multi-family properties, commercial, and manufacturing buildings to make energy efficient upgrades to their property with no upfront costs.

Because of the relatively low per capita income and high cost of living in Southern California, it is unlikely that many residents have taken advantage of the programs for upgrading their homes.

The majority of the homes in Lomita are older (built in the 1950’s or earlier) making them less likely to contain recycled and reusable materials or have energy efficient upgrades. My family’s home for example, was built in 1925.

An important aspect of sustainable development is a city’s built environment. Because buildings account for 1/3 of U.S. energy consumption, it is important for both residential and commercial structures to be energy efficient, water efficient and use recycled and reusable materials.

Food

In Southern California, there is an immense sustainable food movement with an emphasis on consuming and producing organic, non-genetically modified food.

In line with the rest of the nation however, Lomita receives its food supply from national supermarket chains of which there are three in the city.

There are no farmers’ markets in Lomita but there are many in the neighboring cities of Torrance and Rolling Hills. These markets are largely popular and this fact indicates the region’s value of locally grown, sustainably produced food.

In neighboring cities, there are numerous restaurants that pride themselves on locally grown, organic food.

Because of the age of the homes in Lomita, many of the properties have very spacious yards heightening the likelihood that inhabitants here have gardens. My family, for example, grows our own tomatoes, oranges, lemons, artichokes, asparagus, basil, mint, jalapenos, cucumbers, and rosemary free of pesticides in our yard.

Sustainable food and farming practices require that there is enough food to meet the population’s nutritional needs while preserving the environmental quality of resources that our food supply depends on.

The Cook Family GardenBecause of our organic garden, we are able to have fresh dishes such as salsas, tomato soups, and orange juice throughout the year.

Transportation

Southern California is notorious for its poor public transportation systems and reliance on fossil fuel guzzling cars. Lomita is no exception.

Almost all households have at least one car and that is the primary means of transportation.

There are limited bus lines, mainly on major boulevards but buses are never observed to be full. Bus times end early and are not considered by residents to be reliable forms of transportation.

Bike lanes however, are on all major streets throughout the city and are frequently used.

The city is so small that inter-city travel by foot is possible; for example, access to a grocery store or pharmacy by foot is easily accomplished. Because the city is so small however, places of employment and other necessary destinations must be reached by car.

Los Angeles has a Metro system which is underrated and underused by Los Angeles residents.

Means of Sustainable Transportation in LomitaPictured above is one of Lomita’s many underused bus stops, a group of students utilizing bikes as a means of transportation, and one of the numerous bike lanes that line the city.

Energy

The inhabitants in Lomita, because of their proximity to the wind farms in nearby San Bernardino County, the nuclear power plant in southern San Onofre, and the newly built solar array in Kern County, likely receive a higher percentage of their energy from renewable sources.

However, there are three major refineries in neighboring cities that provide the remainder of the demand for energy.

Although offshore oil drilling (which was prevalent in the neighboring city of Long Beach) has been banned, there is a residual oil project in the neighboring city of Torrance.

Based on a visual survey of the area, few homes contain residential solar panels.

Other than the few homes with these panels, other residential sources are not readily visible.

New commercial structures built in the area contain solar panels. Local stores use sky lights in place to reduce the need for lighting.

There is a city wide ban on incandescent bulbs.

Because of the per capita income, it is unlikely that there will be a large move to personal, residential means of obtaining renewable energy in the near future.

Disaster Risk Reduction Because of California’s location along the San Andreas strike-slip fault, there is

an extremely high risk of earthquake damage.

There is a relatively low risk of tsunamis because of the strike-strip classification of the San Andreas and its distant proximity to tsunami prone coastlines. Despite this risk, the city contains signage for tsunami evacuation routes.

Many places of employment and all schools practice earthquake preparedness drills. Students in the Los Angeles school district are required to have an individual earthquake kit in their classroom.

Evacuation possibilities are readily available due to the local proximity of numerous freeways and the Port of Los Angeles in the neighboring city of San Pedro.

Lomita built the Cypress Street Water Reservoir that holds 2 million gallons in case of a national disaster.

Despite the very short rainy season, Lomita provides its residents with free sandbags to protect their homes. It also holds emergency preparedness workshops at the city hall.

Because of the extreme risk of earthquake, and the routinized drills that are part of the Los Angeles culture, it is likely that most residents practice disaster risk sustainability by keeping earthquake kits and their awareness of emergency procedures.

Water Usage California is experiencing a serious drought and has declared a state of emergency.

Because of this, all Californians are encouraged to undergo sustainable practices to reduce water usage drastically.

The residents of Lomita are limited to watering their lawns between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 a.m. Rinsing of drive-ways is prohibited and the washing of cars must be done with one bucket of water or a quick-shut-off hose.

Lomita inhabitants are only served water upon request in restaurants.

Many homes in Lomita have drought tolerant foliage and the number of water guzzling lawns in Lomita is considerably less than in other neighboring cities.

The city provides free landscape surveys and assistance in the removal of lawns. They also provide free rain collection barrels.

Waste water is processed through a facility in nearby Carson where it is turned into reusable “grey water”.

The city provides free low flush toilets. This is a popular service and many households come out to the city hall to receive the water efficient toilets when the event is offered by the city annually. All toilets in our home were obtained through this service.

Waste Management

All households are provided with a trash can for regular waste materials, one for recyclable waste materials, and another for green waste materials. Recycling is required.

Many inhabitants, including my own family, take advantage of Lomita’s household hazardous waste round-up to dispose of items like paint and batteries.

The city’s rain gutters are covered with “trash capture screens” to prevent local waste from entering the lake in neighboring Harbor City.

Major Areas of Improvement for Inhabitants Transportation: One of the major areas of improvement that needs to made in the

lifestyle of the inhabitants of Lomita is in their usage of public transportation. Unfortunately, the sprawling layout of the city of Los Angeles makes it difficult to utilize public services. Changes can be made to the city’s inhabitants lifestyle by using bicycles for local travel, carpooling as much as possible, particularly for work commutes, and utilizing the cities metro system when traveling to heavily congested areas like Downtown. Implementing a “borrow a bike” system like those used in London would be a practical means of decreasing automobile usage.

Sustainable Food and Farming: Though there is an increasing improvement in the availability of locally grown foods, I feel the inhabitants of the Lomita could improve their habits of supporting local farmers and buying organically grown products rather than depending on the processed food in super markets. The prices of organic food is slowly going down because of its availability so this may be feasible in the near future.

Water Usage: Especially in this time of drought, Lomitians and Californians on a whole (myself included), need to make a better effort to reduce their usage of water by making small, simple changes like taking shorter showers or running the dish washer without pre-rinsing the dishes dishes.

Major Areas of Improvement Continued

Energy Usage: In the age of technology, Americans usage immense amounts of energy to power their numerous devices. Lomita inhabitants should fully take advantage of the incentives and city programs offered to reduce the energy usage of their homes and the cost of powering technologies.

Waste Management: Though recycling is “required” in Lomita, I often observe that on trash pick-up day, many homes only have their regular waste trash can out for pick-up, leading me to believe that residents are not recycling as mandatory. Simple changes in lifestyle habits could improve this are of sustainable development as well.

Sources Consulted

www.lomita.com

www.gogreenlomita.com

www.unesco.org

www.lacsd.org/wastewater/wwfacilities/jwpcp/default.asp

www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org

www.quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0642468.html