Community Gardens Take Root in Syracuse

30 August 2008

Mary Marquis and Mable Wilson run the West Newell Community Garden on the city’s Southside. Boasting tomatoes, collard greens, corn, cabbage and cantaloupe among other fresh produce, the West Newell Community Garden is a pretty patch of green on an otherwise rundown street lined with several vacant homes with boarded up windows. Wilson, who started the project 11 years ago, lived across the street from the vacant lot where the garden now stands. “I saw this empty lot and I imagined what I could do with that space,” she said.  “Dixie Sweep, a street cleaning company who owned the lot, said we could have it.”

Together with other members of the neighborhood, Wilson and later Marquis, worked to transform the weedy, overgrown eyesore into a flourishing garden. “Now we’ve got people (in the community) who call this “my” garden,” said Marquis. “We really love it because they are taking ownership.”

Wilson, who is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and mother of two, works with other women in recovery from the Syracuse YWCA.  The YWCA runs a transitional residence program for homeless women with families, and several residents work in the West Newell Community Garden once a week.

“Some of them are very, very dedicated,” said Marquis, 60.  “The most important thing about this garden is that it is a community power base, so people can learn individually: ‘I am somebody. I have skills and I can learn self-respect by seeing the results of, literally, the fruits of my labor.’”

Both Marquis and Wilson believe that the city should be doing more to help them.  “I’d like them to prioritize us,” said Marquis. “We are as important as the parks, if not more so. Community gardens are legitimate and deserving of money, time, energy, publicity and a specific liaison person at the Department of Parks and Recreation.”

Andrew Maxwell is a neighborhood planner at the City of Syracuse Department of Community Development. He admits that the city is sometimes slow to recognize new trends like urban agriculture. “I think the city would support the idea of urban agriculture and “eco-villages”, but it’s always a kind of a culture change to get past the way we’ve always been doing things. It takes some convincing to introduce something new, especially with municipalities.”

One hindrance to citywide revitalization is current zoning laws. “Our zoning code is really old,” said Maxwell.  “For example, if I wanted to take an area that was residential, that was zoned that way, and I wanted to take a few parcels that were vacant to develop them into an urban garden, it might not be zoned that way.”

However, Maxwell, together with other officials, is working on a new land use plan. “The classic example for most cities now is mixed-use zoning,” he said. “It allows flexibility.”

There are anywhere from 12-20 community gardens in the city of Syracuse.  Evan Weissman, a doctoral student in the geography department of Syracuse University, explained why it’s difficult to nail down an exact figure. “We can’t clearly identify how many gardens there are,” he said. “One garden might be cultivated one year and not the next. A land plot might just be cleared and prepared but not planted.”

One thing that local gardeners, city officials and academics are sure about is the need for a community gardening network in Syracuse. This network would serve as a forum where gardeners and citizens could get the information and support they need to run successful gardens in the city. The Alchemical Nursery Project, a recently formed non-profit organization is spearheading the effort in Syracuse.

Alchemical Nursery Project is headed by Elizabeth Slate, 27, a young and energetic community activist who smiles easily and sometimes squeals in delight when discussing her organization’s goals and mission. “It all started with a passion that came out of having a child and realizing that I needed to find an environment that I approved of to raise my child,” she said.  “I couldn’t find something to match my specifications. What I really was looking for was an eco-city.”

The key word for Slate is sustainability: creating social and economic systems that are energy-efficient and have little or no impact on the environment.

“We realized that in order to live sustainably people need three things: food, clothing, and shelter,” said Slate. “As long as you’re fulfilling those three needs you’re free to educate yourself, read, explore culture, art.

Food security is of utmost importance, especially in an urban center. When you look at fuel prices, not to be a doomsayer, we’re going to need to be growing all of our food locally. So, community gardening is the prime vehicle for addressing that issue. We realized that there were these isolated gardens in the city and they’re struggling.”

Matt Potteiger, a professor of landscape architecture at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), agrees. “Usually (community gardens) are started by someone close to the vacant lot,” he explained.  “They don’t have resources. They get burned out. They don’t get a lot support from the city to cover just the basics, like water. It’s beyond what these people can do on their own, so there needs to be some sort of network that can advocate for and coordinate resources, whether it’s knowledge, plants, soil, water or leverage power with the city.”

Community gardens and urban agriculture are one way that cities with declining populations and deteriorating infrastructure can rebuild and reinvent themselves. “If you think the problem of deindustrialization is a problem in Syracuse, go to Detroit,” said Potteiger.  “One statistic someone quoted to me was that there were 103,000 vacant lots in Detroit. About 12 years ago they started a program for urban agriculture and community gardens. They train people; they distribute plants. They have support and funding. (Community gardens) actually work to feed people in those communities.”

Along with providing employment and fresh food at a reasonable cost, gardens are a way for citizens to make an investment in their neighborhood. “It is a community-building activity,” said Maxwell, a city neighborhood planner. “We’re not just talking about money, but anytime you make an investment of your time and of yourself that’s only going to make a community stronger.”

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed