Jonathan, The reason why this NYU and the Whitmire Study out of St. Louis's Gateway Greening (_http://stlouis.missouri.org/gatewaygreening/WhitmireStudy.htm_ (http://stlouis.missouri.org/gatewaygreening/WhitmireStudy.htm) ) on the Economic Impact of Community Gardens are important to us in the real world is this: When community gardeners are going to highly politicized zoning meetings, when they're trying to justify their existence to folks who want something else built on these lots having tomes of studies which the staffers will read and summarize for the electeds and appointed is really important. Piles of studies, bore the suckers to tears - with great digestable quotes - you really want these. I mean, stories like mine, when the classic blood-sucking landlord walked up to me, bent over gardening in NYC's Clinton Community Garden and handed me a couple of twenties and said, " Keep it up kid, I'm making more money off of the apartments with garden views than I though I ever would," are considered anecdotal in a legislative setting. But dollars for donuts, well kept, accessible, community managed public space is an excellent amenity, ad I'm really happy about any pile of academic studies that I can bore a legislator and her staff with. Keep those cards, letter, footnoted studies coming. It's called baffling them with bull$#@& Regards, Adam Honigman Hell's Kitchen, NYC
It's great to have this study and the researchers should be thanked for putting in a lot of hard work. But, honestly, they are wrong to conclude that "the opening of a garden has a statistically significant positive impact on residential properties" or that "gardens have the greatest impact in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods." The reason is that an "observational" study of this kind cannot show causality...as the authors say themselves (on page 7) while criticizing other authors' studies. Property values are likely to have the strongest percentage growth in the places that have the lowest values to start with. These are also the neighborhoods that were likely to have to most abandoned land where gardens could take root. I'm not saying that starting gardens did not have an impact! I'm just saying this study, while a definite contribution, does not prove it one way or the other. If these authors want to publish their work in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, they will have to tone down their conclusions, be forthcoming about the limitations of their study, and consider other explanations for their findings. Why do I stick my neck out to say these unpleasant things? I'm a community garden manager and volunteer in Portland, Oregon. We just went through a tough period of defending our Portland gardens from budget cuts and privatization. Most community gardens face these fights periodically, if not perennially. I think we lose credibility when we quote whatever seems favorable to our cause and ignore anything that seems negative. Any gardener knows you can't grow plants that way. The same goes for gardens--and gardeners. Now back to the seedlings! Jonathan Brown ______________________________________________________ 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
