On a recent tour of just a few of East and West Baltimore community gardens, Miriam Avins, founder, Baltimore Green Space, revealed the incredible community gardens that are tucked away in our neighborhoods. The Baltimore Community Foundation provides support for Green Space, which works to protect community gardens, pocket parks, and other open spaces created and cared for by city residents. This is an important component of Mayor Sheila Dixon’s Cleaner Greener Baltimore Initiative and Baltimore’s Sustainability Plan.
When a community group has established a garden and is interested in keeping it for the long-term, they request Baltimore Green Space to acquire these community-managed open spaces and provide support to those who care for them. This allows communities to ensure that their urban spaces are “theirs” without taking on the responsibilities of acquisition, ownership, and liability.
Each garden is unique and the delegation of responsibility is determined by the individuals within each group. Through the photos, you can see that no two are alike. And, neither are the communities where they are located.
There are numerous social and environmental benefits to community-managed open space. Many of Baltimore’s community-managed open spaces are on abandoned lots that had previously had a blighting influence. Neighborhoods have found that they can replace litter, drug use, and even violent crime with an urban oasis that provides beauty, community-building, recreation, fresh produce and flowers for the residents and visitors. The gardens can be a crime-reducer, too!
Community-managed open spaces help make cities more sustainable, too. With well-tilled soil absorbing rain it turns water from a pollutant to a resource. Green spaces provide habitat for migratory songbirds and butterflies. The food and trees grown in the city reduces the city’s carbon footprint.
Despite the benefits they provide, Baltimore’s community-managed open spaces, typically on abandoned or City-owned land, are vulnerable to redevelopment. Let’s face it, when someplace starts to look good, there are people who want to “get in on it”. A simple solution used in a number of cities is ownership by a land trust. In addition to secure tenancy, the land trust can provide liability insurance and technical assistance so that the open spaces become more sustainable. Baltimore Green Space has protected its first site, a 20-year-old award-winning garden in the Upper Fell’s Point neighborhood.
Baltimore Green Space was founded by four community gardeners in 2007 to preserve community-managed open spaces throughout BaltimoreCity.
Miriam Avins, original founder, received a fellowship from the Open Society Institute in 2007. During her fellowship period she worked to create partnerships with City agencies and nonprofits, with these results:
To learn more about Baltimore Green Space, and to learn how to apply to Baltimore Green Space to preserve a green space, visit: www.baltimoregreenspace.org or call 443-695-7504.
