Good grief. The city aims to collect more than $16,000/year from this activity? You didn't say where you are but surely they do not collect this amount from any of their other recreational land uses - tennis, golf, swimming, basketball, walking, dog walking, etc. This is really outrageous. This is a good reason that all gardens should have active coordinating committees, even if garden programs are municipallly run. Have a garden meeting pronto. It will take determination to fight this, so get formal and ask gardeners to take on 'assignments' such as: - signing a gardeners' petition - finding allies who are savvy about municipal policy, parks & planning, and media relations, etc. - getting signatures on a petition (more on this below) - media relations - writing a letter to city leaders making a clear case for the value of the garden and protesting a fee hike, asking to meet with city leaders "They reportedly researched the average fee for community gardens (35 to 45 cents per square foot?) to get closer to 'market rate.'" The 'market rate' for community gardens is $0. The best and most typical arrangement would be that the garden does not pay the city at all, that the gardeners pay 'dues', have their own bank account, and manage their own expenses. Most important is that the arrangement should not be radically different from other recreational land use. A good strategy for fighting this is to get petitions signed. Pronto! Get all of the gardeners involved. Each gardener should not only sign a protest petition, but should take responsibility for getting signatures of others, based on a formal strategy that you all develop together, so you aren't all tripping over each other seeking the same signatures. You can design the petition to include a case statement at the top, so people can quickly see how important the garden is. Include the key basics that compel people to understand how important the garden is to not only the gardeners but the rest of the community (how old it is, the total sq footage under cultivation, # plots, total # of people who are fed out of the garden and range of ages, estimated # pounds of food produced annually, other benefits beyond food (cross cultural friendships, .... ). Who's signatures to get? Make a chart of all of the stakeholders who are not only involved with or related to the garden, the gardeners, the neighborhood, the city decisionmakers etc. All the gardeners sign a separate petition, then you go for neighbors, churches, nonprofit leaders, some members of the media, environmental groups, food & hunger organizations, social services organizations, any one who has ever volunteered for or made donations ($ or inkind) to the garden, etc. etc. Aim to get at least 3-4 times the signatures as their are garden plots, so you can prove that support is very broad. Ask ACGA to help. Good luck! Judy Tiger, Washington DC
______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
