From Michael Ableman: Bulldozers and Tract Homes

For two months in 1984, unrelenting noise pulsed from huge machines that arrived to remove the last agricultural holding that bordered [Fairview Gardens]. For years we had huddled up next to each other, two small farms standing against the tide of development. Though Fairview had grown and flourished, our neighbor had given in years before. His lemon orchard, now falling to the big steel blade of the bulldozer, was a wild, derelict remnant. The trees were either dead or alomost dead. Thorny root suckers grew from the base of the dried-up trunks, and the weeds were tall enough to cover the trees.

A certain beauty emerged from this neglect, as nature reclaimed the land in the years that the orchard was forgotten. Twenty-six acres were regaining their wildness. The land was full of life. Deer, raccoons, possum, hawks and coyote passed through a bustling society of birds, small rodents and insects.