{"id":30003,"date":"2010-10-28T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/?p=30003"},"modified":"2021-01-20T14:07:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T22:07:02","slug":"growing-communities-with-community-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/growing-communities-with-community-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Communities with Community Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s not magic. At street level it may look like magic, but community gardens are not the work of some cosmic Aquarian happening<\/a> or even merely the work of avid gardeners. They are a carefully orchestrated balance between government, property owners, community advocates and, of course the citizenry you see toiling the soil. And therein, lies the beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take for example, the highly visible Davie Village Community Garden on the northwest corner of Davie and Burrard. A few short years ago when condo developments were sprouting on every corner of the city, Prima Properties (its property developers), wanted to cash in and redevelop the existing Shell gas station and mini mall into a new high rise condo tower, they were met with opposition from the West-End Residents\u2019 Association and other area interest groups<\/a> fearing that the character of the Village would be threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This property, 1157 Burrard, falls in the cross hairs of many conflicting priorities. For example, nearby St. Paul\u2019s Hospital has an influence on the property and how it\u2019s developed, but doesn\u2019t own it. So when Prima properties applied for a permit to develop the site as a mixed-use high-rise development, the city declined it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burrard and Davie – Then<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Burrard and Davie – Then<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Burrard and Davie – Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Community Garden Forensics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seymour Community Garden<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before there was Prima properties (community garden), there was Omni Group (community garden). Sounds ominous, doesn\u2019t it? Omni Group owns property at Pacific and Seymour and rather than it lying fallow for the years it took for development to commence, Omni Group offered the land up for a temporary community garden. Thus was born, Seymour Community Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Seymour Community Garden is no more and it is remembered with some bitterness by its former gardeners who were given a scant two weeks to vacate the property before the backhoes arrived. According to Jon Lau, a member of Davie Village Community Garden Committee, \u201cRumours undermined the truth\u201d and in fact, gardeners where told that they\u2019d need to vacate any time between January and April, but as it happened, January was the month and this took many gardeners by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon sees the Seymour Garden, with which he was also involved, as a learning process on the path to the Davie Village Garden. \u201cIf not for Seymour Garden, Davie Village Garden couldn\u2019t have taken place\u201d, he explains even while admitting that \u201ceach garden has its own personality\u201d. Jon is philosophical about the impermanent nature of these gardens, \u201cI don\u2019t look at it from the standpoint of longevity\u2026I ask what can we do with the time we\u2019ve got?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community Integration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jon reflects that the single most common question from those visiting the Davie Village Community Gardens during the Olympics was, \u201cHow did you guys do this?\u201d How its done is through community integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Legislators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In midsummer 2003, Vancouver City Council approved a motion supporting the development of a \u201cjust and sustainable\u201d food system for the City of Vancouver. The intention was to develop a system in which food production, processing, distribution and consumption would be integrated to enhance the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of a particular place. City Council formed the Food Policy Task Force<\/a> and in 2007, unanimously adopted the Vancouver Food Charter<\/a>, an ambitious vision based on five principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n