This is one of the many, no-brainer ideas to come out of Philly that looks great on paper and begins to deteriorate as soon as it leaves the drawing board. It's one thing to seed-bomb vacant lots but acquiring vacant land from the city for some kind of agricultural land trust currently requires and act of god. For the same reason the city doesn't pass off tax delinquent properties to first time home buyers and middle class residents to fix up these rotting neighborhoods, vacant land owned by the city is controlled by an antiquated ward system that makes our corrupt City Council members mayors of their ward, allowed to hoard vacant properties for powerful constituents. What's even more frustrating is these council members often praise plans like this, knowing full well that by the time planners start implementing these projects, a NIMBY will inevitably step forward and bully it right out of existence. It's a great idea but any realistic movement on it is going to require these bearded hipsters to look at the larger picture, or become a part of the broken Philadelphia machine and start shopping for some wealthy eccentrics to bribe City Council for control of the land.Monday, May 3, 2010
"Urban Aggy"?
http://citypaper.net/articles/2010/04/29/urban-gardening-agriculture-in-philadelphia
This is one of the many, no-brainer ideas to come out of Philly that looks great on paper and begins to deteriorate as soon as it leaves the drawing board. It's one thing to seed-bomb vacant lots but acquiring vacant land from the city for some kind of agricultural land trust currently requires and act of god. For the same reason the city doesn't pass off tax delinquent properties to first time home buyers and middle class residents to fix up these rotting neighborhoods, vacant land owned by the city is controlled by an antiquated ward system that makes our corrupt City Council members mayors of their ward, allowed to hoard vacant properties for powerful constituents. What's even more frustrating is these council members often praise plans like this, knowing full well that by the time planners start implementing these projects, a NIMBY will inevitably step forward and bully it right out of existence. It's a great idea but any realistic movement on it is going to require these bearded hipsters to look at the larger picture, or become a part of the broken Philadelphia machine and start shopping for some wealthy eccentrics to bribe City Council for control of the land.
This is one of the many, no-brainer ideas to come out of Philly that looks great on paper and begins to deteriorate as soon as it leaves the drawing board. It's one thing to seed-bomb vacant lots but acquiring vacant land from the city for some kind of agricultural land trust currently requires and act of god. For the same reason the city doesn't pass off tax delinquent properties to first time home buyers and middle class residents to fix up these rotting neighborhoods, vacant land owned by the city is controlled by an antiquated ward system that makes our corrupt City Council members mayors of their ward, allowed to hoard vacant properties for powerful constituents. What's even more frustrating is these council members often praise plans like this, knowing full well that by the time planners start implementing these projects, a NIMBY will inevitably step forward and bully it right out of existence. It's a great idea but any realistic movement on it is going to require these bearded hipsters to look at the larger picture, or become a part of the broken Philadelphia machine and start shopping for some wealthy eccentrics to bribe City Council for control of the land.
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