The city has a robust community gardening program centered around black and indiginous people. this garden was forced upon the community and did not follow the process already in place to get persons gardening space. get these people a p-patch plot and restore the area in Cal Anderson.

dammit, now you nerds have me agreeing with Raindroop. scorched earth now, burn it all!

This just in: it's okay to seize public assets for private use if the symbolism makes the right people feel good.

Expanding on @2 and @4, nobody should have the privilege of simply appropriating public resources for personal use without following all applicable laws and permitting processes, and it’s not racist to enforce those laws and processes for the good and protection of the entire community. Just because you have a feel-good project you believe to be worthy of public resources does not mean anyone else agrees with you.

(Also, the main thing a “CHOP Garden” can ‘celebrate’ is the violent deaths of young Black men, which will always and forever be the most lasting legacy of the CHOP.)

“The City continued to press “one-sided negotiations,” asking the gardeners to move their plants to the outskirts of the park.”

Wasn’t that exactly what the survey respondents wanted?

I'd do another commentary on the purposefully vapid "Hannah" performance art collective, but really...why bother?

I find it disturbing that Parks and Recreation thinks their job is to grow planet-killing grass that isn't even native, and not live in harmony with our environment.

Considering that the Park is named for a Gay Rights Leader, this seems out of step with the community, and part of a pro-colonizer narrative pushed by people who treated many Americans as non-citizens.

@8 The area at issue is intended for an outdoor performance space where people can sit and enjoy concerts, theatre, etc. If you don't believe grass is appropriate in that location, what sort of vegetation do you think is appropriate for that usage?

@8 I've never been gifted a parcel of public land to create a garden and a racist nationalist educational forum. And that doesn't make me feel like I'm being mistreated.

@1 I wanted to believe you were wrong but I saw those posts myself and you are 100% correct. For those who want to view them themselves, they have since been removed, you can find it on social media pretty easily. At this point given Black Star Farmers and BLMs open support for anti-Jewish massacres are city needs to stop subsidizing it. People have the right to be fascists but for the city to help promote these hate groups is beyond unconscionable.

The garden is too memorialize murdered blacks and to celebrate murder Jews. I'm totally serious. His posts were literally applauding the murders in Israel. Crying endlessly over violence and hatred towards blacks while promoting and applauding killing of Jews seems to be a pretty standard part of social justice in this country, specifically Seattle. All you cowards who make excuses for this or call it "criticism of Israel" or "support of Palestinians" are pathetic. At this point it's clear to me there is literally nothing, nothing, that is done under the name of black advocacy or the Palestinian cause that progressives won't happily go along with. Absolute cowards.

I wonder what's in that soil. I'd like to have it tested. Something in me says there might be traces of meth and fentanyl in the soil. Basically, I wouldn't be surprised if the homeless on Cal Anderson have been pissing on the garden.

or
maybe
Work with
Parks and Recs &
come up with a New
spot for Spring at Cal/And.

and then next Fall
and Every Fall
post-Harvest
burn it all
Down:

call it
Burning
Scarecrow

@12 pee is perfectly good fertilizer

Do the posted park rules specifically prohibit gardening? If not, and the garden is being actively cared for, I say leave it alone. Large spaces dedicated to public use should offer some (please note I said "some") flexibility for modest improvement projects initiated by local community groups if it's feasible to do so, and a small, well-tended garden seems reasonable enough.

@18 The rules of Park and Rec prohibit altering the space of their properties which was what was done. The public would like to use that space for other activities. Many of us object to the black nationalist ideology and open celebration of murdering Jews that come along with that park. I know that's very unprogressive.

@16 - It's urethra as it could be anyone taking a piss there. Fentanyl and meth residue get excreted in urine, which is why you'll see addicts, especially meth addicts, drinking other meth addicts urine in order to get high when they can't get to their dealer. I wonder if that can get into any of the plants.

@6: “Wasn’t that exactly what the survey respondents wanted?”

Well, yeah, but how is it the Stranger’s fault that nearly two-thirds of the survey’s respondents gave an answer the Stranger happens not to like? I mean, why is it always so bloody difficult for reality to agree with what the Stranger wants?

‘…the community garden in Cal Anderson represents one of the last relics of the CHOP/CHAZ era, and the gardeners won’t let their garden go without a fight.

‘“There is power in a monument, in a promise, and in a community garden, and even more so a statement made in its removal,” one garden-goer said in an email. “It expresses a rejection. A return to a status quo of a green lawn [rather] than a seen community. The goal of turf restoration pales in the face of the danger of losing community trust in the rejection of a meaningful monument.”’

After the garden is removed, and Cal Anderson Park can once again be used by all, not just a self-appointed select few, Seattle can create more appropriate, more lasting monuments to the most lasting accomplishments of the CHAZ/CHOP: it can erect an actual monument upon each place where a young Black man died violently. (Each inscription should, of course, note he died as a direct result of the lack of police presence in the CHAZ/CHOP.)

Darling ingenue Hannah flexing her blind PC kneejerking.

I happen to be walking by while they were having to gathering the other day. The turnout was not bad maybe around 30 people at 4:00 p.m. when they tried to give me to sign a petition to save the garden I told him I was not in favor of it. Then a big mob of people gathered around me demanding that I defend my position. I explained as tactfully as I could why I believed what I did. It was like a scene from Children of the Corn. It definitely reinforced my dislike for them. Also in talking to them it was clear most did not live in the neighborhood and some didn't even live in the city. Why are decisions about a neighborhood park being made by people who don't even live in the neighborhood?