query: community gardens

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

[ed:  well, community gardeners unite!  Peter's query on community
gardening brought interesting responses from Vanessa, Deborah, Dave, Nancy,
and Linda.  Dave's response also includes a question linking land trusts
and community gardening that some may also want to speak on.]

From: Vanessa Tait <vanessa at uclink4.berkeley.edu>

Peter,

The bay area has a thriving community gardening movement. In the city of
San Francisco alone, there are over 100 community gardens, many of them in
low-income neighborhoods or on the grounds of public housing developments.
Dozens of gardens exist in the east bay as well. Some operate as CSAs
(community supported agriculture) -- they pay young people to learn to grow
organic food which community members then buy through weekly or monthly
deliveries. The cities of San Francisco and Berkeley do provide assistance
in setting the gardens up -- for instance, many have been built on land
donated by the city, while others exist on vacant privately-owned land like
the Santa Fe right of way in Berkeley (old train tracks).

I don't know how aggressively either city deals with permanently acquiring
vacant private land. For specifics, contact SLUG, the San Francisco League
of Urban Gardeners (contacts are listed at http://www.slug-sf.org/). EBUG,
or East Bay Urban Gardeners, can provide information about Oakland/Berkeley
community gardens (contacts are listed at
http://www.emf.net/~cheetham/geaars-1.html).

Good luck to your student. The more gardens, the better....

Vanessa Tait
Berkeley, CA

********************************

From: Deborah Martin <dgmartin at arches.uga.edu>

In response to Peter Dreier's request about information on community
gardens:

I was doing some research in 1996-1998 on organizing in a neighborhood
in St. Paul, MN (Frogtown), and the block club there was quite successful
at getting vacant lots turned over from the city for community parks.  I
think the lots were condemned and cleared by the city, and then the block
club --the Thomas-Dale Block Clubs-- had a contract to maintain them.
They built "pocket parks" on the sites rather than actual gardens, though.
But some of those parks had fairly permanent park-stuff on them, like
sculptures made by area artists and youth.  So there might have been some
long-term status to them that could have also worked for a proper
community garden.  It may be worth checking into St. Paul politics and
polities to see if other neighborhoods successfully created long-lasting
gardens (this was not my main area of study so I don't really know the
details...)


Deborah G. Martin, Assistant Professor          phone 706-542-2332
Department of Geography                           fax 706-542-2388
University of Georgia                           email dgmartin at uga.edu
Athens, GA 30602

*****************************

From: David Boucher <westend at execpc.com>

colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu wrote:

Peter,

In Milwaukee a group comprising the Hunger Taskforce, Greening Milwaukee,
U.W. Extension, a variety of C.B.O.s, and individuals interested in
self-supporting urban agriculture, and more recently a community planner
from America's Outdoors (run through the River, Trails, and Conservation
Assistance Program of the US Dept of the Interior and the National Park
Service) have met monthly to begin to develop a broader city-wide strategy
to develop and support community gardens and to develop local strategies
for addressing the plethora of vacant lots (my apologies for missing
anyone). Strategies may include community ownership, city permits for
community gardens, land trusts (none established thus far), or just
maintaining city owned vacant lots.  Obviously many lots are newly vacated
from demolitions of privately -held properties and these take at least 2
yrs and sometimes never if there is a suspicion of contamination.  These
generally remain in limbo.

I would suspect, much like many other cities, once there is desirable
assemblage of city-owned vacant lots, it requires considerable local
momentum to develop it as open space for any extended period.  Otherwise
adjacent lots totaling 5000 sq ft or more are generally held with the
sliver of hope for future infill housing development.  In Milwaukee,
single, "non conforming" vacant lots are otherwise sold/divided between
willing adjacent property owners, or maintained in a minimal state,
requiring a call for service from area residents to maintain them.

A block grant funded non-profit here called Milwaukee Community Service
Corps has a contract to beautify vacant lots and use $500 per lot (I will
let you imagine how beautiful most lots are).  On the other hand, if one
accumulates the various pieces to assemble a community garden, it can be
very successful.

Using the resources of MCSC, UW Extension, America's Outdoors, and local
residents and CBOs, one can develop a garden within a year.   We
established a predominantly Hmong-farmed community garden in the 1700 block
of N.35th Street (for anyone familiar with Milwaukee) within 8 months once
we had gardeners willing to garden and rent plots for $15.00/yr through
U.W. Extension, what used to be called the Shoots and Roots Program I
believe.  Water is of course a significant consideration. Hydrants are an
option of they are in close proximity, otherwise partnerships with
commercial and residential neighbors are the next best bet.  We are working
with a local church at the end of the block to supply water.  Which leads
to anther hurdle we have discovered.  The church has expressed an interest
in developing the 6 residential lots in the future and have what amounts to
a verbal option to purchase with the city.  The lesson here is that ONLY
WITH GRASS ROOTS, RESIDENT AND/OR LOCALLY BASED ACTIVISM WILL THIS SPACE
REMAIN - OR BE DEVELOPED AS - PUBLIC USE IF THAT IS THE DESIRED OUTCOME OF
THE COMMUNITY.  While we do not have the development pressures that NYC
gardens might have, even these lots (some of the least desirable
un-contaminated real estate in the inner-city of Milwaukee) have
development pressures that are not necessarily in the best interest of the
neighborhood.

A few contacts in Milwaukee for community gardens and urban open space are
Mark Weaver at America's Outdoors (Mark_Weaver at nps.gov), Dennis Lukaszewski
at U.W. Extension, and Charlotte Perdue at Hunger Task Force.

A final thought - putting pressure on the city govt to do something is a
tricky thing.  Most elected officials would ultimately like to see
development rather than what might appear to be overgrown (albeit highly
productive) garden sites and many residents have also been duped to believe
that 100s of thousands of city investment dollars in housing is more
desirable to public open space where loitering and "anti-social activity"
may occur.    The reality is that the resources just aren't there to
blanket the city with beautiful vacant lots without taking from someone
else or some other under funded program.