There has been an empty lot between the Head Start/Apartments on the left and the beautiful (though boring colored) house on the right since before I moved to the neighborhood in 2007.
I used to walk by and imagine buying the property, building a tiny house and having a huge garden. Then the foursquare house went up for sale and imaged buying it and the empty lot and living in the beautiful house with a large garden. That house sold and then the small house that backs the lot went up for sale. I imaged buying it and the large lot and having a small house with a huge garden.
And all these years after imagining this, guess what has popped up on this lot?
They’ve built small sheds to store things in, and raised beds for growing. The small house that backed onto the lot was sold and ripped down, apartments replaced it. The small house next door was also sold, ripped down and even larger apartments replaced it.
But here is my large lot, filled with a garden. This picture shows the huge hoop house they built, so things can grow through the winter.
It’s been a great addition to the neighborhood.
It makes me kind of sad that all these homes are getting torn down to make way for apartments, but it's really awesome that there's an urban farm there now! Does that mean it belongs to someone or is it more like an urban garden where anyone who wants can have a little lot?
It makes me sad too. And, even though I think we are too car-centric in the US in general, it bugs me they can put so many units and not have parking. That's just asking for parking trouble. (My house doesn't have parking either, but there are two units on the lot, not six to twenty. And two of the four people who live in my unit don't have cars.)
The farm's website says this:
Arbor Lodge Urban Farm is an Enterprise Training Lab that uses internships and apprenticeships to teach the operational and skill-based side of a small urban farm consisting of 58 raised beds dedicated to food production.
At least that garden is something. The infill of apartments with lack of parking says something very interesting about the zoning regs of the area. Perhaps you need to run for city council?
There's been a lot of grumbling about the multi-unit/no parking and a few changes made because of it. I think we're going to eventually end up like Boston and have permit parking. Which I'm totally for, by the way, but I know that most people won't be.
I live in a house that was built because of a tear-down and it has no built-in parking. So I shan't throw stones. But at least my house is 1000 square feet and not 3000.