Missing the point on the real problem, two examples

Last Sunday, the Post Magazine had a big feature story on gated gardens made from alleys in Baltimore, "A new life for Baltimore alleys."

The real issue is lack of connectedness, underpopulation, and a preponderance of people up to mischief.

Is the solution strengthening connectedness, adding population, and increasing what Jane Jacobs called "natural surveillance," or gating off the alley?

The garden thing is secondary.

But this happens a lot. The idea to close off, rather than connect, as a response to problems. But environmentalists are no less susceptible to constrained thinking as anyone else.

Note that I feel strongly about this, because of my belief that alleys/interior blocks are great opportunities to add housing in various parts of DC. This would increase the variety of housing types, allow for natural forms of affordable housing, would provide more places to live, generating more population and more residents paying property, sales, and income taxes, and supporting local retail, and by adding housing to the interior of blocks where admittedly, with limited positive activity, there can be problems, improving security within neighborhoods, without gating places off.

For similar reasons, I am not always in favor of plans to capture vacant lots for community gardens ("Neighbors nurturing a garden, a community‎" from the Columbia State) or public art projects (the past blog entry "Art for arts sake").

For the most part, it's better that the vacant lots get reused as housing. Or that vacant houses become occupied. That should be the overarching focus.

But I guess this kind of urban agriculture initiative using vacant lots may be reasonable, especially when you have so much vacant property, "Urban farmer in Indianapolis hopes he's the first of many" from the Indianapolis Business Journal. He grows vegetables on 10 vacant lots and sells them to local restaurants.

Although, again, I will say that it's better to focus on reoccupying neighborhoods, and to do that you need neighborhood-specific plans, strategies, and funding sources.

Note that the idea of eliminating problems -- in this case the people -- especially with alleys, goes back a long time.

From Borchert's Alley Dwellings in Washington.