Green Goods x Omo Yoruba Urban Greening Comment Package

Date: 2026-04-03

Purpose: Draft two linked deliverables for the California Natural Resources Agency Urban Greening Grant Program process:

1. a public comment on the draft Urban Greening guidelines
2. a project narrative seed that can be adapted later for a Concept Proposal

This package is written in a coalition voice and keeps the project community-first. Omo Yoruba is positioned as the cultural stewardship partner. Green Goods is positioned as the reporting, verification, and maintenance and accountability layer that supports the physical greening work.

Source Anchors

1. California Natural Resources Agency Urban Greening Grant Program page: https://resources.ca.gov/grants/urban-greening/
2. Draft Urban Greening Grant Guidelines (Round 1, February 2026 draft): https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/grants/Prop-4/Urban-Greening/Round-1-Documents/UG-Draft-Guidelines_Final-Draft.pdf
3. Omo Yoruba of Southern California: https://omoyorubaofsocal.org/
4. Omo Yoruba Programs page: https://omoyorubaofsocal.org/our-programs/
5. Leimert Park background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leimert_Park,_Los_Angeles

Deliverable 1: Public Comment On Draft Guidelines

Suggested subject line: Public Comment on Draft Urban Greening Guidelines from Green Goods x Omo Yoruba of Southern California

Ultra short portal draft:

We support the draft Urban Greening guidelines and encourage CNRA to support projects where eligible physical greening is paired with community-rooted stewardship. Our Green Goods and Omo Yoruba partnership is exploring a Leimert Park-area concept centered on tree canopy, strategic shade, and selected green street improvements. The greening work would be primary. We ask CNRA to clarify that complementary cultural stewardship is allowed, that project-tied reporting and maintenance tracking can be eligible support costs, and that community-rooted partnerships in culturally significant, heat-vulnerable neighborhoods should count as strong public benefit.

Short portal draft:

We support the draft Urban Greening guidelines and encourage CNRA to support projects where eligible physical greening is paired with community-rooted stewardship. Our Green Goods and Omo Yoruba partnership is exploring a Leimert Park-area concept centered on tree canopy, strategic shade, refuge-oriented public space, and selected green street improvements. The physical greening work would be primary. We ask CNRA to clarify that complementary cultural stewardship may be included when the core project is eligible physical greening, that project-tied reporting, maintenance tracking, and compliance documentation can be eligible support costs, and that community-rooted partnerships in culturally significant, heat-vulnerable neighborhoods should be recognized as strong public benefit.

Paste-ready draft:

We submit this comment as a collaboration between Omo Yoruba of Southern California and Green Goods in support of the California Natural Resources Agency's Urban Greening Grant Program and its focus on nature-based solutions that reduce extreme heat, expand public green space, and deliver direct community benefit.

We strongly support the draft guidelines' emphasis on strategic shade, tree canopy, green streets and alleyways, and green spaces that can serve as places of refuge during heat waves. We also support the program's focus on public access, public benefit, and meaningful community engagement. Those priorities are well aligned with the kinds of neighborhood-scale projects that can make climate resilience visible and usable in everyday life.

We encourage CNRA to make explicit in the final guidelines that strong Urban Greening projects can include community rooted cultural and educational stewardship as a minor but valuable complementary element of a physical greening project. In our view, the most durable public green spaces are not only planted, but actively cared for, programmed, trusted, and used by the surrounding community. Cultural activation, youth learning, and intergenerational stewardship should not substitute for physical development, but they can materially strengthen the long-term value, safety, and relevance of eligible greening investments.

This distinction matters for projects like the one our partnership is exploring near and around Leimert Park in Los Angeles. Our concept is not an education-only project. It is a neighborhood cooling and greening concept centered on tree canopy expansion, strategic shade, small refuge-focused gathering areas, and selected green street or alley improvements that can help reduce heat and improve the public realm. The cultural component would be complementary to that physical work. Omo Yoruba of Southern California, which already convenes cultural enrichment programming and Yoruba language and heritage learning in Southern California, would help activate the space through stewardship, community learning, and cultural connection. That kind of activation can help a green space remain visible, welcoming, and cared for over time.

We also encourage CNRA to clarify that project-tied reporting, verification, and compliance systems can be eligible as complementary project costs when they directly support implementation and long-term accountability. For community based greening projects, it is often difficult to document where plantings occurred, whether trees survived, what maintenance was completed, how the public accessed the site, and whether promised community benefits were delivered over time. Green Goods is being developed to help address exactly that gap by supporting field documentation, verification workflows, and exportable reporting. Clear guidance that these kinds of project-tied accountability tools are valid complementary elements would help community partnerships deliver stronger outcomes and stronger long-term stewardship.

We further encourage CNRA to recognize that community rooted partnerships in culturally significant, heat vulnerable neighborhoods can be strong evidence of direct and meaningful benefit. In places like Leimert Park, public greening investments can deliver multiple benefits at once: cooler public space, more shade, improved neighborhood gathering space, stronger community presence during extreme heat, and programming that keeps those places active and socially rooted. The public value of such projects is not only ecological. It is civic, cultural, and health related.

As CNRA finalizes the guidelines, we respectfully suggest the following clarifications:

1. Confirm that cultural or educational stewardship may be included as a complementary element when the core project is an eligible physical greening development project.
2. Clarify that project-tied reporting, verification, maintenance tracking, and compliance documentation systems may be treated as eligible complementary costs when they directly support delivery and long-term stewardship of the project.
3. Continue to value community engagement not only at the planning stage, but as an ongoing implementation and monitoring function that helps public green space remain useful, trusted, and resilient.
4. Recognize multi-benefit neighborhood projects in culturally significant urban areas as strong candidates where heat mitigation, public health, public gathering, and long-term stewardship reinforce one another.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft guidelines. We appreciate CNRA's leadership in advancing nature-based solutions that help California communities become cooler, healthier, and more resilient.

Deliverable 2: Project Narrative Seed For Concept Proposal

Working title: Leimert Park Cooling and Cultural Stewardship Initiative

Draft narrative:

Green Goods and Omo Yoruba of Southern California are exploring a community-rooted Urban Greening initiative near and around Leimert Park in Los Angeles that would use nature-based improvements to reduce heat, expand shade, and strengthen public green space. The project concept is centered on a hybrid neighborhood cooling model that may include climate-resilient tree planting, water-wise landscaping, shaded refuge and gathering areas, and selected green street or alley features that improve comfort, walkability, and neighborhood resilience during extreme heat.

The project is grounded in the idea that public green space should do more than exist on paper. It should function as a real place of refuge and connection for the surrounding community. Leimert Park is one of Los Angeles' most important historic centers of Black arts and culture, and that civic and cultural context makes it a strong place to demonstrate how urban greening can support both climate resilience and community life. By expanding shade and improving the public realm, the project would aim to create greener, cooler, and more usable neighborhood space for residents, families, and visitors.

Omo Yoruba of Southern California would serve as a cultural stewardship partner for the initiative. The organization has built programming in Southern California around Yoruba heritage, cultural enrichment, language learning, and intergenerational connection. In this project, that role would not replace the physical greening work. Instead, it would help activate the space through stewardship, education, and community-grounded programming connected to land, care, health, and cultural continuity. The goal is to make the green space not only planted, but socially rooted and actively maintained.

Green Goods would support the project as a complementary reporting and accountability layer. Its role would be to help document plantings, maintenance activity, stewardship participation, and other project outputs through structured field reporting and verification workflows. That would strengthen transparency for partners, funders, and implementers while reducing the long-term risk that public greening projects lose visibility after installation. In this model, the technology is not the centerpiece. It is the infrastructure that helps community-based climate work remain legible, trackable, and easier to sustain.

Taken together, the initiative is intended to show how an Urban Greening project can deliver multiple benefits at once: cooler public space, increased shade, stronger neighborhood gathering areas, community stewardship, and an accountable long-term maintenance story. It is a model for how climate resilience investments can be shaped by local culture, public life, and trust, rather than being treated only as isolated landscape interventions.

Optional Short Version For Forms

We support the draft Urban Greening guidelines and encourage CNRA to explicitly value projects where eligible physical greening is paired with community-rooted cultural stewardship and strong long-term accountability. Our partnership between Green Goods and Omo Yoruba of Southern California is exploring a Leimert Park-area concept centered on tree canopy expansion, strategic shade, refuge-focused public space, and selected green street improvements. The physical greening work would be primary. Cultural programming would be a complementary stewardship layer that helps the space remain active, trusted, and maintained. We also encourage CNRA to clarify that project-tied reporting, verification, maintenance tracking, and compliance documentation tools can be treated as eligible complementary costs when they directly support implementation and long-term public benefit. In culturally significant, heat-vulnerable neighborhoods, these integrated models can deliver multiple benefits at once: cooling, public health, stronger gathering space, and more durable community stewardship.

Use Notes

1. The public comment is written to respond to the draft guidelines, not to imply that final site control, design, or permitting is already complete.
2. The proposal narrative keeps physical greening as the core eligible project and frames culture and education as complementary stewardship rather than standalone funded programming.
3. Before reusing this in a formal proposal, update any references to project geography, site control, implementing partners, maintenance responsibilities, and final scope.