Poor People Deserve A Nice Place to Live. Just like rich folks

One of the great things about the Whitmire Community Gardening and Greening Study being done under the aegis of Gateway Greening in St. Louis,  ( WhitmireStudy.html ) is that these self-help efforts stabilize poor neighborhoods.

And in my experience, organized groups of tenants/renters who work together as a neighborhood end up being involved in the community. Developers don't have an empty slate to chalk in their dreams of gentrification.

Vital working class neighborhoods don't get gentrified - those in risk definately do. More greening, more cleaning up, and more people who respect the places where they live, work and play.

Everbest,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
Clinton Community Garden

Subj: Re: [cg] RE: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #1911 - 2 msgs
Date: 8/25/04 2:09:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: j*@knoxparks.org
To: community_garden@mallorn.com
Sent from the Internet



Thanks for the feedback.  That is certainly a legitimate concern.  However, here in Hartford we have among the lowest home ownership rates of any city in the country, and our municipal government and schools are dependent upon property tax for survival.  If we don't increase home ownership rates and build up the tax base, everybody will suffer more than they do now.  The strategy at this point is to focus on existing neighborhoods with relatively high home ownership rates, aiming at bringing them up.  Part of that strategy is improving the appearance of those neighborhoods.  We have a long way to go before we need to worry about running out of rental housing for people with limited incomes.

Looked at the other way, though, it would seem like a pretty lame strategy to keep neighborhoods ugly and residents ignorant of good stewardship practices so that the rich folks won't take over.  Everybody ought to live in the nicest surroundings possible and feel as close to their environment as can be.  That's what our efforts aim at in general.

JH

Jack N. Hale
Executive Director
Knox Parks Foundation
75 Laurel Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860/951-7694 x11
f860/951-7244



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