Dear Keith Reitman, It was great to see your comments on community gardens. I couldn't agree more with your raising the need to revisit this entire issue citywide to encourage gardening.
Since being elected to the Park Board (6 months ago), I have reopened this issue to look at why community gardens are not a part of parks in those neighborhoods who would like to have them. Gardening is the number one recreational activity of Americans, is an activity that brings communities together, and is a great way to increase activity in parks to ultimately discourage crime. There are numerous beneficial physical and mental health effects of gardening as well. Also, promoting organic gardening practices compared to more recent chemically-intensive gardening likely has benefits we are just beginning to understand. It is my hope that we will have a policy that will make the process for neighborhoods to work with the Park Board to establish community gardens easier. I also believe that the Park Board website should be a gardening, boulevard planting, community gardening, and environmental resource for city residents. The Park Board should be a leader on this issue! I will be proposing new policies related to community gardens in Parks, as well as, website revisions during the next 2 months at the Park Board. Hopefully, some, if not all of this, can occur. There are several other Commissioners who are supportive of some, if not all, of these efforts. Vivian Mason, and Annie Young, in particular, have been long time advocates of community gardening. Marie Hauser has also been encouraging of community gardening in Parks where appropriate. Other Commissioners are also likely supportive of revisiting the issue of gardening and may be supportive as well. Feel free to write me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] to let me know your interests and opinions related to this issue. They are always appreciated! Sincerely, John Erwin Commissioner At-Large Minneapolis Park Board Associate Professor - Greenhouse Crop Extension Specialist Department of Horticultural Science University of Minnesota -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 3:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mpls digest, Vol 1 #894 - 19 msgs Send Mpls mailing list submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/mpls or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Mpls digest..." _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
