Community Gardens as Community Building and Neighborhood Stabilization in Weak Markets

Empty buildings and lots are a revitalization issue in weak real estate markets.  As a preservationist, I prefer not to tear down buildings.  

But when you don't have enough people to populate your empty housing, buildings deteriorate and people advocate for demolition, not recognizing in a weak market that improving an empty lot is even harder than fixing an empty house.  By contrast, in strong markets there is demand for alternative uses.

Philadelphia Land Bank Managing Director Adam Thiel walks past an empty lot with trash piling up from illegal dumping and littering along 29th Street in Strawberry Mansion on Feb. 23. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia Horticultural Society has been a leading light in neighborhood stabilization for 20+ years. 

To address the problem of empty lots, they've created community gardens, ideally getting those lots held in trust, or sold to abutting property owner.

Research has found that community gardens helps stabilize blocks and neighborhoods, including a measurable reduction in crime ("Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear").

-- National Garden Trust does the same thing on a much smaller scale.  They've found that the Philadelphia Land Bank, a government agency, hasn't been effective with support for these kinds of garden-creating initiatives.

Other groups operate in this space too.  I've always thought cities like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore have had stronger sets of active creative revitalization organizations because they have no choice but to be innovative and creative.

-- Philadelphia Horticultural Society Green Resource Centers In close collaboration with community partners, PHS operates five Green Resource Centers (GRCs). The GRCs are local community hubs where PHS propagates and distributes thousands of organic vegetable seedlings for community gardens and production sites enrolled in our programs. The GRCs also serve as spaces for workshops, volunteering and much more.

-- Grounded in Philly A resource ecosystem for urban agriculture in Philadelphia that provides access to data on vacant land throughout Philadelphia and offers resources to individuals interested in starting or preserving community-based vacant land projects.

-- Gardening without ownership

-- Philadelphia Horticultural Society Tree Tenders A program that teaches the basics of tree planting, tree care and how to gather communities around the importance of trees.

-- Nicetown and Tioga Love where you live Greening Plan, public space cleaning, greening and stabilization plan for two Philadelphia neighborhoods 

-- Philadelphia Orchard Project . A nonprofit organization that works with community-based groups and volunteers to plan and plant orchards of useful and edible plants. 

-- Community Organizing Toolkit

-- Soil Generation.  A coalition of brown and black gardeners, famers and community members working to ensure how land is used, address community health concerns, grow food and improve the environment. 

-- American Community Gardening Association.  A national nonprofit working toward increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening. Resource guides provides discounts, a public forum and other publications and tools. 

-- Vacant Land 215.  A comprehensive self-guide for gardeners looking to maintain or create community spaces on resource from out vacant land. 

-- The Public Interest Law Center: Garden Justice Legal Initiative Provides pro bono legal support, policy research and advocacy, and community education and organizing to community gardeners and market farmers.

-- "Can "cleaned and greened" lots take on the role of public greenspace," Journal of Planning Education and Research

-- "More than just an eyesore: local insights and solutions on vacant land and urban health," Journal of Urban Health 

-- "Historically Redlined Neighborhoods Are More Likely to Lack Green Space Today: Study,"

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In Salt Lake there is a community garden on the Sugar House Park campus.  And we are hoping to get a grant to have Utah State University Extension to put in a garden for their senior nutrition food security program, although with developing a fruit tree growing program and a small outbuilding for workshops.

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Wilder Mile project, Southwark, London

"Wilder’s goal is to wild one square mile in Southwark, central London by creating a network of people, projects and companies all committed to improving biodiversity. This could be anything from transforming a concrete space into a wildlife garden to putting up a bird box or building a pallet planter and filling it with butterfly friendly plants. No intervention is too small."