For the records today one other co-op resident who has been a long-time gardener was pushed out of the garden. Another co-op gardener who single-handedly maintains the beautiful flower garden outside the fenced-in area has also lost his plot inside the garden with no explanation. At the moment I am the last person from the co-op who has a plot inside the garden, and I too was threatened on Friday with being pushed out as well.
I was also told yesterday that “they” have been having meetings (which “we” from the co-op have not been informed of). After the original garden coordinator left the area, we tried to develop and formalize a process of self-governing in 2008 to include everybody in the garden community. In 2008 we also established that the garden was a community resource and its community included the co-op and other neighbouring buildings.
For the past couple of years however every attempt to collectivize the process has been disregarded and undermined by a few guys who seem to think that the garden just belongs to residents of 220 Oak Street and they themselves should be in charge. We now have no elected coordinator(s) and are not clear what the processes of governing and decision-making are. It seems very much like decisions are being made by one person with the support of his friends.
I won’t get into the details of various encounters we’ve had (some with obvious gender dimensions), but the result has been alienation of long-time co-op gardeners (who participated in reclaiming the land and setting up the garden originally). Other co-op residents who are interested in participating in the garden are being ignored. And I am seriously considering whether I should continue this year as it seems like it’s going to be very stressful again.
There really needs to be some kind of intervention to help restore the collective process and re-establish the garden as a community garden rather than the property of one group/person or another. It cannot be a collectively run community garden if people outside one group are not allowed to participate or are deliberately pushed out.
Another year at the garden, a different king, the same politics.
There will be a meeting with the contractor on Thursday facilitated by a TCHC community development worker. The meeting will be focused on renovations we got the grant for last year. We’ve reported the weekend events to the TCHC person. She’s promised to “have some clear answers” on Thursday. I’m feeling uneasy about this situation. It seems like a failure to have to resort to top-down interventions rather than work out the problems withing the community.