Rootball is the newsletter of Pando Populus.

Pando unites the people who care most about the future of Los Angeles. Focuses them on the right things. And motivates them. With passion. To implement LA County’s sustainability plan.

Artwork copyright (c) 2024 Tucker Nichols.

Pando is 10

Pando co-founders Eugene Shirley and John B. Cobb, Jr. sat down on the occasion of the organization's 10th birthday to reflect on the past decade of development and growth.


Eugene Shirley: Can you believe it’s been 10 years since the official Pando Populus launch? But here I am, talking about Pando at 10 when you’re 99! You always have a way of putting things into perspective.


John Cobb: According to the Chinese calendar, I’m already 100 – because they give you credit for time in the womb. 


Ninety-nine or a hundred, it’s astounding what you’ve done for us and the debt that we owe you. 


The Pando model of education bears your unique stamp.  


I’m delighted that you feel that the time is ripe now for our model and methodology. A system that channels the creativity, intelligence and energy of young people and their instructors working together for the common good is powerful at any level where it can be applied, but especially at the local, community-based levels that Pando is so passionate about.

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Bottled at the source: The Pando Days 2024/25 Blitz

The problem isn’t cleaning recycled Los Angeles water so that it’s safe and healthy to drink.


The problem is getting you to drink it. Or anyone like you.


So, on September 21, we challenged some passionate young people at our newest Pando Days brainstorming Blitz and focused them on this challenge: 


How can we get Angelenos to love recycled sewer water?

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A.K. Warren Water Resource Facility, Carson, CA. The facility delivers 150 million gallons of drinkable water every day.

“One Water,” Resilience, and Advanced Water Recycling

In a previous blog, noted regional planner Mark VanderSchaaf looked at the global “One Water” revolution which integrates the many forms of water management into a single system.


A second planning revolution is also occurring, involving the matter of forecasting in a highly uncertain world.

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Planting day for the USC Pando Days 2023 project Test Plot on Catalina Island.

Updates from Pando Days 2024-25 teams

Pando Days projects are designed to make an actual difference in the real world and continue to positively impact their communities long after class time is over. 


We like to stay up on project development and report from time to time on the continuing effect that Pando Days projects conceived over prior seasons are having. We recently caught up with a number of team leads: 


California State University, Fullerton: There's a food app for that (and it’s student developed)!


California State University, Los Angeles: Pando Days – the student experience


California State University, Northridge: The wisdom of the rainforest in Northridge


Los Angeles Trade Technical College: Community college and challenging the status quo


Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles: When your campus is your community partner


Pepperdine University: What the humanities can offer a world in crisis


Pierce College: The butterfly effect


University of Southern California: Restoring the land, one plot at a time

Seeing the Unseeable is an exhibition exploring how art, design and culture respond to the impact of data on daily life. The exhibit is ArtCenter’s contribution to the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time ART.

CSO Taskforce members and their guests gathered at ArtCenter for an extraordinary evening connecting data, science and art. The third Taskforce event of the year, Co-Chairs were ArtCenter’s Heidrun Mumper-Drumm and Disney’s former CSO, Mark Spears. 


Heidrun described the Getty-led effort by galleries and museums to set a new benchmark in exhibit management for sustainable practices. 


Curator Christina Valentine then guided us through Seeing the Unseeable: Data, Design, Art, ArtCenter’s contribution to the 70-plus exhibits that are part of the every-five-years presentation of Getty’s PST ART, the largest art event in the United States.

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Artwork copyright © Tucker Nichols 


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