From Groundwork Portland:
A remarkable group of individuals have come together over two meetings at Reflections Coffee and Talking Drum Bookstore to plan an inter-generational exchange between community elders and King School students. Students in the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program on Tuesdays and Thursdays over the next 5 weeks will learn from community members about their experiences growing food, living in N/NE, neighborhood changes overtime, and what it means to have a community garden in King Neighborhood today.
Students will be taking the stories and lessons they learn and creating art that will then go at the Emerson Garden site.
Would you like to participate or help?
Contact Cassie at cassie@groundworkportland.org or 503.662.2590
Not all projects, groups are as they seem and community does not always mean your community. As a dedicated working group member/volunteer, I left after two years of confusing, poorly managed, less than thought thru project planning. Time and time again our efforts were fruitless, changed or done over, monies were over spent, attempts to address issues went unresolved, it was frustrating as hell, people left. Still today there is the question “who’s community does this garden/park support?” People from outside the King/northeast have more say in what goes on with this project than the community members. During the beginning of outreach efforts, we were discouraged to call on or partner with the “too white” community and businesses. News Flash…this is a very diverse/mixed neighborhood. The call for “people of color” was a constant even tho we the volunteers being black and white, just wanted to be addressed as “neighbors.” By the way, supporters and partnering looks very “white” to me….so much for all the rhetoric. Even the property history on Groundwork Portland web site is in inaccurate or missleading at best. Had people in charge taken the time to knock on residents doors they may have found out that there were people living in a house on this property in the 1980’s not abandoned in the 50’s nor was there any evidence that this plot was a dumping site for a garage or transmission repair shop.
Sadly there is still grumbling amongst the volunteers and participants of this project. The question remains…is this a community garden or the vision/agenda of a select few?