Sue Nelson - 1927–2003
By Carol
Fondiller
Sue Nelson had a
tiger’s heart.
She was ferocious in her dedication to
preserving the mountains and coastline of California. The Los Angeles Times ran
an obituary on May 22 listing the accomplishments of her efforts of over four
decades. They included getting legislators to preserve our natural resources by
purchasing the land to conserve it for future generations, and protecting urban
landscapes.
She had the tenacity and
focus of a suffragist or an
abolitionist.
Not only did Sue believe
in the preservation of undeveloped land, she believed in the preservation of
neighborhood and, by implication,
community.
It is no surprise to me that
she had a degree in Urban Planning. She had an almost instinctual grasp of the
concept that a sense of community is the basis for stability; if you have a
sense of belonging, of responsibility to the area in which you live,
you’re not likely to throw trash on the
street.
If, on the other hand, an
88-year-old neighbor is treated like an intrusive scumbag because he won’t
vacate the apartment he’s lived in for nearly 50 years to make way for
progress, i.e., someone who is willing to pay more rent, then you might feel
that putting down roots in the neighborhood and investing time and effort into
your surroundings might be tenuous at best because hey; I might be forced to
move also. Why should I show up at a meeting to protest a freeway going through
my town, because it’s been made very clear to me that this town
ain’t my town. To paraphrase the great Woody Guthrie, “Hey, Venice
is a Garden of Eden, a beautiful place to live in or see, but believe it or not,
you won’t find it so hot, if you ain’t got the dough re
me.”
Unlike some environmentalists Sue
Nelson was not a metrophobic snob. She was urbane in the most positive sense of
that word.
And, Hell, she bailed me out
of jail. To show my gratitude, I lost her jacket.
I truly forget for what I was
arrested, illegal distribution of leaflets on the Ocean Front Walk, harassing
the police (according to the police),
whatever.
When I was sprung from the
joint, as we ex-cons like to say, Sue was pointed out to me as my benefactor.
She was a slight unprepossessing woman. She was wearing well-cut jeans, some
folk jewelry and a down jacket–L.L. Bean or J.J. Crew type of jacket. A
rock climbing, camping out type of jacket–yes, the very jacket I lost! I
don’t come cheap.
She reassured
me later that it wasn’t hers; she had borrowed it from a member of her
family. She had a wicked smile that generated warmth and
humor.
Sue registered Peace and Freedom
and when she wasn’t busy trying to get the Coastal Commission on the
ballot and, after the commission was set up, keeping the commissioners straight
as to the job of preserving the Coast for all Californians, she was advocating
change in the way the cities dealt with their surroundings, badgering local
officials to include green space and, oh yes, to keep and preserve the diverse
mix that keeps a community vibrant, truly urban and
alive.
We would see each other at
various political events over the years, we’d hug each other, play catch
up–tell me what you’ve done in the past 10 years in 20 minutes,
exchange numbers until the next
time.
Thank you Sue for keeping those
mountains, so we can see the changing SoCal seasons, yes SoCal does have
seasons: lion-hide brown in the high hot summer, grey and soft in winter, green
and sweet in spring, dry and fire-orange in fall.
We owe a lot to you and people like
you Sue, for showing us that not only can you fight City Hall, sometimes you can
win and change how people relate to government, development, and how residents
can be listened to and taken into
account.
The urbanites and
environmentalists lost one Hell of a Dame.
Posted: Sun - June 1, 2003 at 02:57 PM