Brooklyn Community Gardeners

COMMUNITY GARDENING HISTORY RESOURCES

There are some excellent publications and links mentioned here

There are some wonderful resources listed in the response to this e-mail query. They might be useful to our group, as well. Take a look!

NYC Community Gardens Coalition, Inc.
Messages In This Digest (1 Message)
1. Re: Scholar Inqury From: James Constable
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1. Re: Scholar Inqury
Posted by: "James Constable" jrconstable44@yahoo.co.uk jrconstable44
Fri Feb 2, 2007 9:40 am (PST)
Adam,

your email to me was so helpful thank you so much. I was wondering if you
would mind me asking you a few more questions?

I am writing my dissertation on Community gardens in NYC as contested space
and their function and significance to the local community. When a garden is
sold and bulldozing is imminent what do the community do to try and prevent
the destruction of so much hard work? Do you see the gardens as a victim of
their own success in that they have helped regenerate areas and then the
land the gardens are built on have more value and are sold? What kind of
activities do the community partake in within the garden? Do many of local
communities use the gardens? When the gardens begin to emerge is there a
clear change to the are and community, similarly is there a visible change
when gardens are bulldozed?

Thank you so much once again,

James

On 20/1/07 18:51, "adam36055@aol.com" wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Hello,
> I am a student at Edinburgh University, Scotland and am writting my
> dissertation at the
> moment. I am researching community gardens in NYC and the function that they
> have within
> the community. I was wondering if anyone would mind me asking them questions
> about the
> topic?
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> James
> ********************************************************************
>
> Dear James,
>
> About thirty years ago, there was a visiting scholar from Edinburgh
> University, named Jack ( I never learned his surname) who helped us move
> rubble in a few Lower East Side garden sites, and tutored kids in Math at a
> local church. If I recall, he was studying something like macroeconomics at
> NYU. Who knows, he might be an academic, a billionaire or a multi-national
> arms trader today.
>
>
> However, when we knew him, Jack was a great guy. Consider this, please, as
> payback.
>
>
> Best regards,
> Adam Honigman
> VP DeWitt Clinton Park Conservancy,
> Gardener, Clinton Community Garden & Liz Christy Gardens
>
> For your dissertation:
>
> 1) For starters, please feel free to contact Richard Reynolds of the UK
> Guerrilla gardeners -http://www.guerrillagardening.org/.
> He did a number of interviews with NYC gardeners, and while he might be using
> the stuff for a project of his, I have no problem with you using the
> transcript of the interview I gave him for his archives - please ask him
> nicely, and give him "props" as we say in NYC , in your dissertation.
>
>
> 2) I would strongly suggest that you go to the website of the American
> Community Gardening Association (http://communitygarden.org/
> ) and read it with care. Please make yourself a
> strong pot of tea (or other favorite caffeinated beverage) and take the
> trouble to read every single page, to give you a sense of how community
> gardening in Canada and the United States is similar to, but differs, in
> subtle ways from the European Allotment programmes.
>
> For the serious researcher:
>
> The community garden studies on this link page are required reading:
>
> http://communitygarden.org/links.php#Studies
>
>
>
> 3) Probably the best early book on Boston's Community Gardens in the early
> years is by Boston University's Sam Bass Warner, Jr's. "To Dwell is To
> Garden", Boston, Northwestern University Press, 1987, (ISBN: 1-55553-007-9)
>
> 4) The best written, one volume treatment of community gardening remains,
> Jobb, J. (1979). The Complete Book of Community Gardening. New York:
> William Morrow and Co. Every time I get the bug to write one, I just pick
> Jobb's book and realize that even after 23 years, it's hard to beat for
> historical context and down to earth, practical advice. Because this book is
> so good, it's usually missing from most public libraries (i.e., "Steal this
> Book!" ) I obtained my copy from Amazon.
>
> 5) Another fine cg book
>
> A Handbook of Community Gardening
> By Boston Urban Gardeners - Edited By Susan Naimark
> Charles Scribner's Sons - New York 1982
> SB457.3.H26 635 81-23302
>
> ISBN 0-684-17466-9 AACR2
>
> 6) This is the Amazon link to "Grace from the Garden : Changing the World One
> Garden at a Time" by Debra Landwehr Engle which you must read, as it has
> in-depth pieces on community gardens and the people who make them happen from
> all over the USA. A Rodale Publication, is in print.
>
> (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1579546854/102-9894196-7707321?
> v=glance )
>
> 7) Malve von Hassel's "The Struggle for Eden: Community Gardens in New York"
> by Malve von Hassell, Bergin & Garvey; Greenwood Publishing Group. 2002" which
> was reviewed in a 2004 issue of "HortIdeas."
> Von Hassell's other book, , "Homesteading in NYC, 1978-1993: The Divided
> Heart of Loisaida" Bergin & Garvey 1999 ISBN: 0-89789-651-3 provides a good
> cultural background on the lower east side neighborhood.
>
>
> .You should be able to find both books at a good University library or the
> Greenwood Publications website http://www.greenwood.com , searching under
> author.
>
> 8) Laura Lawson's "City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in
> America," University of California Press, 2005, is an extraordinary overview
> of community gardens in North America, and is available through Amazon:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/City-Bountiful-Century-Community-Gardening/dp/0520243439
> /sr=1-4/qid=1169318712/ref=sr_1_4/102-9754614-9756132?ie=UTF8&s=books
> > 9/sr=1-4/qid=1169318712/ref=sr_1_4/102-9754614-9756132?ie=UTF8&s=books>
>
>
> 9) Some homework for anyone who wants to understand how we can have 550
> community gardens in NYC, on some of the most overvalued real-estate in the
> world.
>
> a) Here is the website of the NYC Dept of City Planning ("NYDCP") which has a
> number of highly valuable links. You may have to download Adobe Acrobat to
> print sections that you want, but that program is usually available free of
> charge ( http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/home.html)
>
>
> b) Here is the Web version of the Zoning Resolution of the City of New York
> which includes all text amendments approved by the City Council up to
> September 25, 2002. Please note that there is an interim period between the
> date when the City Council adopts a text or mapping amendment to the Zoning
> Resolution and the date that this web site is updated. These are the "rules
> of baseball" and it's best to make yourself a pot of tea and read. If it makes
> your eyes glaze over, not to worry, it does that to $500 an hour real estate
> attorneys. Low rent volunteer
> http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/html/subcats/zoning.html
>
> c) This is Article IX: Special Purpose Districts, Chapter 6 "Special Clinton
> District" as amended 12/19/01. What is written ( and isn't written) in Article
> IX, Chapter 6 explains why the creation of third of an acre Clinton Community
> garden was possible in the midst of midtown Manhattan.
> http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dcp/pdf/zone/art09c06.pdf
>
> d) This is the website of the Clinton Community Garden ,
> http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org - the historical section can give you
> some of the reason why this small piece of "citizen managed public green
> space" (a definition that some folks belive that I coined - been saying it so
> long, it might be true ;) ) is the only community garden listed in the NYS
> attorney general's settlement memorandum as permanent parkland.
>
> e) From NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer's web page:
>
> The Community Garden Settlement:
>
> http://www.oag.state.ny.us/environment/community_gardens_agreement.pdf
>
>
> f) The list of gardens covered under the settlement by borough:
>
> http://www.oag.state.ny.us/environment/community_gardens_sum.html
>
> g) You need to also read posting made to this listserve by Lenny Librizzi,
> myself and others on this community garden settlement, the NYS parkland issue,
> etc. In fact, if you go back through 2000 and read forward on this issue, you
> will have an interesting archive on how this land use issue was resolved.
>
>
> h) In formation: you should try to contact the nice folks at Green Thumb (
> Edie Stone and crew)
> GreenThumb, 49 Chambers Street Room 1020, New York, New York 10007, Tel (212)
> 788-8070, Fax (212) 788-8052,City of New York/Parks & Recreation, Edie Stone,
> Director; ; the Council for the Environment ( Lenny Librizzi and Gerard
> Lordahl) http://www.cenyc.org/ ; The Trust for Public Land in NYC ( go to New
> York, then NYC programs - Joanne Morse) http://www.tpl.org/ ; The New York
> Restoration Project ( Joseph Puppello) http://www.nyrp.org/ ; Green Guerillas
> ( Steve Frillman, Ximena Naranjo) http://users.rcn.com/ggsnyc/ ; The
> Neighborhood Open Space Coalition ( Dave Lutz and Toby Brandt)
> http://www.treebranch.com/nosc/ ; Brooklyn Greenbridge Director and emeritus
> ACGA President Ellen Kirby is an important source.
>
> i) The Cornell University Garden Mosaics program has collected a great deal of
> information that could be key to your understanding of what community gardens
> do in NYC:
>
> http://www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/"