Collectivism in "community gardens"

Tim May timcmay at got.net
Fri May 9 20:00:46 PDT 2003


On Friday, May 9, 2003, at 05:59  AM, Harmon Seaver wrote:

> On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 11:55:06PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>> On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 01:04:50PM -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:
>>>     Hmm, I've never seen that sort of a problem with community 
>>> gardens
>>> anywhere. The vast majority of the people work pretty hard on their 
>>> plots.
>>
>>> From my window where I'm typing this, I can see (or could see if it
>> were light out) one of Adams Morgans' once-lauded "community gardens."
>> It might have been a big deal in the 1970s, but now it's just a rocky
>> slope with a few scraggly corn stalks growing on it. I've never seen a
>> gardener actually garden there in the seven years I've lived in the
>> neighborhood.
>>
>
>    Sounds like you live in one of those neighborhoods which underwent
> gentrification, or otherwise got yuppiefied, and the new residents are 
> of the
> sort who don't get their hands dirty, eh? Or at least not with real 
> dirt.
>

I said I saw the same thing in Berkeley and Santa Cruz. Both are said 
to be "progressive" communities, but in both places the so-called 
community garden areas are essentially for hoboes and deadbeats to 
scratch at.

Why would a "clean and sober" person (I'll call them this instead of 
"gentrified") want to go dig in the dirt where the dogs have crapped, 
where the addicts have shot up, and where their best tomatoes and 
zuchinis and whatnot get filched by the bums and addicts?

Real people find garden space to plant in.

My general point remains: why "argue" with the city government about 
when you can access your communal, collective property, or what you can 
spray on it, or which vegetables are said to be "conflict vegetables" 
(seeds from some zone the U.N. has declared un-P.C.) (*), when you can 
simply find a 5 x 9 plot of land, or lease it, and not have to ask 
permission?

(I'm joking about "conflict vegetables." But ever since all the various 
PC television shows and movies started nattering about "conflict 
diamonds," I have realized this is just another PC scam. If I buy 
diamonds from Zaire I don't give a hoot in hell that they were  bought 
from "capitalist roaders" or whomever the U.N. has declared to be 
politically incorrect. Seeing a James Bond movie centered around 
"conflict diamonds" made me ill.)

--Tim May





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