Last night, I attended the Linden-Bushwick Block Association meeting about the Secret Garden on the corner of Linden and Broadway in Brooklyn. The committee is run by a small group of elderly people. They run the garden with the support of
These organizations provide us with much needed tools, compost, seeds, materials and (almost most importantly) insurance and legal protection over the property as well as volunteer labor. One asset towards placing our garden into a workable shape (in addition to maintenance and precautions from people dumping) is the sheer amount of physical labor required to start it up. Most of the members of the Block Association are retired, which lets them have the time for involvement. But they cannot go it alone because of the limitations of their age. Over the years, the Block Association has lost most of its members to mortality and one of the only new (and young) members is I. During the clean up on Saturday, we got over a dozen young people in the neighborhood to sign up for planting over the summer — but for some reason, none of them showed up to the meeting.
For a moment prior, I honestly believed that perhaps our garden would be a vehicle for positive gentrification. I saw the nutritional benefits of local food brought into a high-need neighborhood. The influx of mid-income young professionals into our little “ghetto” would not only carry with it more financial leverage, but a much needed energy and momentum that the current state of the matter cannot achieve.
At the after school program I work for, we use “6C’s” as a pneumonic device for developing good habits. Among them: commitment. Why is it so hard to get young people involved with our garden?
- How could one forge incentives for volunteer work? The most powerful incentive that drives labor is financial gain. At Xposure, we ensure attendance with a pay of $2/day. We also use the wages as a disciplinary tool. Though when it comes to a community garden, there ain’t nobody gettin’ paid. It is also not like an apprenticeship or internship because it is hard to fit on a resume.
- How can one bring more young people into a community beautification project? One anecdote of sustainability is that if where people lived was more pleasant to be in, people wouldn’t need to travel far distances as much. Us youths, we’re restless. We want to see the world and experience dynamic happenings that often take place throughout the five boroughs and beyond. Most of us commute into Manhattan 9-5 to fuel our “careers” – Does the very potential energy that youth inspires keep us from caring for our local land? Old people can’t really travel very far, so their immediate community suddenly becomes more valuable to them.
- How does one fund a community garden? Our garden runs on a $60/year membership fee. You may choose to give $5/month — and considering the Block Association is comprised of less than a dozen people, that barely accounts for the cost of insurance. What many gardens do is pander to grants, run fund-raisers and host events. Mr. Joseph and Ms. Hansley chartered a trip to Atlantic City and another to the DR to pay for this year’s insurance bill. Something about those ideas rubbed me the wrong way (I think it was the stink of “rip-off” that might have done it), so I steered clear. My suggestion was to introduce a farmer’s market or CSA, but the Block Association insisted that it was still to early this year. That requires an initial investment that the Block Association cannot provide without some sort of micro-loan.
For a list of other community gardens and urban farm resources throughout the city, click here. It will just take you to another list of links.
I look forward to receiving comments with ideas about how we can inject some more youth into this project. It would really be a huge disappointment if this year’s planting season turned out to be a case of monkey say, monkey don’t do. Commitment is about making a promise (to our Earth) and keeping it too.
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April 21, 2008 at 8:06 pm
[...] there are many many more limitations to self-sufficiency in the city. It takes a great deal more commitment and going against the [...]