Re: Community Garden

[San Pablo Corridor Coalition]

Dear Amy and Roger, 

Thank you very much for your well thought out message. I agree with you on all point. I am forwarding the message with the rest of the group. Antal, may I asked you to please add Amy to the group? Thank you!

• We, as a community must take care of what is being built here in order to make it successful.

• Yes, we have to come up with a fee; either by money or by work. This way we will make this Community garden, playground and community center a sustainable endeavor. This has not been agreed upon yet. But we can talk about it next time. 

• If you have anyone who can help us, please send them our way or invite them to come to one of our saturday meetings. 

• Yes. For security access will be limited to those who know the code to the locks and eventually the punch codes. 

• At the moment all we know is that no kid will be allowed without a supervising adult. Both to protect the kids and those of us who will be there without kids. However we don't have these rules yet in place. This is a discussion that is evolving and that will need all of our voices. 

• Any materials you have that we can recycled are welcome. We have no budget and the new fence and fence repairs already costs Christopher and I close to $2000. 

• Enclosed plese find the most recent drawings for the garden

• The code of the locks is 4040.

I will call you and set up a day and time for us to meet and speak campaign this week. 

Thanks!

Alex Miller-Cole

Toll-Free Voice, Fax: (888) 792-1203

San Pablo Corridor Coalition Chair, (SPc2)

SPc2 Beautification and Sustainability Committee, Chair

St. Andrew’s Plaza, Steward

West Oakland Neighbors, Co-Chair

i-Work, Inc., Chief Financial Officer

West Oakland Green Initiative Treasurer

West Oakland Commerce Association Member

West Oakland Specific Plan Steering Committee member

Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, (NCPC) Beat-7X, Co-Chair

Lake Merritt Weekend Training Academy Volunteer Youth Coordinator

East Bay Rental Housing Association Member

15 year District 3 Resident
Cypress One Properties, Owner

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 2:23 PM, amy dryden <aldr...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Alex-
I see lots of activity today over there. Unfortunately, we have 1 sick kid and 2 parents that are feeling under the weather, so we are staying away.

But this is very exciting to see the neighbors coming together to work and socialize. 

After last Saturday Roger and I were discussing this and had a few things to check in with you on.

1.  What is the method of communication for workdays?  I am not sure we are on whatever list we need to be on.  Please let us know, as we are very excited about this action and what to be involved.

2. What is the process for presenting plans to the neighbors to make sure all concerns are addressed?  When I used to do community planning with groups- towns, community organizations, watershed groups, etc.  we used to complete a few maps during the process.  This process had several goals- one to make sure people knew they were being heard, to have transparency for folks that could not come to every meeting to participate, and a desing that was best suited to address the needs of the community and not have our biases as designers/planner in it.  
a. A map of concerns or issues.  these concerns would be visually illustrated so folks could see their issue was being acknowledged and when it is mapped you see how it impacts the site. 
b. A conceptual map of ideas where the concept is mapped out in bubbles or areas and not drawn in at a plan/design scale.  This allows the conceptual plan to demonstrate the idea or goal of the design prior to putting in benches, play areas etc.
c. Have several alternative of plans that address the concerns/issues and the goals of the garden.  There are many ways to design something to meet the parameters.
d. Finally, get buy in from neighbors.
I have very limited time but could come up with something if we have a list and people can add to it- for maps a and b.  OR I can try top access a graduate student in environmental planning at UC berkeley to assist in mapping, etc.

3. How are we going to establish the rules for use of the garden?  We started looking at rules nad process of developing a community garden.  I think the rules for access and use are very important.  While I understand we are harnessing energy and organizing from other area, this community garden needs to be accessed and maintained by this community to be successful.  I think the rule making is necessary and will take some thinking.

4.  One piece of rule making is fee for access.  I think there should be some kind of fee - be it actual dollars or labor for neighborhood folks who want to use it.  It is well documented in several studies that things that are free are not valued, I want to build a community responsibility for the garden so we are all vested to assist in maintaining it, so we have it to use and that a select few are not maintaining for a larger number.  This will also be a very interesting discussion.

5. Lastly, I think we have some miscellaneous things that can be used for raised beds, etc.  In particular we have testing cylinders of concrete that could make a good border for a raised bed if it fits.

I admire your energy and your call to action.  I want to ensure a structure so it endures for the benefit of the neighborhood. 

If you want to come over some evening this week after 8:30pm to talk about your campaign and the community garden that would be great, we are around.

thanks, Alex.

Amy

_____________
Amy Dryden
931 28th Street Oakland, CA 94608
510.435.8443

[class...@gmail.com]

What time are the meetings officially on sat?  I have a test to take this sat I can lend a hand either on mornings or afternoons depending on my schedule... So for this sat I won't be able to make it in the morning unfortunately but am glad everyone is using this group email...

Thanks for everything!  This garden is going to be rad!

A

Sent from my iPhone 

Le 2012-04-23 à 18:59, San Pablo Corridor Coalition <al...@spc2.org> a écrit :

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<CommunityGarden04.23.12.pdf>