Community garden to be rescued from Bypass destruction!
Local community environmental group Anti-Bypass Action (ABA) have
announced a two-day event at the Kensington Gardens on August
27th-28th, to rescue a community garden planted four years ago in
protest to the Wellington Inner City Bypass. Friends and residents of
the area are being asked to gather and help remove the plants and take
them to a new site (to be announced).
Kensington Gardens was created by members of Growing Community and
local Te Aro residents on November 17th 2001. Two years later it was
nominated for the prestigious Civic Award, losing due to a new clause
announced by Mayor Prendergast, requiring projects to be 'permanent'.
Three gardens were planted along the Bypass route to bring life back
to the area, and act as blockades to the road extension. The first,
Tonks Garden, was already partly established by residents of Tonks
Avenue and was filled with flourishing native trees and strawberry
patches. The third on Buller Street was fairly sparse due to several
attempts and a mass police standoff resulting in only a short-lived
win for the gardeners due to the sneaky removal of most plants three
days later by Transit.
Construction of the Bypass began late last year with both Tonks and
Buller Streets' gardens being destroyed. Kensington Street is the last
area along the route to be destroyed and residents refuse to lose
another garden to the road mad constructors. Transit NZ and Fulton
Hogan spokespeople have said that the garden area will be turned into
a temporary carpark for construction vehicles during work in that area
- despite a huge and barely used site already existing on the opposite
side of the road. They claim the area will be returned to a
'landscaped garden' afterwards.
Actions to save the garden will begin on Saturday morning with plants
being dug up and bagged by with people camping overnight to protect
them. Workshops on topics such as rongoa and eadible plants beginning from
11am. Free
entertainment and food is hoped to be provided. On Sunday at 1pm, a
wheelbarrow procession will take the plants to their new site (to be
announced).
"We've seen enough mindless destruction in this neighbourhood. We're
not bowing out, we're rescuing the plants so they will have a safe and
permanent home where they can be enjoyed into the future," says ABA
member Noma Rhodes. "They may have gotten away with this road but
under that road is whenua and in that soil are seeds. The forests will
return."
ABA welcomes any other actions people want to organise, as long as
they are not offensive or endanger the community. Please contact
Anti-bypass Action at aba@enzyme.org.nz or Noma 04 384-7980.
Related
Comments
Re: Community garden to be rescued from Bypass destruction!
Yeah but, in reality building community gardens in a dilapidated area of central/fringe central CBD's never works out too well. The ammount of stumbling students ending face down in the gardens since they were introduced has been fairly high. And comming down able smith they just look like a patch of disputed land... I'm for community gardens, but somthing needed to be done.
Re: Community garden to be rescued from Bypass destruction!
What proof do you have of community gardens not working in the cbd - have you even looked at the gardens in cuba and new york and vancouver and... The only reason some of them fail is because of greedy land developpers and councils kicking people off the land to make carparks and lifestyler apartments planned to crumble in 10 years to maximise profits.
At least the "stumbling students" can fall on grass and dirt instead of concrete. And of course the garden looks "like a patch of disputed land" - it is, that's the whole point.
If you're so "for community gardens" then do something yourself, get down on the dirt and garden.
Re: Community garden to be rescued from Bypass destruction!
Yeah right misses the point. It wasn't created just be a pretty green spot in the concrete jungle, though that was a relevant concern. It was a constructive way for people to express their opposition to the bypass. It really hacked me off to see all the booze bottles left behind but it didn't stop me & many others going there. RIP K Gardens.