There are a lot of different articles and blog posts out right now with respect to community gardens.
I saw a comment on one post suggesting the city sell some of its vacant land to various neighborhood groups, and those groups could use it as a garden. Then the parcel would be considered private land. I'm sure Dallas is spending a fortune on mowing city-owned land parcels, so maybe this would help.
I saw a comment on one post suggesting the city sell some of its vacant land to various neighborhood groups, and those groups could use it as a garden. Then the parcel would be considered private land. I'm sure Dallas is spending a fortune on mowing city-owned land parcels, so maybe this would help.
Thoughts?
3 comments:
That's actually a good idea. I had a discussion similar to this with a friend of mine recently, in regards to neighborhood playgrounds. The problem with his situation (which is probably the same here) is that people are comfortable with doing the same thing as usual and don't want to try anything new. It's easy to pay someone to do a job that could be done easier than to take the time to figure out a better way to do it. Well, complacency is only a problem for SOME people...
That would be a great way to generate needed revenue and release the public from it's obligation.
The Community Gardens of Oak Cliff now has seven Member Gardens. Go to http://communitygardensoc.wordpress.com and click on map of gardens. All on private land.
Once the city finally figures out how to handle gardens on public land, we'll have covered every vacant, private piece of land in Oak Cliff! Sell it and start a program for local neighborhood groups, organizations to use it as zone only for park, garden use. I mean, the zoning has to be right or else you might get something crazy on it.
The basic idea of letting a vacant lot benefit citizens is a good one. I wonder if the city has legal requirements regarding selling property for fair market value, which might be cost prohibitive for many neighborhood groups. I suspect something could be worked out regarding a nominal- cost, long-term lease of the property to a non-profit entity. Legal hoops would have to be jumped through, but the results of fostering community, cleaning up a lot and providing food would be worth it in many areas.
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