Petition Tag - urban agriculture

There exists a boulevard garden on the green space at the intersecting corner of Belmont, Begbie and Grant streets.

One of the many of our neighbours who enjoys and supports our gardening initiative there named this space Kale Corner. Built by some gardening enthusiasts and lovers of very fresh organic food, Kale Corner has become a meeting place for community to gather, talk gardening and interact with one another over a commonality that we all share.

We, (the corner crew who live on the only property bordering this small green space) have made every effort to keep the space clean, safe, aesthetically pleasing, away from sidewalks as not to obstruct any walking paths.

Truly a labour of love, the gardens have been admired by many a neighbour walking their dog or biking with their children. On May 25th, a city worker came by and without any notice began deconstructing the raised bed that we created there.

They took away the driftwood that contained our beds and warned that they would come back to re-seed (with grass) the 3 truckloads of earth that we had brought in. After speaking with him and being told that our food garden was a liability, he directed us to the Parks Operations Manager.

We are asking for the support of city council to halt the dismantling of the garden and permit the use of the green space for this community garden initiative.

As well, we are asking our gardening allies and those with a passion for taking back the commons and growing food in public space to stand up next to us and move forward in normalizing and embracing the use of public space for the production of organic food.

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This petition relates to the keeping of backyard ducks and chickens in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its authors wish to show the city there is broad support for residents’ right to responsibly keep a reasonable number of birds on their property.

Some background on the birds: The ducks are named Potassium, Ferdinand, and Penelope, and the chickens are Henrietta and Francis. The breeds—Cayuga ducks and Wyandotte chickens—were specifically chosen because they are quiet and docile. During the day, they enjoy foraging for food in the yard; any slugs, bugs, or mice that they catch supplements their diet of vegetarian pellets. At night they sleep in a small wooden coop about the size of a refridgerator box. Each bird has a distinctive, lovable personality and is cared for a great deal. They are so healthy they’re still laying eggs in the middle of winter!

In the coming weeks we will be meeting with the city and our neighbors to ensure that we’re not in violation of the Cambridge Zoning Ordinances. Decisions made regarding our case may affect everyone who currently keeps or wants to keep chickens or ducks in Cambridge. We hope this petition will signal to the Cambridge City Council that we, the birds’ owners, are not alone in finding this issue important, and that these birds can be kept without negatively impacting the surrounding neighborhood.

Info about our birds accessible at http://savetheducks.org/
-Are they Smelly and Dirty? (And What About the Rats?)
-Duck and Chicken FAQ
-Photos of Baby Birds

Info about what other towns do accessible at
http://bit.ly/9hTKaH

Help us keep our birds! Sign the petition! Send it around! Come visit if you’re local! (Email us at cambridgebirds@gmail.com to set up a visit)

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Permaculture Education Zone (PEZ) is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to create a sustainability demonstration site, or City Farm, at the Old Adelaide Gaol site in Adelaide’s Park Lands. A City Farm is defined here as a place for educating urban residents about agriculture and promoting sustainable living concepts. The purpose of the City Farm is to engage the entire community, young and old, in hands-on learning about sustainability issues via permaculture education. The City Farm will contain various food gardens with informative signage, as well as displays of sustainability products and services and community art projects.

PEZ is the culmination of a concept which was initially developed during a Permaculture Design Course held in early 2008 at the Food Forest in Gawler. The Old Adelaide Gaol site, which has been identified as the ideal location for a productive food garden and sustainability demonstration site, is managed by the Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH). Contact with DEH led to further development of the initial concept and a meeting with representatives from Planning SA, the Capital City Committee and several members of DEH. Negotiations with DEH continue and PEZ is confident approval to use the proposed land will be given soon.

The City Farm will be a venue for providing hands-on education in food production and sustainability concepts, for schools and the wider community. Students and other visitors to the City Farm will have the opportunity to engage in garden design, creation, maintenance and food harvesting, with their work guided by gardening professionals and volunteers. The City Farm will also host a number of static displays and interactive workshops to demonstrate a wide array of sustainable living concepts. Some of the inspiration behind this project can be attributed to the vision of Adelaide’s first Thinker in Residence, Herbert Girardet, a specialist in making cities sustainable.

The core business of PEZ will be education programs to children and youth. PEZ sees an opportunity to deliver environmental education services to school children throughout metropolitan Adelaide. This will be done primarily through educational programs; comprised of incursions to schools and school excursions to the City Farm. These programs will be styled after an existing education system operating out of Melbourne, at the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES). The CERES organisation has been in existence for over twenty five years and has proven to be very successful. CERES’ education programs currently turn over approximately seven hundred thousand dollars per annum.

The initial funding required to commence education programs and preliminary on-site works is expected to be in the order of $25,000. Income sources will include the delivery of education programs and courses, business sponsorship via promotional displays of ‘green’ products and services, and produce sales from the City Farm. Funding from grants will be used to facilitate the development of PEZ, particularly the installation of major works at the City Farm, such as rainwater/stormwater harvesting, storage and treatment. As the business becomes operational and the City Farm is seen as a sustainability education hub, then opportunities to expand the educational services of PEZ will grow rapidly.

Objectives
• Provide hands-on education in permaculture principles to children & youth
• Establish a City Farm that attracts both locals & tourists
• Demonstrate practical sustainable living concepts
• Empower people to grow their own food at home
• Produce an abundance of food from the garden for selling locally
• Foster creativity & innovation via art & garden design competitions at the City Farm
• Raise awareness and educate people about critical issues such as Peak Oil and Climate Change, as well as the following sustainability-related themes: Water, Energy, Biodiversity, Waste, Public Health, Transport & Planning

Incentives and Benefits
• Adelaide does not currently have a City Farm – unlike Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth – this project will bring Adelaide in line with a growing national interest in sustainability education and urban agriculture
• Stakeholders in this project will be demonstrating their interest in environmental education and community empowerment as well as supporting ‘green’ businesses
• This project is an opportunity for Adelaide to showcase current ‘green’ products and services as well as facilitate the promotion of emerging sustainable living innovations
• PEZ will complement several of the objectives in SA’s Strategic Plan, including improving wellbeing, attaining sustainability and fostering creativity and innovation
• This project will encourage greater public use of Adelaide’s Parklands, helping to maintain the Parklands as a public space free from development and alienation

What is permaculture?
Permaculture is the conscious design of ecologically sound, long term human settlements that provide for all our resource needs (e.g. food, fibre, water and energy), as well as social and economic stability, without exploiting or polluting the environment.

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Save the Baltic Street Community Garden!

Stop the School Construction Authority (SCA) from bulldozing the Baltic Street Community Garden and replacing the century-old school bldg at PS 133 with a new massive building.

Construction for the proposed building at Baltic/Butler & 4th Av (5-story, 115,000 sqft) followed by the demolition of the current schoolhouse (46,000 sqft) will start as early as THIS SUMMER.

What Are the Impacts On Our Community?

Known Facts:
- According to the SCA’s plan, the Baltic Street Community Garden will be demolished. The new building will cover the entire space of the current community garden, school yard, teacher parking, and half of the small children’s play area on Baltic St.

- The Baltic Street Community Garden has been in its current location for 26 years. The garden hosts a variety of trees, food crops, and flowers. See pictures of the garden at http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/2008/07/baltic-street-community-garden-park.html

- Concerned residents, parents and gardeners who object to the new school’s plan packed the Public Hearing session at the 78th Precinct. Since that time, no other public hearings have been held.

- Where the schoolhouse stands now will accommodate play areas for 900 students and a smaller community garden (the size will be less than half of the current one).

- The purpose of the plan is to help ease the overcrowding issue in prime Park Slope, which belongs to District 15. PS 133 is a District 13 school (Prospect Hts, Fort Green, Clinton Hill & Bed-Stuy). District 15 includes Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Wind-Terrace, Sunset Park, & Red Hook.

- There has been no posting by SCA at the Brooklyn Community Board 6 website to facilitate the information to the public.

Areas of Concern:
- How will the Baltic Street Community Garden survive?

- Why is the new school in this location? (District 15 includes Sunset Park, Red Hook, etc.)Why does it have to be so big?

- Lack of communication (The SCA has done no outreach for local home owners and tenants)

- Safety and health issues for the current PS133 students and area residents (air pollution and noise during/after construction & demolition, asbestos, lead, buses & cars idling, lack of play areas for children during construction)

- Lack of an environmental impact study for the affected area. How can the quality of our life be protected?

- Traffic, Parking Conflict, Garbage, Rodents will be tripled. Homeowners are also worried about possible building damage or weakening of their houses’ foundations due to the scale of the operation.

For more information, visit Community Board Six’s website: http://www.brooklyncb6.org (Look for upcoming announcements or calendar listings)

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Permaculture Education Zone (PEZ) is a not-for-profit association that educates people about sustainability concepts. PEZ will operate from a garden and sustainable living demonstration site, as well as from school classrooms and other educational venues.

Vision
Adelaide will be a resilient city, having increased its resource efficiency, reduced its ecological footprint and empowered its citizens throughout all suburban communities by achieving local food security.

Mission
To foster community engagement in local food production and sustainable living through permaculture education

Opportunities and Benefits
• Adelaide does not currently have a city farm – unlike Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth – this project will bring Adelaide in line with a growing national interest in sustainability education and urban agriculture
• This project is an opportunity for Adelaide to showcase current ‘green’ products and services as well as facilitate the promotion of emerging sustainable living innovations
• Stakeholders in this project will be supporting ‘green’ businesses and demonstrating their interest in sustainability
• This project will be a mechanism for bringing together the wider community around a common theme – sustainability
• The community spirit generated by this project will help to increase general happiness and liveability in Adelaide
• This project will encourage greater public use of Adelaide’s Parklands, helping to maintain the Parklands as a public space free from development and alienation

Objectives
• Establish a sustainability demonstration site that attracts both locals & tourists
• Foster creativity & innovation via art & garden design competitions
• Demonstrate energy efficiency & water-wise gardening practices
• Provide hands-on education in permaculture principles
• Empower people to grow their own food at home
• Produce an abundance of food from the garden

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Question: How can you Plant a Million Trees, keep city parks and green spaces beautiful, and grow healthy food in community gardens and backyards?

Answer: Voice your support for the NYC Compost Project's Fall Leaf Collection and Compost Givebacks!

Compost—a natural soil amendment made of decomposed organic material—is one of the foundations that our gardens, parks and all green spaces depend on. It is also an efficient and green way to manage our city’s trash by diverting recyclable organic material from out-of-state landfills.

Up until 2008, the NYC Compost Project included the collection of our city’s fall leaves—roughly 20,000 tons per year, which will increase up to 3x with the Million Trees Initiative —for the production of municipal compost. This compost was given back to NYC residents and the Parks Department to revitalize our gardens and open spaces. However, the NYC Compost Project faced a lack of financial and political support for the Fall Leaf Collection and Giveback Days, and they have been cancelled entirely “until further notice.”

If we really want to be the healthier, greener city we envision, we need to reconsider the importance of composting. Let's show City Council, the Department of Sanitation and the Mayor how important leaf compost is to our soil, our environment and us… the residents of NYC!

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