Recently, I had an exchange with the Public works department of my dear City. It started with a mild request to have a community garden across the street from my house. My original request was turned down with out any real inquiry as t the possibilities. Since these communications with City officials are a matter of public record, I have decided to post it myself on Facebaook and also on my blog at http://piratesandlullabies.blogspot.com/ it pains me to see how those of us small fish get treated by the system. my point in this post is to highlight the larger impact that a small neighborhood garden can have on the hopes and sense of belonging of the people that live there. If we don't stand up for the neighborhoods we currently live in, how will they ever become places of pride and prosperity.
You read and decide for yourselves...may you be inspired to take care of your own neighborhoods.
Conversation Thread...Dates and smaller none relevant emails are omitted to keep it brief...but the point is still made.
Hello My dear City of Tacoma:
I will like to speak to someone about doing a small community (neighborhood) garden on a City owned piece of land in our neighborhood. I have been doing some research over the last few months and have some pretty good support up and down the street from a majority of the neighbors. Before I take the time to role out the specifics, I will like to connect with you and have an initial get to know you conversation. The site is a green belt wedge located between E. Division Lane and E. Morton at F street. You can map my address and its just across the street you can’t miss it (520 E. Division Lane, Tac. 98404)
My contact information is as follows:
Rohn Amegatcher
Response i received back:
I believe you need to check with Metro Parks 305-1000
Madeline
Streets and Grounds
My Response:
Hello again:
That's funny because they sent me to you. City of Tacoma owns the property.
Can we try again...I really would like to connect with someone about doing a
garden on that small plot. Perhaps I should talk to public works???
Thx,
Rohn Amegatcher
Next Response:
Dear Rohn,
Thank you for your inquiry. I apologize for the run-around you have been given. I am checking into your questions and should be able to get you an answer by the end of this week. I appreciate your enthusiasm for gardening and wanting to make Tacoma more “green!”
In the meantime, if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A
My response:
Thank you for looking into it. We have about 9 neighbors and 12 kids that are up for doing this. I say that’s a good thing for the east side and specifically McKinley Hill.
Thank you again for looking into it.
Rohn
City Response:
Just one quick question, how do you plan to get water to the right-of-way (the small plot)?
Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A
My response:
We will fill water barrels once a week from my domestic hose bib once a week which is just across the street (Division). We will install 10 – 12 barrels (interlinked / daisy chained) together. We will use drip irrigation to irrigate the crops in raised beds. We will buy Tacgro for the planting beds/boxes. One of the things we want to do is install safety barriers along the boarders with a minimum 4’ set back from the streets (Morton and Division). We will like City input on this element.
I actually have a fairly detailed plan I will be happy to share as a straw plan. You folks can put holes in it and we can then refine it before spring gets here
Rohn
City Response:
Actually, I would love to see a plan-the more organized you are the easier it is for me to make an argument for you! You may not need to buy TAGRO, as TAGRO is interested in supporting community gardens-details still being worked out of course. Stay tuned though. Trust me, you don’t need to convince me of this good idea, just need to make sure we can get the City’s legal department happy in the process.
Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A
Further City Response:
Rohn,
I made contact with Mike Teskey, Tacoma Cares and this does not fall under what he does. I also made contact with Elton Gatewood who works with the Neighborhood Counsel. The problem is that the patch on ground in question does in fact belong to the City of Tacoma, is a right of way with a street on both sides. This brings up safety concerns,also who maintains it if the person decides they no longer want to work the garden. There is no water on site. So with all of this in mind I would say that the answer is no, at this time. It's a good idea, but Metro Parks offers garden plots around town that have water and are secure.
Tom Slagle
Grounds Supervisor
Public Works
My response to Tom:
Tom
Thanks for your response. I appreciate your research and follow up. The thing is we will have to find some way to make it work on our end (Division and Morton residents). It does not make sense to go out of the area to try to do it. We live here, we know the area we know the hazards of the area, we would not have proposed the idea unless we could see a safe way forward. We have options and we will get back to you. With all due respect to you and the City, its this way of thinking that keeps the east side and this area an after thought in everyone’s mind. The neighborhood never improves and we only get service when its criminal activity. I mean no disrespect in the least bit, I am simple making a point and giving you a context with which to try to think creatively. There are ways to get water to the site, and there are barriers and set backs that are reasonable that can be brought to bear. We can actually develop good solutions here, it is an opportunity for us to think a little harder. I have seen this done for pocket parks and green belts with this type of profile over my 22 year career as a construction manager and as an urban planner. I can’t just roll over and go to our little group and tell them the answer is no because of safety, ownership restrictions and water access.
This does not have to cost any money to the City. Times are hard for everyone. Houses are being foreclosed in the area; this is a way to lift the spirits of those in this neighborhood. To give people some pride in where we live. To give the kids some hope that this place is worth hanging on to. It is more than just water rights. This is about the people who took the risk in the last 5 years to buy in this community, to set up businesses here, to give something back to them so they don’t feel like, no one cares about the neighborhood. Please try to understand that I am not grinding at you, I just see a larger process at work here in this community. The kids will be losing Gualt middle school. The police 4th precinct and animal control will be relocating soon, the road sides have open gutters which get muddy when it rains, people are trying to feel good about the neighborhood and the street and we can’t just tell them “NO”.
I will pay for it if I have to, I just need to know what the set backs need to be a modest community garden. It would be helpful if someone will at least meet with us and look at our well designed concept and garden schematics and see how we have collectively solved the elements you have introduced. I think you may and the department may learn a thing about good solutions. We can’t help what the urban planners did 100 years ago when these areas were platted, but we live here and own here today, and we have pride of ownership. We cannot be poor forever, and we can’t show our children the bear ground because mom and dad could not afford to buy on the north side of town. We also can’t tell them to take the bus to a better part of town with water and safety. This is what we have here, and we want to make the best of it. Again, I assure you I am not trying to be disrespectful in anyway, but I need to make my point very firmly and perhaps provide you and the department with an alternative view of how we that live here see our reality.
A community garden here is more than a P-Patch. It is a community-building venture for us like the Glass museum was to the water front or Triangle Town homes was to the St. Helen's area. We may not be grand, but we like our area quaint. We will like to add features to it that creates pride and makes people want to send out that extra resume each day to see if they can find a job to make the mortgage because there kids love it here so much, instead of giving up and thinking, this place is a dump anyway. I will offer my home for a meeting, come meet with us after the holidays are over and see what we are trying to do around here. We don’t ask for much, just reasonable guide lines that are not unduly restrictive and we will do the rest.
To respond to one of your points in your email, I don’t know about you, but at the end of every season, I put away all my tools and leave my gardens in such a condition that if I did not come back the next year, it would not be an eye sour. Currently, we maintain that area. The City cuts the grass once a year and we are the once who keep the place maintained, pick up the trash, and keep the fire danger down for the remaining 51 weeks of the year. No one pays us for that. Until we wanted permission to do a garden, you never would have even known we were here.
Last year, we worked very hard to get the University of Idaho to do a concept for the McKinley Business district. We lobbied for this small opportunity because we believed then and still do that little things are the way we can bring up the community and give it a positive profile. The neighborhood is full of backyard wood workers and craftsmen, of people like who are potters and master gardeners, people who take old discarded wood furniture restore them or find second uses for the material. of back yard artisans of all types who silently do there thing and wish the neighborhood would just look better so they can feel that much better about the place. We have stair climbs around here that are crumbling, wonderful links to our past as a street car community which we can’t get anyone from the City to help us power wash and maintain (hand rails, lights, etc.). These are the things we have. It seems when ever we make an effort to lift our selves up, someone we have never met down in the valley of downtown says “NO”. We are the once who live up on the hill, we will like to feel like we have something going over here that’s fairly special. We can’t do that if our vision and ideas are not truly heard. The other possibility is to have a neighborhood where no one cares, creative solutions don’t get employed and the roughnecks around the corners think they own the neighborhood.
I am sure at this point I sound like I am venting, but rest assured there This is not a vent. There is a visionary prospective to this rant and a method to my madness and our neighborhood. I am no elected official, but I talk to everyone around here and I hear them grumble and complain. Please give this a meeting or two with us, and preferable if you delegate this to someone else, please make sure it is someone who has a Long view. I would hate to have a conversation with anyone who shows up with a predetermined response. These people here have dignity and deserve a reasonable review of our
request.
By the way…so we all can laugh and keep it real…I bet you did not expect this response back did you…it gets funnier from here if we don’t make any progress with public works…lol. All with good will, we just love our community. Please understand, otherwise the criminals and dividers have won…think about it.
Be well and happy holidays,
Rohn Amegatcher
Toms Response to me and other City people:
Elton,
What about a neighborhood grant for developing a pocket park, or roadside landscape. We could install drought resistant plants that we get from the WDOT, in which are free. Could one grant be used to install rolled asphalt curbs to keep the soil where its suppose to stay? Sort of like what was done on N26th St. Islands?
Tom
Elton's Response to Tom and myself:
Yes, it is possible that a grant can be used for roadside landscape. The applicant must apply for an Innovative Grant when they are available (Feb.- Mar.) if the Neighborhood Council approve it. Before they apply for a grant, they need to do some homework. First of all, will the City permit them to landscape on this public property; secondly, who will be responsible for maintaining it (adopt a spot), and where is it located?
Elton
My response to Tom & Elton:
Tom:
I will get it to you towards the end of the week. I need to get it scanned down to size. Also, I am spending the next few days working on a project in Woodinville. I will like to take some time to annotate it properly before sending it over…best foot forward so to speak.
Rohn
So the process goes on...I will meet with them and share our plan. I had it scanned earlier today and we will see where it all goes...
Stay Tuned...
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