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Old 05-22-2012, 07:57 PM   #93
Regular_John
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Property owner wants Potatoes for People gardeners gone
BY JASON MARKUSOFF, CALGARY HERALD MAY 22, 2012 6:47 PM
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For many reasons, Donna Clarke picked the wrong place for her bid to beautify and reclaim land with soil, tires and taters.

The vacant Scarboro lot, next door to her own rental house, is around the corner from the home of Ald. John Mar. He called in the authorities this week against what he first thought were Occupy Calgary squatters, but were well-meaning food growers who never asked permission.

The fatal blow to the Potatoes for the People project came Tuesday, when the Vancouver-based owner told the city’s bylaw director he wanted the guerrilla garden off his company’s property immediately.

“It’s trespassing. We weren’t consulted and we weren’t asked,” said Randolph Pratt, director of the mortgage firm that took over a cluster of properties along 17th Avenue S.W. through foreclosure in 2009.

“It’s inappropriate use of our site.”

And if Clarke and friends did ask first? “No.”

After being warned by bylaw officials that the tires posed a fire hazard, Clarke took away all the empty tires laid out in rows.

“I thought most of the work would be done this weekend, and we were just waiting for the potatoes to grow,” she said.

Even the fence her fellow community and food activists painted in bright colours could get her in trouble, because it belonged to Scarboro Projects Ltd. Pratt, however, won’t pursue any action as long as everything is cleaned up, he said.

Clarke had planned to donate the potatoes to the food bank, although that agency only learned about the gesture in the newspaper, a spokeswoman said.

But while the project was quashed after only about 36 hours, Clarke doesn’t think it’s a total loss.

“I would have to claim victory in the fact that this issue has been brought to light and given attention, and perhaps city council will start to deal with derelict spaces that make it an unsafe place.”

But the city certainly already dealt with this vacant lot, which had a notorious history in Scarboro. Clarke only moved next door in January, and didn’t know about its background.

Only last August, the city ordered the owner to demolish that house and two next to it, as part of a multi-agency crackdown on derelict properties
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“But it still didn’t create community. It’s still neglected,” Clarke replied when told of the city’s past action.

Asked if there was anything more the city could do, Mar replied: “Yeah. (The neighbours) could buy the land, but under the law you just can’t occupy the land.”

Clarke has links to the food activist group that champions backyard chickens, which remain illegal in Calgary.

Mar said he was also concerned when he saw the term Occupy Calgary on one of the tires, and a figure from last year’s weeks-long Olympic Plaza protest occupation with Clarke on that lot.

The lots, next to a former religious hall owned by the same firm, will eventually be redeveloped, Pratt said.

“I can understand the neighbour wanting an adjacent property or a property in their community to reflect the nature of the community,” he said. “But the correct way to do that is through the public process, and not to just trespass and act unilaterally.”

While most of the several dozen community gardens in Calgary are in city parks, there have been some on private lots in agreement with owners — like a short-lived but popular Victoria Park garden.

Clarke’s activism also has deep roots in Calgary, going back to 1914. For decades, the Calgary Vacant Lots Garden Club offered plots for $1 each to produce food and find better use to empty spaces.

Mar said he appreciated the idea, but “it’s a little courteous to ask permission.”

He spoke to Clarke late Monday and suggested he get her charity potato project into an existing community garden.

She declined, saying the point of her project was to reclaim an empty lot, and not just grow food in an existing plot.


jmarkusoff@calgaryherald.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Pr...#ixzz1veYd1s3g
So basically she didn't seek permission, and is more interested in the view of the lot than the "feed the homeless" angle she originally touted. She's either being selfish in trying to make the lot her pet project, or she simply didn't think this through and has a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between "vacant" and "abandoned".
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