New York City Community Gardens

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In this paper we seek to analyse how urban gardening has developed through the past decades in the area of New York City, more specifically how demographic aspects have resulted in community building in peripheral districts of the city. It is essential, firstly, to distinguish between different types of community gardens, as not all of them have the same history, background, purpose and participants. Some originated as a so called “safe area”, in lower districts where criminality was one of the main issues, and where the purpose of these gardens was to give members of the neighbourhood the chance to meet, stay together and meet new members. Some gardens had one original purpose, which was to grow fresher food, in times of need, particularly because some of these districts were essentially poor, and this would have been the cheapest way to get cheap, fresh, local grown food. Other urban gardens …show more content…

At that point, a contraposition of a two-sided issue occurred: on one hand, gardeners claiming their right to employ open spaces, as these were defined as public spaces. On the other hand, the central administration claiming the lots, that were meant for housing until when financial resources would have guaranteed the establishment. The main need at need at that point, was to establish housing. Gardeners saw this as a strategy, therefore an enormous amount of gardeners, community gardeners, people from several areas of the city, with different backgrounds, from different ethnical minority groups, arranged several demonstrations as a response.
Since the lots were not private, some of the gardens were claimed by the city administration for housing, while other areas, in neighbourhoods with a big minority population, were legally

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