Re: The Healing Gardens of New York

**Alexandra Isles i*@mindspring.com**

 Here's Jon Crow's intial message on Community Garden Insurance
from Parks

-----Original Message-----
From: jon crow <joncrow@earthlink.net>
To: cybergardens@treebranch.com
Sent: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:12:37 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: [tb-cybergardens]: Insurance/No Insurance

News from the tb-cybergardens mailing  list
-------------------------------------------------

The biggest news to gardeners at the Annual GrowTogether this past
weekend was
that the Parks department will no longer require gardens to carry
insurance.
In
the future, as has been the case since our previous insurance policies
expired,
anyone hurt in the gardens will have to take their cases through
the city
lawsuit process (maybe Edie can explain more).

As you can imagine, the announcement was followed by cheers of
happiness and
relief, as the rising costs of insuring the gardens was getting
unaffordable
for
groups with little outside resources. Not to mention our beloved
NOSC, which
almost went broke trying to fund the effort.

Many wondered why sports players were never asked to anti-up with
their
aggressive use of Parks property, while we passive gardeners were
expected to
empty our banks. One convincing reason was always that, unlike
Parks, city
employees were not constant visitors to our garden sites. So, to
maintain the
autonomy of deciding how we use our spaces, we were being asked to
make the
investment.

Now, it seems that no insurance carrier could be found to make
coverage
affordable to the garden groups (NOSC found the same roadblock when
it tried)
and Parks concluded it would make better sense to treat the gardens
more like
b?oparksb?, and let injuries be settled with lawsuits against the
City. Note
to
garden groups from Benepe: please KEEP YOUR GARDENS SAFE!!!

Big thanks to Parks for figuring this out to our advantage, for
trusting us to
continue stewarding our gardens in a responsible manner, and for
making the
"Parks" Gardens feel a big step closer to being recognized as
legitimate City
Parks properties.

Also, a million thanks go to NOSC for being there for the gardens
over the
years. I was sad that no one from NOSC was at the GrowTogether this
year.  In
my
mind, they will ALWAYS be part of the heart and soul of the
Community Garden
Movement in NYC.

Left out in this process are the Land Trust Gardens, which continue
to look
for
an affordable coverage for the properties they will soon own. NYRP
will
continue
covering their sites, but when TPL passes ownership on to the 3
land trust,
theyb?Tll need to carry that burden themselves.

crow
-------------------------------------------------
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