After unstable year, Farm Lot 59 founder discusses lease negotiations with City park director

Nestled into an area on California Avenue in the Willow Springs Park area, Farm Lot 59 isn’t in the most eye-catching location for most Long Beach and Signal Hill residents.
The farm, a nonprofit organization that has been serving the community with locally farmed produce since 2010, has struggled over the years financially and, most recently, has been in lease negotiations with the City of Long Beach.
Although a source of fresh produce for many, the farm and its stand were on the verge of quietly closing shop when the lease ended last October.
“When we didn’t get renewed, I started shutting down,” owner Sasha Kanno said in a phone interview Sept. 14. “[…] We were in negotiations and waited to see how it was going to all play out. […] We ended up in lease purgatory.”
The farm had a short-term lease with two-year renewal increments and a one-year extension. When the lease expired on Oct. 31, 2017, Kanno said she had no choice but to go on a month-to-month agreement with the City to keep the farm alive.
With help from City Manager Pat West and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Kanno scheduled a meeting with Gerardo Mouet, director with the City Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (Parks Department), for Sept. 13.
“So, [Mouet] assured me that the end is in sight,” Kanno said, adding that she is asking for a long-term lease and funding to develop programming in order to “not just rely on farm-stand sales to survive on.”
When asked why it took nearly a year to have what Kanno called “progressive conversation” with the City about her lease, she said the contract writers at the Parks Department were interested in “getting their best bang for their buck” and “the community-benefit work that we do had to be justified and then monetized and put a value to it.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Mouet, who became director of the Parks Department in May and has experience in the field, said he couldn’t speak regarding those who previously communicated with Kanno about the negotiations, but did note that he would do what was necessary to ensure that the paperwork to assist the farm was established by October.
After visiting the farm recently, Mouet said he saw value in salvaging the nonprofit organization.
“We are going to continuously look into how we can support the great effort there at the farm,” he said.
Kanno said Farm Lot 59 operates at a loss. Although the retail from the site’s Farm Stand 59 generates some revenue, it doesn’t create income for the site.
The fundraiser events that are organized also require a lot of work to put together and don’t garner enough profits, Kanno said, although she added that she enjoys connecting with the community and allowing people to know where their food is grown.
Kanno said after the lease is established, finances are the next glaring obstacle for the farm.

“So, that’s where the City needs to step up if it’s something that they actually want to have in their community,” she said. “Our market, our guests, our donors, our customers are fantastic, and we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have them, […] but the public shouldn’t be responsible for the overhead. It’s a City asset, it’s City land, there’s nothing else they could do with this property– there’s a pipeline that runs right underneath it in a parkland. So, their choices are limited to open space.”
Aside from lease and finance negotiations, Kanno said that Farm Lot 59 is seeking volunteers for the upcoming fall and winter seasons. Those who are interested in assisting with the farm and its stand can visit farmlot59.org. Moreover, the community can learn about future fundraising events at the same website.
Kanno said she is emphasizing getting more traffic to Farm Stand 59, 2714 California Ave., which operates from Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm. The stand accepts cash and EBT cards.
Produce and items include, but are not limited to, apples, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, winter squashes, avocados, pumpkins, root crops, flowers, herbs, stir-fry mixes, kale blends, grass-fed beef, pasta and fresh ceviche.
Carla Rubie, producer and director of Studio Salt Creative LLC, has also been documenting a year on Farm Lot 59. Rubie, a longtime customer and Cal Heights resident, agreed to take pictures of the farm work when Kanno publicly made a request on Facebook.
The public can view the studio’s photos on Farm Lot 59’s Facebook page. Work on the project will continue into 2019, Rubie said.
“I brought the idea to my partners Stephanie Luis and Erica Ladd, and we knew we had to do it,” she wrote to the Signal Tribune Wednesday, adding that, “We had largely underestimated how much work it takes to operate a small farm and the complications and intricacies due to the uncertainty of nature.”