Land Use + Industry + Ownership

Mappings

LonelyLand Use

The Diversity ofIndustry in Vernon

Ownership andLevels of Control

The Vernacular

Lonely Land Use

The City of Vernon is known to be as an industrial city that is located several miles away from Downtown Los Angeles. Vernon is the only city in the Los Angeles region that encompasses most of its land for industry use and employs approximately 55,000 people. Not only does the city provide jobs for Los Angeles County but also is the home to major food and agriculture, apparel, steel, plastics, logistics and home furnishings industries. Since the city has a policy to discourage housing due to the odors, noise, and traffic levels it is generally incompatible with residential development. The map displays the various planed distribution of land use that are currently found in in the city of Vernon. Although, most of the city is composed of industries there are still areas where there is housing, commercial, and public use buildings. It is evident in the map that there is only one category for land use which is for Industrial. The Industrial section allows for a broad range of industrial use that supports the city’s desire to stay as a regional manufacturing and industrial center. Some of these industries include refineries, energy-generating facilities, manufacturing and hazardous waste facilities. It also shows the five Overlay Districts that are categorized as Commercial, Rendering, Slaughtering, Housing and Emergency Shelter. These overlay districts allow for specific uses in a certain area that are not permitted anywhere else in the city. Even though these Overlay Districts are implemented there is contradiction to what actually exists in the designated districts.

The Diversity of Industry in Vernon

The city of Vernon has been described as a landscape of heavy industrial industry, and although this is true, there are many more facets to reveal within the boundaries of Vernon. Vernon is commonly known for being a large manufacturer and processor of food, but there are more spectrums underneath the category. Processing, manufacturing, rendering, packaging, and slaughtering are just a few subcategories that are included. The second largest industry within the city of Vernon is chemical manufacturing. With two seemingly incompatible industries located within a short distance of each other, what is really happening in Vernon?

A narrative is revealed about the city of Vernon and it encapsulates how Vernon is the largest “cog in the wheel” when it comes to supplying the Los Angeles region. It exemplifies that because Vernon is in an ideal condition, it should be highlighted as the city that really does more.

When one describes the city of Vernon, it is appointed as a landscape of no people, but in hiding this city of industry has approximately 50,000 workers coming in and out on a daily basis. It is a unique situation that Vernon illustrates and is unlike any other city within the state. And also unlike any other city, Vernon has a plethora of industries within its boundaries that should be highly regarded as an important utility for the Los Angeles region.

Without the city of Vernon, hustle and bustle of Southern California’s largest metropolis would cease to exist.

Top 20 Industries In Vernon (according to employee numbers)1. Food Manufacturing2. Chemical Manufacturing3. Wholesalers—Nondurable Goods4. Warehousing and Storage5. Wholesalers—Durable Goods6. Textile Mills7. Couriers and Messengers8. Fabricated Metal Products9. Plastics Product Manufacturing10. Apparel Manufacturing11. Furniture & Related Products12. Printing & Related Support Activities13. Paper Manufacturing14. Machinery Manufacturing15. Textile Product Mills16. Truck Transportation17. Nonmetallic Mineral Products18. Repair & Maintenance Services19. Support20. Beverage & Tobacco Products

Ownership and Levels of Control

Who really “owns” Vernon, a city dominated by industry?

Legally, the City of Vernon owns a number of parcels, but unlike most cities, where parks, civic centers and other public spaces make up the majority of city-owned property, all Vernon-held property is zoned for industry. As furthertestament to the city’s dedication to industry, even the scarce quantity of housing stock in Vernon is technically zoned industrial.

The rest of the story of legal ownership in Vernon is a complicated patchwork of both large and small, and domestic and international corporate and private ownership. This does little to tell the real story of ownership in Vernon, otherthan that there are many players, in many places, who rely on, and have a stake in Vernon. We must look beyond conventional understanding of ownership in order to develop a more meaningful understanding of this unique urban condition.

A more compelling and authentic concept of ownership in Vernon thus emerges: who actually controls Vernon? Who has authority in Vernon? Who has possession in Vernon? Through the mapping of these levels of control, wereveal a deeper, more complex understanding of who the real players are, above, on the ground, and under the streets of Vernon. Due to years of pollution, leaking storage tanks and heavy toxic chemical use and production, State and Federal agencies maintain a significant level of outside control in Vernon. These outside agencies have the authority to effect change in Vernon.

Though the streets are dominated by semi-trucks, tanker trucks and refrigerated vans, there is also a level of social control, evidenced along the sidewalks of bus routes, where workers travel in and out of the city, within the LA River channel, where people recreate, and along the river bike path.

And, there is a level of faunal control, both above and below Vernon. The river is populated throughout the year with more than 200 species of birds, and pigeons and seagulls flock to the recycling centers. Under Vernon, the stormdrain system forms a vast network of underground culverts and channels, housing the dens of coyote, abundant food for the vermin of Vernon, and safe navigation for wildlife under the streets of Vernon.

The Vernacular

Many people live their lives without a care in the world, not thinking of what the food they are eating has gone through or where the power supplying their precious phones has come from. Vernon is a city of industry, a city that gets down and dirty. The importance of Vernon as an economic engine is overshadowed by the fact that most citizens see the place as an eyesore, but the potential for this city to be greater than what it is perceived as is evident in all of the opportunities others may see as constraints.

As a city that prides itself in being almost exclusively industrial, Vernon does well for the people who work there and the people who utilize the products manufactured in the city. Although the city has a measly population of 114 residents, over 50,000 workers go in and out of the city on a daily basis. These workers manufacture and process the goods we demand as consumers. The businesses in Vernon provide stable jobs for the neighboring cities in the area. Some workers are even noted to travel as far as the Port of Long Beach utilizing one of Vernon’s most distinguishable infrastructural land uses, the rail lines.

Public and private rail lines meet to populate the city for means of distribution of the manufactured goods. The abundance of rail lines and truck terminals hint that the city relies heavily on transportation and distribution for the industries to be successful, which leads to an interesting take on who actually controls Vernon. Are the people who walk the grounds the ones who are in control, or are the big machines that make an industrial such as this one function in control? Trucks and trains constantly circulate in and out of Vernon making it possible for the city to sustain itself as a place of industry.

The scale of Vernon will make anyone feel small. With all of the industrial sized buildings and big trucks circulating the site, it is no surprise residential and commercial areas are scarce. The city created an assortment of overlay districts that are used as boundaries where businesses other than industrial ones are able to be established. With all of the industries being in such close proximity, the spatial relationship between food processing facilities and chemical processing sites, Vernon’s top two industries, is something to note.

Obviously, Vernon has its problems, but they only hint towards this need for a framework for change. We cannot stop Vernon from being the big industrial city it is known for today, but we can provide the necessary steps needed to take to change this area from a place people see only as an eyesore to a place where its importance is acknowledged.

Land Use + Industry + Ownership