North Shore is a rural farmworker community of about 3,500 people perched on the northern edge of the Salton Sea in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Though North Shore has a rich history – both as Native American lands and as a storied tourist destination in the 50’s and 60’s – it is currently a neglected farmworker community with little public infrastructure. North Shore is one of the country’s most fertile agricultural regions. Residents there put food on the tables of families across the country, yet the daily challenges they face in their community are invisible to most of the region, state, and nation.

KDI, Desert Recreation District, and local residents have been working together over several years to plan a 5-acre Productive Public Space that will address social inequities and create new, asset-driven narratives about North Shore that challenge the negative discourse associated with the area.

When completed in mid-2018 the park will be home to a soccer field, a skate park, a playground, a performance and meeting pavilion, and a fitness loop. Programming has already started and includes a bike repair shop led by youth group Desert Riderz and a weekly food market hosted by Delicias Laguna Azul, a resident-led women’s food cooperative.  

Nuestro Lugar is the first Productive Public Space in the Eastern Coachella Valley Public Space Network. It is expected to be a vibrant and vital place within North Shore’s physical and cultural landscape, as well as the wider region.

KDI’s first Productive Public Space in the Eastern Coachella Valley is expected to complete construction in mid-2018.