Clevelanders turn a profit on urban gardens
Urban gardens — whereby vacant, sometimes derelict lots are reappropriated to grow produce — are springing up all over the country. But in Cleveland, some urban gardeners are finding a way to make a profit:
By various counts, more than 200 community gardens — neighborhood grow-your-own collaborations — have sprung up on empty lots. Scores of community-gardening enthusiasts are graduating to tending “market gardens” — for-profit enterprises trying to make a go of it as side businesses. About a dozen entrepreneurs have made it a full-time job — a career.
[...A] loose coalition of enthusiasts ranging from dirt farmers to top elected officials and civic leaders see raising and marketing of fresh, local produce on idle lots as a realistic vehicle for green job creation, entrepreneurship and revitalization.
“What’s going on is agriculture — but it’s really economic development,” said Natalie Ronayne, executive director of the Cleveland Botanical Garden.
via Cleveland’s for-profit urban gardens are growing – cleveland.com.
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I saw this story in the newspaper this morning. The city has embraced urban agriculture as an alternative to the disintegration of the region.
Lord knows, there’s plenty of vacant land for use here. The New Agrarian Center, an organization that promotes sustainability and urban agriculture, has come up with great techniques that don’t involve breaking ground.
We’ll see, though, whether this kind of growth will help reinvigorate the city.
Hey, Afi!
I have my doubts about how much it could reinvigorate a city in any macro sense. And, taking a cue from Jane Jacobs, I do believe a city works best when it behaves most like a city, so I wonder how sustainable models like these will be over time. Ideally, all this vacant land should be turned to viable use for business — providing goods and services for the communities surrounding them, drawing investment from outside, retaining economic expenditures within the community, etc.
But I’m really fascinated by this movement because I think, if done in moderation in concert with other redevelopment efforts, it could be really exciting and healthy. And it could prove a great bridge back to real, sustained economic recovery for blighted city areas. It’s certainly better — at least in the short term — than letting such land lie fallow.
I’d love to have one of these gardens myself!
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