Fwd: Wish I'd seen Clinton Gardens!

**a*@aol.com**

FYI - 

From a gardener visiting a lower east side garden. The complete message is attached,so you can see that you can't make this stuff up....  

"We walked a few blocks to 6th and AVE. B. I was so
excited when I saw the eclectic tower and realized
this was a garden I'd read about in "People with Dirty
Hands!"  BUT, it too was closed. There were a few
people inside (and two wonderful parrots), but when I
called out to them I was first ignored and then told,
from a distance, that "when the gates are closed,
we're closed."  They wouldn't even come close enough
for me to explain that I was an inner-city
community/school gardener from California. I felt like
crying. I banged my head on the gate a few times, then
took photos through the fence.
It left me with a negative feeling about the NYC
gardeners, though still admiring the gardens."

Come on, guys!!!

We don't even let community gardeners into our saved East Side Gardens when they ask nicely to see gardens?????? 

I mean, guys, I hear these apocryphal stories from rat-copulating real estate developers, and poverty pimps who want to develop alleged social service crony-friendly "programs," on our gardens about how you can't get into LES community gardens, and I discount them. 

But this was from the list serv of the American Community Gardening Association. Ten Thousand Community Gardens in the US and Canada belong to this organization. http://www.communitygarden.org

We need to do better, guys. Our gardens exist because we serve our communities and are perceived to be open and welcoming to our communities. We should never say, "when the gates are closed,
we're closed." 

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
Clinton Community Garden

From: Carola Clasen <>
To: community_garden@mallorn.com
Sent: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 13:43:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [cg] Wish I'd seen Clinton Gardens!

I just read Adam's message about the Clinton Community
Garden in NYC. It lifted my spirits.
I just returned to California from a few days in NYC.
The thing I looked forward to the most was visiting
community gardens there, but, because I was there with
three other people (non-gardeners), I had only one
afternoon to fit them in.
It was very disappointing.  Liz Christy was closed due
to construction (not their fault, of course) so we
walked a few blocks to 6th and AVE. B. I was so
excited when I saw the eclectic tower and realized
this was a garden I'd read about in "People with Dirty
Hands!"  BUT, it too was closed. There were a few
people inside (and two wonderful parrots), but when I
called out to them I was first ignored and then told,
from a distance, that "when the gates are closed,
we're closed."  They wouldn't even come close enough
for me to explain that I was an inner-city
community/school gardener from California. I felt like
crying. I banged my head on the gate a few times, then
took photos through the fence.
It left me with a negative feeling about the NYC
gardeners, though still admiring the gardens.
Adam's message took some of the bad taste away... I
just chose the wrong gardens. 
Next time!
Carola Clasen
Long Beach, California

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