Collectivism in "community gardens"

[Tyler Durden]

"We have a few here in Santa Cruz. Bums and winos make a token effort to 
stand around and rake. Mostly it's an excuse for community money to be 
handed out to the "farmers." I've also walked past the weed-choked community 
garden in Berkeley, on the site of "People's Park," IIRC. Skanks and bums. 
New slogan for these urban community gardens: "Hoes fo da hoes!"

Life in NYC is radically different and, I trhink, poses some interesting 
questions to purer libertarians.

In NYC there are many community gardens in poorer neighborhoods. These 
community gardens receive no meny from either state or city governments, and 
occur on lots that have been abandoned for (sometimes) decades. In many 
cases the lot has come under the technical ownership of the city, which left 
the lot basically a field of bricks and illegally dumped garbage, which the 
locals transformed into a thing of relative beauty..

Recently, for the purposes of building low-income housing, the city has 
decvided to bulldoze some of these gardens, which the locals have put a lot 
of sweat into over the years.  Needless to say, the locals don't want their 
garden bulldozed and, despite the fact that they are often of very low 
income themselves, don't want additional housing built on the garden's lot. 
However, the cost of buying the land is normaly well beyond the reach of 
even a large group of such locals (though a couple of years ago there was a 
move among some celebs to buy up the land and donate it to the community, 
but I think that only occured in Manhattan.)

So, one could make he argument that "they should have found private property 
to make their garden", but this misses the point that part of the purpose of 
the garden is to greatly increase the visual livability of the neighborhood. 
(Also, these people simply could not afford to buy up such land.) And now, 
after creating a nice space in those lots for so many years the city wants 
to bulldoze them. Should thery be allowed to do so? Should the city be 
forced to sign over such land to the locals for them to "own"? Or should 
active resistance be utilized tostop the bulldozers? (Or is bulldozing the 
right thing to do?)

I really don't know the answer. Anyone care to comment?

-TD



>From: Tim May <timcmay at got.net>
>To: cypherpunks at lne.com
>Subject: Collectivism in "community gardens"
>Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 09:17:18 -0700
>
>On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 07:21  AM, Harmon Seaver wrote:
>>   When we were working with the local gov't community garden
>>committee, and suggested that they quit applying chemical fertilzers and
>>pesticides to the garden areas, noting that the Madison community gardens 
>>had
>>gone organic 30 years ago, one of them stated "Oh, but that's Madison." 
>>Finally
>>got them to stop the chemicals, but they still insist on coming in every 
>>Spring
>>with heavy equipment to plow up all the plots, and, given the wet clay 
>>soil
>>there, can't do that until very late, so people aren't allowed into their 
>>plots
>>until May 25 -- in an area where you want to plant potatoes and peas mid
>>April. Our suggestions that people just be allowed to do it themselves 
>>with
>>tillers or by hand as they do elsewhere came to naught -- "But we've 
>>always done
>>it that way."
>
>This is a minor, but illustrative, example of why the problem is best fixed 
>by property rights, not collectivism.
>
>(Funny, the word "collectivism" rarely pops up here. We ought to use it 
>more, as it better describes a bunch of things we often call socialism.)
>
>On your own property, in your own garden, one doesn't have to argue with 
>committees and government officials and city councils about spraying or 
>when one can start working the soil.
>
>This is the commons problem cropping up again in this common garden.
>
>Me, I have my own garden plot on my own land. And even if I didn't own 
>land, working out a deal with someone who _did_ have land would be 
>preferable to working in a so-called "community garden."
>
>(We have a few here in Santa Cruz. Bums and winos make a token effort to 
>stand around and rake. Mostly it's an excuse for community money to be 
>handed out to the "farmers." I've also walked past the weed-choked 
>community garden in Berkeley, on the site of "People's Park," IIRC. Skanks 
>and bums. New slogan for these urban community gardens: "Hoes fo da hoes!
>
>
>
>--Tim May, Citizen-unit of of the once free United States
>" The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of 
>patriots & tyrants. "--Thomas Jefferson, 1787

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail