Partners in pride: urban dwellers and abandoned lots.

"Oh, this one was a big mess!," laughs Gloria Calway, inner city resident and doyenne of Mikey's Garden, a new mecca for crime-weary urbanites seeking healing and connection with the positive side of human nature. She surveys the formerly vacant lot where brightly painted vegetable beds have replaced the weeds and trash and where children tend the garden - safely off the streets and under the watchful eyes of adults.

The two-year-old Community Gardens Project of the Parkway Partners Program in New Orleans, Louisiana, counts Mikey's Garden as one of 25 success stories to date in its effort to counter the growing tide of abandoned inner-city lots. It has become clear that these lots represent not simply blight, but, according to Flo Schornstein, superintendent of the sponsoring New Orleans Parkway and Park Commission, "a collective sense of hopelessness and despair."

"We have been astonished by the way the transformation of a vacant lot into a Parkway Partners Community Garden changes the whole atmosphere of a neighborhood," Schornstein adds, noting, "This is a powerful tool for cities that want to do something simple, yet tangible, to rebuild a sense of renewal."

Neighborhood-based Renewal

The beauty and power of a community garden flows not only from the flowers and vegetables but from the meaning that each neighborhood creates for its own, home-grown project. Mikey's Garden illustrates the point. Last July, Calway's neighborhood was devastated by the murder of four-year-old Mikey Stewart, a smiling youngster who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He had just returned from the candy store and was sitting on his grandmother's steps with his friends when he was killed by a stray bullet. Electronic images of the neighborhood and grieving family were shown locally and across the country, branding the spot forever as a symbol of tragedy and decay.

That might have been the end of it. But hope prevailed on this block. Struggling to change things and seeking a safe place for the children, Calway teamed up with her neighbors and called the Parkway Partners Community Gardens Project. By February, with bands playing and citizens filling the streets, New Orleans dedicated the former vacant lot next to the site of Mikey's murder as a Parkway Partners Community Garden. This time, the media showed the community's positive, forward-looking reaction to tragedy.

By transforming a vacant lot into a place of beauty, art, and activity for children, the neighbors who had been so shattered by violence have regained a feeling of power, direction, and common purpose.

When the garden was being organized, help began to pour in from all corners. The Agri-Science and Masonry Departments from Booker T Washington High School committed to plant the garden and build a brick sidewalk. New Orleans Youth Action Corps built raised beds and decorated the railroad ties and unrecyclable tires with playful, brightly painted designs. Environmental artist and sculptor Brian Borrello bronzed Mikey's tennis shoes as part of a monument in the garden. At the dedication, the artist created another powerful piece in which guns from the Police Department, Goods for Guns Project were thrown into an open space in the monument base and silenced forever, entombed in concrete. In all, about 30 organizations and individuals were acknowledged for contributing to the creation of this garden.

Mikey's Garden now has become woven into the efforts of the entire city to heal and is visited regularly by those who are trying to come to terms with the innocent victims of violence. Many of these visitors have never entered this neighborhood before.

How Blight Becomes

Opportunity

Open space and abandoned space. In the inner city, they don't always have to be one and the same. "Now I look at a vacant lot and say, boy, I could grow me some beans over there!... I used to say, man, somebody should do something about that," says a member of a group in the process of starting a garden. Delayed by a property owner initially hesitant about granting permission to use the site, development of this garden continues to move along through assistance from Parkway Partners. Hesitant owners are among a number of factors to be overcome in the process of transforming open space into a verdant miracle. Organizers also must research lot ownership; arrange to get water, fencing, and soil; and marshal strangers into a working group. How do neighborhood dreamers turn those visions into reality? They do it by working together and taking advantage of the expertise and resources of the Parkway Partners Community Gardens Project. In fact, the very first thing the Community Gardens Project staff tells interested citizens is a phrase borrowed from the 20 year-old Philadelphia Green program: "Talk to your neighbors first, then talk to us."

Neighborhood Residents Are

Empowered

Every community garden must be based - from beginning to end - in the desires, dreams, and elbow grease of the neighborhood residents. It simply won't be sustained if the project and the lot are suggested "from above," even when it is proposed as a tool for beautification, crime reduction, or any other social benefit. Neighborhood gardens that continue to work are initiated and run by the same individuals who will put in sweat equity in return for a good place to garden and gather. And as measures of progress and renewal, these gardens have become symbols of hope and sources of pride and achievement. Richard McCarthy, founder of the Greenville Garden in New Orleans' Black Pearl neighborhood, says, We are redesigning the neighborhood to meet the needs of those who live here." The Greenville Garden development plans have included - from the beginning - painting a mural over the graffiti on the store across the street, reclaiming a decaying house next door, and reducing crime.

In every one of the 25 gardens started through Parkway Partners, the founding gardeners describe the same reaction by their neighbors to the idea of transforming a trashy, rat-infested lot into a place of beauty. The naysayers claim, "They'll never let you do it, it can't happen." And after the garden is put in place, "They'll never let you keep it." "They" refers to the forces of neighborhood decay - the drug dealers who hang out there, the "shade mechanics" who dump car parts there, and the property owners and officials who seem to have forgotten about the livability of the neighborhood. But a community garden springs from a spirit of grassroots empowerment and only serves to reinforce existing disillusionment if it fails.

Once a vacant lot transformation project has a solid base of committed individuals behind it, it is time to develop the site. Without a helping hand, this is the point at which many well-intentioned efforts are derailed. Red tape, lack of funds, and inexperience can be insurmountable obstacles for small groups in the inner city. But effective, detailed planning, good public relations, and lots of community and neighborhood support overcome most barriers.

Dealing with Funding Issues

The Parkway Partners Program is a non-profit joint venture with The City of New Orleans Parkway and Park Commission and the citizens of New Orleans. Nationally known for accomplishing miracles through public-private partnerships (such as the renovation of historic Jackson Square), "Parkway Partners is expert at utilizing comparatively small amounts of cash, combined with citizen action, to solve problems which can not be handled through the ever-shrinking City budget," comments Paula Berault, director of Parkway Partners Program, Inc. "We solve problems from the bottom up," she says.

Reviewing the growing problem of vacant lots under her watch, Parkway Commission Superintendent Schornstein applied a problem-solving approach. "I've seen citizen power create such beauty in public spaces. I thought we could turn these lots into another opportunity for success."

Without a dime from the city budget, Schornstein began to model the Community Gardens Project on principles fine-tuned by the venerable Philadelphia Green. Funding was secured through foundations, private donations, and a community development block grant through the city. "Maintaining vacant lots is a never-ending waste of slim resources," Schornstein explains, noting, "Look at what the community can gain from the relatively inexpensive initial cost of a community garden."

Healing America's Cities, a recent report from The Trust for Public Land, states: "As examples from across the nation make clear, community green space and recreation programs can make a difference. In Philadelphia, after police helped neighborhood volunteers clean up vacant lots and plant gardens, burglaries and thefts in the precinct dropped by 90 percent." The very simple but profound difference that a garden makes in a neighborhood is based on an old-fashioned idea: neighborliness. People get to know each other again and - very important - are out on the streets again. Fear, busy schedules, and even air conditioning keep people isolated and inside, leaving the streets to criminals.

When gardens bring people out together again, strength in numbers chases away unsavory characters who prefer to be unnoticed. "My neighbor wouldn't let her seven-year-old ride her bike in our neighborhood," says Jeanne Tidy, organizer of the Faubourg St. John Community Garden. "After we started working in the garden, the adults in the area now all know her child; and she feels as safe as can be," she explains. One of Tidy's fellow gardeners adds, "The most amazing thing is that the drug dealers have all gone away."

The Faubourg St. John Garden established two goals from the start: safety and beauty. Their four-foot high white picket fence symbolizes both. There has been no vandalism, and the old-fashioned look of the fence enhances the historic character of the area. Houses are being sold in this and almost every garden neighborhood as a direct result of the gardens.

It should be noted that Parkway Partners does not own the lots where community gardens are created. "The lots are either abandoned by their owners or used with the owner's permission. Other cities report that gardens do lose their "lease" when owners want the land back. We feel that if a neglected lot becomes desirable again from the revitalization that results from a community garden, the project has done its job. There will probably be another lot nearby for the gardeners," explains Schornstein.

Revitalization applies to more than land. New ways to make money abound in gardens which are located in low to moderate income areas. From children selling their extra lettuce to neighborhood restaurants to whole gardens designed to raise cash crops, excitement and hope have begun to develop among community gardeners in New Orleans.

For example, the Bywater Herb Farm is selling its own herb oils and vinegars, potpourri, and seasoning mixes. The Mid-City Green Garden raises seedlings from organic and heirloom variety seeds, and sells them on the weekends during planting season. And the St. Thomas Residents Council in a public housing development is piloting a garden designed strictly for produce sales to a French Quarter restaurant.

Springing directly from his experience with the Greenville Community Garden, Richard McCarthy has launched plans for a major green market in downtown New Orleans. Aimed at attracting consumers who have enjoyed the festive atmosphere of markets in other cities, the ECO-nomics project also will provide a ready-made market for community gardeners. This shows how in an economy in which jobs are scarce, community gardens actually can create sources of income that are new. "I'm healthier than I've ever been, I've met the best friends I've ever had," says Lee Orr, "and now I'm going to make money too."

Community gardens become an unmatchable opportunity for adults and children to get to know and like each other. Gardens also provide a much-needed safe place for children to gather. For example, the Naughahyde jungle Community Garden in the Bywater neighborhood harbors two or three boys every afternoon after school. They are not allowed to go home before their parents arrive, so the gardeners have invited them to come and lock themselves inside for safety. These boys could not be prouder of "their" garden and have learned enough to grow several types of vegetables. Some young gardeners may say they will plant their beds with ice-cream and French fry ants. But visit those same kids three seasons later, and they'll be knowledgeable about - and even eat - okra, lettuce, and peas.

Senior citizens become trusted guides to the youngsters, and youngsters become willing helpers to the older generation. Self-esteem in both camps increases, nutrition improves for everyone, and a neighborhood grows strong again.

The American Community Gardening Association - 325 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 - is a valuable resource for information and networking.

Elsewhere, Parkway Partners Community Gardens Project is happy to be a resource to any communities interested in developing a program of vacant lot gardens. They can be reached at the Parkway Commission by calling [phone] or by writing: 2829 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70122.