THE URBAN GARDENER

Part 1: ZOOM TOWNS AND HEALING GARDENS

The last few months have been terrifying, but also cathartic. The pandemic has shaken most of us from a false sense of security about our individual health, the efficacy of our cities to provide a high quality of life, and forced us to question many of our daily habits-- how we live, work, travel, exercise, how we source the food we eat; our connection to nature. The primary lesson we once again must learn is that cities are not divorced from nature. They are part of their biome (A large community of plants and animals that occupies a distinct region).   

 As planners and designers, we are trained to think holistically. While these fields of study promote cities as beneficial, no city is perfect—not even close, and the vulnerabilities and interconnections of the global supply chain has impacted all of us in unforeseen ways.  In this multi-part series, I will delve into the benefits of reconnecting to basic processes that support our daily needs such as the growing of plants for food, increasing equity in our local communities and  local food security. I will look at models from the past that promoted urban gardens and gardeners and show what worked and what did not.  I will discuss the opportunities and challenges of being an urban gardener, what is needed to set up a garden of your own, and what laws and standards stand in the way of making cities better promote urban gardens. 

 I hope you enjoy the series.

WHERE ARE MY KEYS

In the last year, if you work in the service economy, commuting to work has largely become a thing of the past. The amount of time wasted commuting to and from traditional workplaces has been well documented. One notable study concluded that before the pandemic, Americans wasted 54 hours a year on average commuting to and from work. Commuting by single occupancy car and the accumulated negative effects of pollution and stress caused are significant. Smart city technology  is something that can help us all make better choices about when we travel and how. The ability to come to the office for collaboration and culture and stay home for focused work is an idea that saves time, is better for the environment and is a smarter use of limited resources. It appears the hybrid workplace  is an idea whose time has come. What hasn’t yet taken hold is the connection between these changes in behaviors and how cities could respond. 

Commuting is just one example where there are opportunities for planners to use changes in behavior as a point of departure to propose new ways for how cities function. What are the health impacts of our cities suddenly overdesigned for cars? How can our our city infrastructure (roads, utilities) perform better not only as conduits to move people and goods, but as contributors to natural systems? Urban phenomena such as smog, poor water quality, and ‘heat island effect’ can be mitigated by greening our streets, electrifying our vehicles, and planting our parking lots. Our ability to grow plants as a means of providing fresher, cooler air will be important in city design both in terms of wellness, and to attract the best and brightest talent. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Richard Florida discussed the phenomenon of 'zoom cities' , which attract remote workers by creating an image of a higher quality of life. He states, “For cities, remote work changes the focus from luring companies with special deals to luring talent with services and amenities. Communities can invest precious tax dollars more wisely and cost-effectively on things like better schools and public services, parks and green spaces, safer streets, bike lanes and walkable neighborhoods.”

Because people have been spending so much time over the last year at home, it has shined a light on how inadequate many local neighborhoods are to support daily needs such as food production. Current thinking in city planning, popularized by cities as diverse as Portland OR, Paris FR, and Melbourne AUS, have focused their energies in promoting the '20 minute neighborhood'. What this thinking implies is a city of local behaviors. To improve convenience and local connection within a 20-minute walk, bike or scooter ride from home will require structural shifts in city design that will take some time to overcome; challenges include the centralization of the workplace within Central Business Districts, the advent of big box retail as a competitive tool to increase tax base and in buying habits via online platforms (which some argue hurt local businesses). Planners need to think like entrepreneurs to manage the public realm in a fashion that promotes and supports the people who are willing to take a risk by committing to a neighborhood in buying a house, starting a business, and raising a family. 

Promoting urban gardens can help.

LOCALS ONLY

For example, few would argue that our traditional street standards are over designed, resulting in significant cost to operate and maintain. An area of focus of late has been how cities are rethinking overly wide streets and left-over spaces within the City grid. One idea gaining popularity is easement gardens  that can be easily integrated into the existing city fabric. A recent study found there are roughly 100 square miles of surface parking (4x the size of Manhattan) in LA County alone, underutilized due a change in behaviors around the car. Leaders in the urban garden movement such as Ron Finley in South Central L. A. has successfully lobbied city leaders and changed the street codes to allow for urban gardens to be cultivated and maintained by adjacent landowners.

PLANTING A SEED

The benefits of urban gardening are many, including increasing biodiversity and improving soil condition. Producing food locally decreases our carbon footprint to almost nothing in the growing, packaging, and shipping of food. The health benefits of gardening are significant.

Do we have enough cultural buy-in to change zoning, land use, and parking standards to promote a community of urban gardeners? Do our laws allow for this flexible use of land, and what about use of water resources? Cities like Detroit offer a model of what is possible. Within their City, more than 1400 urban gardens currently exist. Planners are focusing on key planning priorities such as alleviating food insecurity and promoting equity in land use. In a ULI study, communities all over the country noted ‘Agri hoods’ as being the a most desirable amenity to have a home nearby, far preferred to more traditional amenities offered such as golf courses or community parks. 

HEALTH BENEFITS

Of the many noticeable changes to the urban environment over the last year, the increasing popularity of gardening is one of the most profound. It is human to want to connect to the changing of seasons, planting, cultivating, and harvesting. All around my neighborhood, I see people changing their habits around food, relying less on grocery stores for fresh veggies and herbs, and instead turning to their own garden plots to provide (at least) a portion of their weekly food needs. Research supports the benefits of home gardening as beneficial to relieving stress, increasing physical activity and improving emotional wellbeing. A recent study from Princeton University find that out of 15 daily leisure activities, gardening is one of the most beneficial activities for mental and emotional health. “Gardening combines so many things that are positive for mental health—being outdoors around plants and nature, physical exercise,” Diana Martin, Director of Communications and Marketing at the Rodale Institute, a non-profit organization focused on promoting the benefits of organic farming. “Something about growing food, connecting with the earth, and sharing the bounty with your neighbors and community can help you feel rooted, connected, and grateful.”

MEASURING WELLNESS

The field of urban design has focused intensively for a long while on the role of access to nature on human psychology and health. Intensive study has occurred in the design of prisons, hospitals, and senior housing showing the benefits of visual connection to plants and natural landscape and have been proven to improve socialization, accelerate healing, and improve cognitive ability. In one study, two groups of patients where isolated with the same surgery, the group with visual access to nature healed up to a day faster than those without. They also used fewer strong painkillers, gave fewer negative evaluations of the hospital staff, and had fewer postoperative complications. 

Some cities have already incorporated urban gardens, citing similar scientific studies that support the value of proximity to nature in wellness objectives. Cities such as Singapore’s wellness gardens are an example. I predict in the future; cities will be measured by objectives and key results that document personal wellbeing in the quest for attracting top talent. Integrating more nature into the built environment will be essential to these ends.

We see that there are a confluence of factors moving average citizens toward a closer connection with natural systems. First, the pandemic has forced us all to stay at home and take stock of our surroundings and see opportunities for gaining new skills (such as gardening) to better control our environment. Second, a shift away from globalism has forced us to question the sourcing of the food that we eat, its impact on the environment and our health. Third, we recognize that the infrastructure of our cities has been designed and maintained for a different era and is ripe to be reconceived in a manner that promotes biodiversity, social equity, and community connection. Fourth, we recognize the health benefits of growing things to our physical wellbeing and the local environment. Fifth, we recognize that urban gardens are a value proposition in the war for talent that will differentiate progressive cities from their competitors. But why stop there?

In my next blog on the Urban Gardener, I will investigate the history of Garden Cities, what they attempted to do, for whom, and where they are still a ‘thing’ in planning today.

I hope you enjoy my blog… if so, please leave a comment!