This document summarizes a book about the social and political impact of communal gardens in New York City's East Village. It discusses how vacant lots in the East Village in the 1960s were sites of crime and drugs, but community members transformed them into communal gardens. One such garden, Dias y Flores, started in 1978 and provides garden plots for local residents as well as space for performances, composting, and community gathering. The summary concludes that communal gardens can empower communities and give them a political voice to create positive change.

1. CULTIVATING COMMUNITY:
The Social and Political Impact of
Communal Gardens in the East Village
Dom Crockett

2. INTRODUCTION
The aim of this book is to highlight the positive physical, social and
political change that communal gardens and other initiatives like it
can have on an a given environment. These spaces shape and inspire
citizens to take an increased active role in their environment.Through
the study of the East Village communal gardens one can discover that
such organizations yield a merited political presence.
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3. WHY
The history of the East Village is one marked with artists,
immigrants, musicians, heartbreak, dispair and triumph. In the 1960’s
the neighborhood was the birthplace of many artistic and literary
movements. Although there were positive creative initiatives taking
place, problems with drugs and crime were quickly ravishing the
area and the East Village became notorious for such ailements.
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4. WHY
Vacant lots served as prime areas for drug trafficking and crime
throughout the area. These deliquent lots also were eyesores for
the community members they created an unsafe and uninspiring
environment for all residents of the East Village.
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5. WHY
Community members from the East Village took it upon themselves
to transform these problematic areas into something positive and
uplifiting. Almost always the only resource available to make a change
was the collective comradership of the local citizens.
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6. WHERE
Community members from the East Village took it upon them-
selves to transform these problematic areas into something positive
and uplifiting. Almost always the only resource available to make a
change in the community was the collective comradership of the
local citizens.
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7. WHERE
The Dias y Flores garden in the East Village is a prime exam-
ple as to how a community garden can be a excellent vehich-
le to inspire change. In 1978 the 13th Street Block Club Asso-
ciation envisioned a better outlook for a certain abondonded
lot on 13th street between Aveneues A and B. This lot became
Dias y Flores (Days and Flowers) garden is taken from a haunt-
ingly beautiful song about hope and growing by Silvio Rodriguez.
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8. WHO
The garden has various plots that gardners from local and other
communities tend to. The maintainance and care of each indivudual
lot increases the personal investment that each memeber has to the
garden and its surroundings.
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9. WHO
Community members from the East Village took it upon themselves
to transform these problematic areas into something positive and
uplifiting. Almost always the only resource available to make a change
was the collective comradership of the local citizens.
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10. WHO ELSE
Efrat Eizenberg is an urbanist who specializes in using communal
gardens as catalysts in community. Her research spans topics such as
sustainable urban redevelopment, the politics of space, urban identi-
ties and an area most relevant to this cause: the development of
political consciousness.
“The space of the garden is a means for gardeners to construct them-
selves as meaningful participants in society and is therefore a space for
the traditionally marginilaized to engage with the production of an urban
space according to thier memories, cultures and identities.”
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11. WHO ELSE
Yen Trinh, an urban designer, discusses how “Emerging landscapes are
becoming brand new actors on the political stage.” She takes an inno-
vative approach by inspiring such thinking by placing post it notes on
communal gardens around the city.
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12. CONCLUSION
Currently, Dias y Flores serves as a community garden, performance
space, composting site, rainwater harvesting center, cafeteria and
neighborhood hang out spot. The space serves as a platform for
colloboration and communication between neihbors increasing
vigilance and peace for the block.
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13. AFTERWORD
With this project I hope to have increased awareness about the
positive impact that communal gardens have on communities both
on a local and large scale. The strong and unified vision that com-
munity gardens allow make it possible for seemingly underserved
communities to have a prominent voice in the political arena. My
hope for this deliverable is to make citizens aware of the progressive
things that are possible when one utilizes and empowers one’s local
community.
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14. REFERENCES
Dias Y Flores Main Website - www..DiasYFlores.Com
Remembering Forgotten Landscapes: Community Gardens in New York
City and the Reconstruction of Cultural Diversity Efrat Eizenberg
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15. MAY 2011
FIN.
DOM CROCKETT