Urban Garden Usa Community Gardening As A Tool Of City Planning

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Landscape Management, grade: 1,3, , course: City Planning, language: English, abstract: In modern times society in most U.S. cities changed to “bedroom communities” where people stay home, watch television and forget how to live in the cultural, urban or even village sense. At the same time, however, issues such as global warming and sustainability gained attention, which led to the re-emergence of a movement within the city: Community Gardening. The question to be answered is if Community Gardens/Urban Gardens (CG) are planned as a means to other objectives or an end in itself. If it is a means to other ends, the CG is only beneficial until the other aim is achieved. If not, the gardens serve a greater use than only to overcome crisis. This in turn would be an indicator that CG should be more recognized as a city-planning tool instead of decrease in times of peace and wealth. In order to find out what role CG play in today’s urban planning and how it can contribute to improve urban conditions, I first have to illuminate the current problems in today’s cities. After having a general overview on the present urban conditions I than focus on the historical and current development of CG in general and in particular in the United States (U.S.). Later I take a closer look on the general objectives behind the emergence of urban garden movements and the benefits that they contained in the past and present. Looking at recent prime examples of urban gardens in Berlin and San Diego will shed light on the goals behind and particular the benefits CG have on today’s urban environments, communities and its residents. In the end I’ll give some recommendations on how CG should be implemented in the field of city planning to improve the described urban conditions.

Although there are thousands of community gardens all across North America, only a few cities, such as Seattle, include them in their urban planning process. This book reports on the making of Seattles community gardens and the multiple roles they play in the citys life. It touches on such issues as planning and design strategies; stewardship; community, professional, and government participation; and programs built around the gardens, especially those aimed at low-income and minority communities, immigrants, and seniors. It will appeal to a broad audience of professionals, educators, community organizers, citizens, and policy makers interested in improving the quality of life in their own communities.

"The social history of American cities would not be complete without a full account of the rise of community open spaces. Lawson does exactly this by providing a compelling and poetic account of the history and making of urban gardens. Combining solid scholarship with engaging images of the gardens and stories of their makers, this book sheds new light on the value of urban open space. More important, it explains why community gardens need to stand alongside city parks as permanent open spaces. Essential reading for community developers and landscape architects as well as anyone who ventures outside, enthusiasm and shovel in hand, to improve their local environment.—Mark Francis, author of Urban Open Space and Village Homes "The definitive history of the past hundred years of America's experience with community gardens. A labor of love by a garden activist, the book appears at a most appropriate time—today our city dwellers and suburbanites are retreating onto carpets of passive open space tended by homeowner associations and lawn care outfits. Lawson thoughtfully analyzes the weaknesses of community gardens when used as a response to social crises and, by contrast, investigates community gardens as an alternative to today's managed care of open space. Her history clearly presents a way of community living that we can elect if we choose her wisdom."—Sam Bass Warner, Jr, author of To Dwell Is to Garden "An important book about how the urban gardening movement is transforming our landscape and reconnecting us to the land."—Alice Waters, Owner, Chez Panisse

A comprehensive overview of edible landscapes complete with more than 300 full-color photos and illustrations Designing Urban Agriculture is about the intersection of ecology, design, and community. Showcasing projects and designers from around the world who are forging new paths to the sustainable city through urban agriculture landscapes, it creates a dialogue on the ways to invite food back into the city and pave a path to healthier communities and environments. This full-color guide begins with a foundation of ecological principles and the idea that the food shed is part of a city's urban systems network. It outlines a design process based on systems thinking and developed for a lifecycle or regenerative-based approach. It also presents strategies, tools, and guidelines that enable informed decisions on planning, designing, budgeting, constructing, maintaining, marketing, and increasing the sustainability of this re-invented cityscape. Case studies demonstrate the environmental, economic, and social value of these landscapes and reveal paths to a greener and healthier urban environment. This unique and indispensable guide: Details how to plan, design, fund, construct, and leverage the sustainability aspects of the edible landscape typology Covers over a dozen typologies including community gardens, urban farms, edible estates, green roofs and vertical walls, edible school yards, seed to table, food landscapes within parks, plazas, streetscapes and green infrastructure systems and more Explains how to design regenerative edible landscapes that benefit both community and ecology and explores the connections between food, policy, and planning that promote viable food shed systems for more resilient communities Examines the integration of management, maintenance, and operations issues Reveals how to create a business model enterprise that addresses a lifecycle approach

This open access book, building on the legacy of food systems scholar and advocate, Jerome Kaufman, examines the potential and pitfalls of planning for urban agriculture (UA) in the United States, especially in how questions of ethics and equity are addressed. The book is organized into six sections. Written by a team of scholars and practitioners, the book covers a comprehensive array of topics ranging from theory to practice of planning for equitable urban agriculture. Section 1 makes the case for re-imagining agriculture as central to urban landscapes, and unpacks why, how, and when planning should support UA, and more broadly food systems. Section 2, written by early career and seasoned scholars, provides a theoretical foundation for the book. Section 3, written by teams of scholars and community partners, examines how civic agriculture is unfolding across urban landscapes, led largely by community organizations. Section 4, written by planning practitioners and scholars, documents local government planning tied to urban agriculture, focusing especially on how they address questions of equity. Section 5 explores UA as a locus of pedagogy of equity. Section 6 places the UA movement in the US within a global context, and concludes with ideas and challenges for the future. The book concludes with a call for planning as public nurturance an approach that can be illustrated through urban agriculture. Planning as public nurturance is a value-explicit process that centers an ethics of care, especially protecting the interests of publics that are marginalized. It builds the capacity of marginalized groups to authentically co-design and participate in planning/policy processes. Such a planning approach requires that progress toward equitable outcomes is consistently evaluated through accountability measures. And, finally, such an approach requires attention to structural and institutional inequities. Addressing these four elements is more likely to create a condition under which urban agriculture may be used as a lever in the planning and development of more just and equitable cities. .

This extensively revised and updated fourth edition of Planning in the USA continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to the policies, theory and practice of planning. Outlining land use, urban planning, and environmental protection policies, this fully illustrated book explains the nature of the planning process and the way in which policy issues are identified, defined, and approached. This full colour edition incorporates new planning legislation and regulations at the state and federal layers of government, updated discussion on current economic issues, and examples of local ordinances in a variety of planning areas. Key updates include: a new chapter on planning and sustainability; a new discussion on the role of foundations and giving to communities; a discussion regarding the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans; a discussion on deindustrialization and shrinking cities; a discussion on digital billboards; a discussion on recent comprehensive planning efforts; a discussion on land banking; a discussion unfunded mandates; a discussion on community character; a companion website with multiple choice and fill the blank questions, and ‘test yourself’ glossary terms. This book gives a detailed account of urbanization in the United States and reveals the problematic nature and limitations of the planning process, the fallibility of experts, and the difficulties facing policy-makers in their search for solutions. Planning in the USA is an essential book for students, planners and all who are concerned with the nature of contemporary urban and environmental problems.

While most of the existing literature on community gardens and urban agriculture share a tendency towards either an advocacy view or a rather dismissive approach on the grounds of the co-optation of food growing, self-help and voluntarism to the neoliberal agenda, this collection investigates and reflects on the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of these initiatives. It questions to what extent they address social inequality and injustice and interrogates them as forms of political agency that contest, transform and re-signify ‘the urban’. Claims for land access, the right to food, the social benefits of city greening/community conviviality, and insurgent forms of planning, are multiplying within policy, advocacy and academic literature; and are becoming increasingly manifested through the practice of urban gardening. These claims are symptomatic of the way issues of social reproduction intersect with the environment, as well as the fact that urban planning and the production of space remains a crucial point of an ever-evolving debate on equity and justice in the city. Amid a mushrooming over positive literature, this book explores the initiatives of urban gardening critically rather than apologetically. The contributors acknowledge that these initiatives are happening within neoliberal environments, which promote –among other things - urban competition, the dismantling of the welfare state, the erasure of public space and ongoing austerity. These initiatives, thus, can either be manifestation of new forms of solidarity, political agency and citizenship or new tools for enclosure, inequality and exclusion. In designing this book, the progressive stance of these initiatives has therefore been taken as a research question, rather than as an assumption. The result is a collection of chapters that explore potentials and limitations of political gardening as a practice to envision and implement a more sustainable and just city.

A planning roadmap for the 21st-Century American city. Topics include the Urban Dwelling--living space, space expansion, outdoors-in, attached dwellings, clustering, and stacking; the Neighborhood--togetheness, conformation, places, ways, character, neighborhood ties, planned economics, and communities; and the Urban Metropolis. Index. 80 illustrations, 20 in full color.