Fwd: [tb-cybergardens]: Let's Get Real About the Liz ChristyGarden

**A*@aol.com**

In a message dated 1/12/05 12:31:54 AM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time, 
Adam36055@aol.com writes:

> Subj: [tb-cybergardens]: Let's Get Real About the Liz Christy Garden 
>  Date: 1/12/05 12:31:54 AM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: Adam36055@aol.com
>  Reply-to: cybergardens@treebranch.com
>  To: cybergardens@treebranch.com
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Hmmmm....
> 
> Of all the things Liz Christy did (and with whom I worked as a volunteer 
> back in the days when I had hair, throwing seed bombs and shovelling shit) she 
> NEVER WHINED. 
> 
> Now if the folks at the Liz Christy Garden ( the eponymous garden which, 
> incidentally,  I helped create, working alongside  flesh-and-blood Liz Christy) 
> stopped acting like old time elitist country club residents at the parvenus 
> moving into the neighborhood,  and operated a garden that was actually OPEN 
> AND WELCOMING TO PEOPLE IN THE FREAKING NEIGHBORHOOD FOR MORE THAN A FEW HOURS 
> ON THE WEEKENDS AND WHENEVER ONE OF THE GARDENERS DEIGNS TO LET A PASSERBY 
> IN,  WEEKDAYS DURING THE SEASON, I might view their pique at the "new people," 
> as more than sour grapes.
> 
> 
> Puh-leeze! 
> 
> I'm no fan of developers, but when you get new people, you try to hand 'em a 
> trowel and get them to work. 
> 
> Somehow, above the ideological cordon sanitaire of 14th Street, Hell's 
> Kitchen community gardeners at the Clinton Community Garden manage to deal with 
> gentrification by handing the newbies a key agreement on the set dates and 
> times, garden rules in either English, Spanish or Arabic, a key to the front 
> garden, inviting them to participate, wheelbarrow horseshit from the nearby 
> stables, cook at our 4th of July picnic, Summer Solstice Celebration, get on the 
> wait list for a plot, shovel snow, work with us in the garden, weeding in 
> their hands and knees,  and even pony up to help our 501(c)(3) serve our 5,000 
> plus keyholders, the three public elementary schools in our neigborhood that do 
> nature walks and classes in the garden, work with their kids in our 
> children's garden, and man our information/fundraising table during the 9th avenue 
> Food Festival. 
> 
> And the new people roll up their sleeves and garden - no kidding, and 
> because they have been welcomed into the community instead of having, "Die Yuppie 
> Scum," scrawled on their "beemers" actually work to help in our schools, food 
> security work and pony up to help.  
> 
> And unlike the Liz Christy gardeners who NEVER seem to make it up to the 
> Bronx or other endangered gardens, and give more than lip service to the 
> movement - Hell's Kitchen's Clinton Community  gardeners manage to serve on 
> Manhattan Community Boards, setting up Manhattan Parks Coalitions, serving as 
> horticultural advisors to our block associations and making ourselves useful to 
> others. 
> 
> We believe that justice doesn't mean "just-us," so we  take the subway up to 
> Harlem and the  Bronx with our advocacy, gardening skills, to split 
> perennials, wrap rose and tree roots, moving trees in endangered gardens, to be there 
> to work,  hand over the quiet envelope and do more than freaking whine over 
> a goddamned window. 
> 
> 
> Bottom line, Liz Christy gardeners - It ain't enough to be green, kids!  - 
> 
> Community gardeners have to be perceived to to SERVE the communities in 
> which their  gardens are  sited. 
> 
> And that means more than abbeviated hours and snotty attitudes about the new 
> people - whomever they  are. 
> 
> In Hell's Kitchen's Clinton Community Garden  we run a real  COMMUNITY 
> garden, which we define as, " A garden created by a few gardeners for the use and 
> enjoyment of the whole community." 
> 
> And while folks who make good money don't deserve more than what we offer 
> new Mexican, Bosnian and Arab immigrants, and the physically and mentally 
> challenged folks who live in Project Return and Fountain House, or in the 
> adolescent HIV housing  on our garden's block - they deserve no less. 
> 
> Liz Christy Gardeners, stop  the freaking whining, already.  And maybe try 
> to recruit  new members to get more inclusive open hours for your community. 
> 
> In solidarity and with fraternal love, 
> 
> Adam Honigman
> Volunteer, 
> http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/
Return-Path: <owner-tb-cybergardens@vs50.server4me.com>
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Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 21:30:32 EST
Subject: [tb-cybergardens]: Let's Get Real About the Liz Christy Garden
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Hmmmm....

Of all the things Liz Christy did (and with whom I worked as a volunteer back 
in the days when I had hair, throwing seed bombs and shovelling shit) she 
NEVER WHINED. 

Now if the folks at the Liz Christy Garden ( the eponymous garden which, 
incidentally,  I helped create, working alongside  flesh-and-blood Liz Christy) 
stopped acting like old time elitist country club residents at the parvenus 
moving into the neighborhood,  and operated a garden that was actually OPEN AND 
WELCOMING TO PEOPLE IN THE FREAKING NEIGHBORHOOD FOR MORE THAN A FEW HOURS ON 
THE WEEKENDS AND WHENEVER ONE OF THE GARDENERS DEIGNS TO LET A PASSERBY IN,  
WEEKDAYS DURING THE SEASON, I might view their pique at the "new people," as more 
than sour grapes.

Puh-leeze! 

I'm no fan of developers, but when you get new people, you try to hand 'em a 
trowel and get them to work. 

Somehow, above the ideological cordon sanitaire of 14th Street, Hell's 
Kitchen community gardeners at the Clinton Community Garden manage to deal with 
gentrification by handing the newbies a key agreement on the set dates and times, 
garden rules in either English, Spanish or Arabic, a key to the front garden, 
inviting them to participate, wheelbarrow horseshit from the nearby stables, 
cook at our 4th of July picnic, Summer Solstice Celebration, get on the wait 
list for a plot, shovel snow, work with us in the garden, weeding in their hands 
and knees,  and even pony up to help our 501(c)(3) serve our 5,000 plus 
keyholders, the three public elementary schools in our neigborhood that do nature 
walks and classes in the garden, work with their kids in our children's garden, 
and man our information/fundraising table during the 9th avenue Food 
Festival. 

And the new people roll up their sleeves and garden - no kidding, and because 
they have been welcomed into the community instead of having, "Die Yuppie 
Scum," scrawled on their "beemers" actually work to help in our schools, food 
security work and pony up to help.  

And unlike the Liz Christy gardeners who NEVER seem to make it up to the 
Bronx or other endangered gardens, and give more than lip service to the movement 
- Hell's Kitchen's Clinton Community  gardeners manage to serve on Manhattan 
Community Boards, setting up Manhattan Parks Coalitions, serving as 
horticultural advisors to our block associations and making ourselves useful to others. 

We believe that justice doesn't mean "just-us," so we  take the subway up to 
Harlem and the  Bronx with our advocacy, gardening skills, to split 
perennials, wrap rose and tree roots, moving trees in endangered gardens, to be there to 
work,  hand over the quiet envelope and do more than freaking whine over a 
goddamned window. 

Bottom line, Liz Christy gardeners - It ain't enough to be green, kids!  - 

Community gardeners have to be perceived to to SERVE the communities in which 
their  gardens are  sited. 

And that means more than abbeviated hours and snotty attitudes about the new 
people - whomever they  are. 

In Hell's Kitchen's Clinton Community Garden  we run a real  COMMUNITY 
garden, which we define as, " A garden created by a few gardeners for the use and 
enjoyment of the whole community." 

And while folks who make good money don't deserve more than what we offer new 
Mexican, Bosnian and Arab immigrants, and the physically and mentally 
challenged folks who live in Project Return and Fountain House, or in the adolescent 
HIV housing  on our garden's block - they deserve no less. 

Liz Christy Gardeners, stop  the freaking whining, already.  And maybe try to 
recruit  new members to get more inclusive open hours for your community. 

In solidarity and with fraternal love, 

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/

> Subj: Re: [tb-cybergardens]: Re: [tb-cyberpark]: Liz Christy Garden'sbeauty 
> is there to be shared. 
>  Date: 1/11/05 6:29:38 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: charas@erols.com
>  Reply-to: cybergardens@treebranch.com
>  To: cybergardens@treebranch.com
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> no, it just make aware of the impact of their actions, gentrification needs 
> gentry. 
> and the "new people" should know that a community center was destroyed 
> to make way for their luxury housing, and that Liz Christy garden almost 
> became a thoroughfare, 
> and had to fight to keep their arboretum intact. 
> so they cant drink their decaf latte's while overlooking the gardeners.work. 
> 
> remember when we had the rash of restaurants and bars illegally turning 
> some gardens into their back yard cafes? do you think the gardeners need to 
> overhear the bar/restaurants customers 
> mindless chatter in their gardens, as well as the diesels trucks and honking 
> 
> taxis on houston, or is that asking too much. 
> 
> did you know that when avalon bay was asked where their green space/open 
> space 
> was going to be, they said "on the roofs" of their luxury housing. 
> yes, avalon bay will be a real boom for the new neighborhood, while the old 
> neighborhood is displaced by the high rents and high end retail. 
> i guess you call that progress, or revitalization! 
> 
> -susan howard 

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