How to fund Community Gardens

With the news this month that fees for a plot at Sepulveda Garden Center at Hayvenhurst and Magnolia are jumping from $25 per year to $120, hopefully people will turn now to new solutions. It is no use just complaining. This is what happens when urban life becomes complex with greater demands than ever for city services when at the same time residents want to cut taxes and move to a user-pays system.

I believe community gardens are a wonderful and perfectly valid use of city funds. But the appetite to fund them isn’t there and perhaps it is worth asking why that is. The fruit and vegetable yields don’t justify themselves, many of the older plots are poorly maintained and the honest verdict would be that they are therapy for a small group of older folks plus a small minority of keen gardeners. Nothing wrong with that of course.

I can think of three potential solutions. The first is to find a philanthropist who will help subsidize the cost. It is hard to see that happening since community gardeners are not a well connected lot. The second is to find a local corporate or retail sponsor. I imagine this is where the City hopes this will go, although they won’t be vulgar enough to say so. That is how Encino Farmers Market survives – ONEGeneration sponsors it. For the Garden Center I would suggest a bank. The advertising possibilities along that stretch of roadway would be attractive and helping out the community would be great PR, if stealing customers from other banks is the goal. The third solution, and my preferred one, is for the City to license a small outdoor café, on either the north side (using the existing structure) or the south side (using a mobile café) and use the lease to offset plot rental costs. If the City wants to save these community gardens, they can get the zoning sorted out and draw LADOT and Little League clientele.

If no solution is found, we will surely see many abandon their plots and that would be too bad.

Update: July 2011: well, it wasn’t a bank but Whole Foods Market stepped up and donated $2,606.35 to benefit the community gardens. It’s a start.