Fwd: [tb-cybergardens]: Insurance/No Insurance

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 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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