5:00am Reporting by Greggory Moore | Lately Mayor Bob Foster has been getting down on his knees in a return to his roots: he’s laying carpet.
Such unusual mayoral activity is part of Foster’s contribution to the “Mayor’s Build,” a public/private partnership that brings together corporate sponsors, city government, and volunteerism to help Habitat for Humanity work its magic of providing houses — and we’re talking serious houses — to families in need.
The recipients of the one getting the mayor’s personal touch are Enrique and Sonia Lopez, who in the fall will trade in the one-bedroom apartment they share with their three sons for a four-bedroom, LEED1-certified home, into which they themselves will have put in 500 hours of “sweat equity.”
“Where else could you buy a house where you can tell your kids in the future, your grandkids, ‘Hey, I did this, we painted this, we installed this or that’ — it’s really special,” said Sonia.
It’s probably even rarer, of course, to be able to tell one’s children that the mayor did your carpeting.
“Look at this tool kit,” the mayor says excitedly, showing off what from the outside appears to be a small, handmade wooden suitcase. “It’s still got my original tools. … I haven’t done this in a long time. But it’s amazing — it never leaves you.”
With that the mayor launches into a tutorial on the “physics of carpeting,” and I find out that a tackless strip has nothing to do with adults-only entertainment.
And there’s more to learn elsewhere on the build site I learn. For example, the carpet and padding donated for the Lopez home — and just about all other Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles homes — is manufactured by Bentley Prince Street from recycled materials.
“This fits in perfectly in our sustainability efforts,” says Tom Mee, the company’s vice-president of customer relations, who proudly notes that 100 percent of the electricity the company’s plant uses to manufacture the 4.5 million sq. yds. of carpeting per year is provided via renewable energy.
“Green building” has become a watchword (watchphrase?) with Habitat for Humanity, which in 2008 began building homes in Southern California around the concepts of energy-efficient design, lighting, heating and cooling systems; using recyclable building materials; low-emission paints and varnish; water-filtration systems; and native, drought-tolerant landscaping.
Another contributor is the Architecture Construction and Engineering (ACE) Academy, the Long Beach Unified School District’s “school-within-a-school” providing 11th- and 12th-grade students with hands-one experience in their chosen field of study, be it construction, engineering, electrical installation, plumbing, etc. Roughly 25 students are contributing to the Mayor’s Build.
“What we’re trying to give is jobsite learning,” says instructor Mike Zeke. “We want to give the kids exposure to real-life activities. In 12th grade all of our students are required to do 50 hours of internship. This is one of our internship programs.”
This is the ACE Academy’s first experience with Habitat for Humanity, and Zeke is grateful for the priceless opportunity it gives his students. “There’s the classroom world, and there’s the outside world,” says Zeke. “And what these students really need is [to see their field of study] applied to a real-world setting.”
Foster says acquiring corporate sponsorship for the Mayor’s Build simply wasn’t that difficult. For example, the project’s biggest sponsor, Edison International (the company that puts the ‘Edison’ in Southern California Edison), has been onboard since before Foster’s tenure. “And they came in big [on this project].”
That contribution by Edison includes 30 volunteers helping with the house’s construction. Les Starck, SCE’s senior vice-president, says Edison is celebrating its 125th anniversary by committing to “125 days of service,” work on various types of project to give back to the community.
There’s a lot of that kind of thing on view at the site of Lopez’s future home — one of three Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles homes simultaneously going up on the same block. And in bearing witness to the ample donations of material, money, and labor involved, one is reminded that for all that is wrong our country and city, some things are very right.
1Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a status conferred on qualifying project by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Photo credits: Greggory Moore
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