117 bimini place : an eco village in the heart of L.A. (Los Angeles: apartment complex, house)

[gildossantos]

I read this interesting article in this French newspaper about an eco-village in the heart of los angeles (attention : written in French)

Le Monde.fr : L'"écovillage" de Bimini Place, utopie écologiste au coeur de la mégapole de Los Angeles - Environnement, Sciences (http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences-et-environnement/article/2008/04/25/l-ecovillage-de-bimini-place-utopie-ecologiste-au-coeur-de-la-megapole-de-los-angeles_1038504_3244.html#ens_id=1035786 - broken link)

does any los angeleno know about this eco-village and has ever visited it? What does it look like? What kind of people live there? Any pictures of it?

[gildossantos]

http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/CALmax/images/2004/Fall/BiminiPl.jpg (broken link)

[gildossantos]

An extensive article on the topic.

Los Angeles Eco-Village: Fall 2004 CalMAX Sustainable Housing Article

[LuckyGem]

Los Angeles Eco-Village

[CESpeed]

I used to live there, they are very nice well meaning people. If they accept you into the community, they will bend over backwards to work with you. They try to make it as community living as possible but participation is not mandatory. There is a community dinner every Sunday, they have their own compost chicken to provide eggs, a vegetable garden. The neighborhood is not the nicest, but it is relatively safe. There is a halfway house a few doors down. Please note I lived there in 1999 so some things may have changed but I'm thinking not. The apartments are nice and a decent size and there is are washers and dryers on every floor. It is walking distance to a grocery store (Vons, Ralph's and a Seafood), KFC, video store, Rite-Aid and Mc Donald's. If you insist on public transportation, you are near the Vermont-754,204, Beverly-14, 3rd St 16-316 and Silverlake-201 bus lines and the Red Line rail (Beverly and Vermont station). I would recommend a car (they discourage that) and parking isn't easy. Also it's next to two schools so it gets a little noisy during the day.

[gildossantos]

Originally Posted by CESpeed

I used to live there, they are very nice well meaning people. If they accept you into the community, they will bend over backwards to work with you. They try to make it as community living as possible but participation is not mandatory. There is a community dinner every Sunday, they have their own compost chicken to provide eggs, a vegetable garden. The neighborhood is not the nicest, but it is relatively safe. There is a halfway house a few doors down. Please note I lived there in 1999 so some things may have changed but I'm thinking not. The apartments are nice and a decent size and there is are washers and dryers on every floor. It is walking distance to a grocery store (Vons, Ralph's and a Seafood), KFC, video store, Rite-Aid and Mc Donald's. If you insist on public transportation, you are near the Vermont-754,204, Beverly-14, 3rd St 16-316 and Silverlake-201 bus lines and the Red Line rail (Beverly and Vermont station). I would recommend a car (they discourage that) and parking isn't easy. Also it's next to two schools so it gets a little noisy during the day.

Thanks. What kind of people live their? Hippy-style etc.? According to the french article I read, very different sort of but according to your experience, is that correct? White collar too?

[angelenomoreno]

I've been there a bunch of times for meetings and have a couple of friends there. I wouldn't really call it hippy. It's pretty much just young, progressive, eco-minded, urban people. Some racial diversity. It's not super funky or anything, I think if you didn't live there and just visited, you wouldn't immediately think it's that different from any other apartment complex. But it does seem like a very nice place to live. Good location, architecture and the people are very cool.

[CESpeed]

Angelo got it right. The woman who is in charge is kinda hippy and the attitudes are, but everybody is really nice.