Here's Jon Crow's intial message on Community Garden Insurance from Parks -----Original Message----- From: jon crow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:12:37 -0500 (GMT-05:00) Subject: [tb-cybergardens]: Insurance/No Insurance
News from the tb-cybergardens mailing list ------------------------------------------------- The biggest news to gardeners at the Annual GrowTogether this past weekend was that the Parks department will no longer require gardens to carry insurance. In the future, as has been the case since our previous insurance policies expired, anyone hurt in the gardens will have to take their cases through the city lawsuit process (maybe Edie can explain more). As you can imagine, the announcement was followed by cheers of happiness and relief, as the rising costs of insuring the gardens was getting unaffordable for groups with little outside resources. Not to mention our beloved NOSC, which almost went broke trying to fund the effort. Many wondered why sports players were never asked to anti-up with their aggressive use of Parks property, while we passive gardeners were expected to empty our banks. One convincing reason was always that, unlike Parks, city employees were not constant visitors to our garden sites. So, to maintain the autonomy of deciding how we use our spaces, we were being asked to make the investment. Now, it seems that no insurance carrier could be found to make coverage affordable to the garden groups (NOSC found the same roadblock when it tried) and Parks concluded it would make better sense to treat the gardens more like b?oparksb? , and let injuries be settled with lawsuits against the City. Note to garden groups from Benepe: please KEEP YOUR GARDENS SAFE!!! Big thanks to Parks for figuring this out to our advantage, for trusting us to continue stewarding our gardens in a responsible manner, and for making the "Parks" Gardens feel a big step closer to being recognized as legitimate City Parks properties. Also, a million thanks go to NOSC for being there for the gardens over the years. I was sad that no one from NOSC was at the GrowTogether this year. In my mind, they will ALWAYS be part of the heart and soul of the Community Garden Movement in NYC. Left out in this process are the Land Trust Gardens, which continue to look for an affordable coverage for the properties they will soon own. NYRP will continue covering their sites, but when TPL passes ownership on to the 3 land trust, theyb?Tll need to carry that burden themselves. crow ------------------------------------------------- To add or remove yourself from this list, please send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the BODY of the message. To receive a reference guide to this mailing list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word HELP in the BODY of the message. ______________________________________________________ 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
