Monday, October 29, 2007

meeting notes: 10/25/07

Meeting Notes (10/25/07)

Potential Product(s)

1. a community gardens pamphlet

2. a survey (or two), first focusing on the visibility of community gardens, then on more details

3. Meeting to Discuss our findings with stakeholders; to explore what community gardening has been and what planners and policy makers want it to be?


Questions:

Survey: What information are we gathering? Access (transportation, walking distance, joining)? What questions matter?

Pamphlet: Our work – locations, who’s involved

Original Premise:

Are there differences between “Grassroots” community gardens and those that are city-supported?

-gardening as the process -gardens as space - gardeners as actors

Questions:

Are community gardens basically invisible?

Why are community gardens invisible?

Why does visibility matter? (implication for policy, land use, public opinion)

Hypotheses:

1. Community gardens want to be invisible (“private world,” squatters – under the radar)

2. Community gardens don’t want to be invisible, but there is a set of constraints or problems that make them invisible (outreach challenge).

3. Community gardens aren’t really invisible, we just haven’t discovered how they’re seen through this process or approach.

Assumptions:

1. Community gardening is part of sustainability and green cities.

2. Community gardening happens because people are motivated about sustainability. (or for necessity: food, to work in the ground)

Gardens We’ve Considered:

Kendall

Backyard Garden (Melanie’s Landlord)

People’s Garden Project

Ithaca Community Garden

Ithaca Children’s Garden

Cornell Garden Plots (Freese Road)

Dilmun Hill


Next steps: survey people about their knowledge of the gardens: are they aware?

Map gardens using concentric rings (1 block, 3 blocks, 5 blocks…) and plot areas of awareness.


Survey Format:


Page one of survey:

Who we are

Why we’re doing the research

Signature Block

Where is your closest community park?

Where is your closest community green space?

Where is your closest community garden?

** use Liechert scale to rate these questions (1-3 blocks, 4-6, 6-9, 10+, don’t know)

--- Want to see: How the public differentiates (if at all) between these three items, how that plays into visibility, and whether the public considers community gardens to be green space.


Page two of survey:

What is the street intersection closest to your home?

Scaled questions/further information

***these questions must be answerable for those who are unaware of community gardens nearby.

Could develop a second survey to administer to those who seem aware of nearby community gardens to obtain more information about their impressions of the gardens.

For each garden point: collect at least 20 initial surveys

Could try to get garden member’s addresses from community garden leaders.

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