“The farmers are concerned about having enough affordable food for the community”

Latest in a series of posts on City Government

Video: City Council meeting May 19
begin min. 28:50

Apropos of her discussion about providing healthy local food at the Rose Garden Farmers’ Market, at the end of her public comment presentation at City Council last Tuesday Mary Toulouse made a pitch for a planning process to develop community gardens:

• Food pantries are looking for food.
• Farmers are experiencing the destructive effects of climate change.
• “The farmers are concerned about having enough affordable food for the community.”
• Some council members spoke about having community gardens at the last meeting.
• Community gardens in city parks can help with the food situation.
• There’s a community park in Battery Park, New York City.
• There’s a community park in the Paris Tuileries garden in front of the Louvre.
• A successful community garden needs planning, long-term planning, the kind that might be done by an Action Group or the Environmental Advisory Council.
• But short-term perhaps the City could designate some sites.

Gadfly knew it was a crazy idea, but he wished the community garden at 3rd and New before the Zest building had not only been allowed to remain but was enhanced. Think of the message — the different message — that a community garden at the gateway to the Southside would say about the values in our town.

Gadfly remembers sitting in on a Southside 2020 meeting last year at which the large number of small community gardens on the southside was discussed. Can anybody fill in information on this? Are residents already highly engaged in this kind of activity?

What do you think of community gardens in city parks?