News, Florida bank has community garden razed. (flowers, lawn, growing)

[JD59]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 12 (UPI) -- The National Bank of Florida says it didn't know anyone was growing vegetables on a piece of land it had cleared in Fort Lauderdale.

Bank officials said they received notification from Fort Lauderdale city officials the property was overgrown and gave them 10 days to clean it up, The Miami Herald reported.


Read more: Florida bank has community garden razed - UPI.com

[gentlearts]

I wonder who the idiot was who cleared the lot who could tell a vegetable garden from a patch of weeds. Dolt.
You can't blame the bank which was just trying to be compliant to the city order.

[AnonChick]

If Flagler Village community had checked to find out who owned that property, and contacted the property owner to ASK to use it as their community garden, this entire ordeal could have been avoided. Chances are, the bank would have been happy to allow its use for that purpose, since obviously they weren't doing anything with it themselves. They might even have deeded it over to the community, or sold it cheap to them, to avoid legal responsibility if someone got hurt there.

[LilyLady]

Huh?

Instead of calling the garden plots overgrown, the city inspector couldn't see the that vegetables and flowers were growing? Makes me think the garden was "inspected" from behind a steering wheel.

The bank didn't know that the land was being used, yet over 15 people had been tending plots?

Rather than talking to the press after the fact, were the bank and the gardening coordinator not talking to each other beforehand?

Hmmmm....pardon me, but my cynicism is showing through...

[Pitt Chick]

Sounds like they did not have the bank's permission to be using bank property....

[Faerunner]

Sometimes it's easier to do first and ask permission later, unfortunately. If I went to the City and looked up the owners of the 4-5 vacant, overgrown lots around here, and asked to start a community garden program in one or two of them, I'd probably be turned down, despite the fact that I think the entire neighborhood would love another garden/parklet or two. Whoever owns the lots, city or not, hasn't done a thing to them in the full year I've lived here. It's disappointing, but I think a lot of people would rather take the vigilante approach to land management than jump through the hoops and red tape that can come along with taking legal ownership and responsibility for a property.

'course, that doesn't make those gardeners right, and I'm not familiar with the squatters' laws in FL to be able to say whether using the land made them eligible to take it over from a legal standpoint. At least it does sound like the bank is willing to help them re-start the garden, although it's a bit late for planting now!

[Icy Tea]

My city had a community garden plot, not in the city but nearby on city owned land. It had been operated for years but eventually became an eyesore from people putting up fences and sheds and there being squabbles about who "owned" the rights to certain plots. I could see their point if you worked a certain spot for years and built it up, you'd want to keep using it. Especially if you built a fence around it so nobody could steal your veggies( which happened). So now its all just cleared out with no trespassing signs on it.
I wanted my company to use some of their unused lawn space to start a garden for a food pantry. They balked at any expense , never mind they sold lawn and garden supplies. Good publicity and community support didn't matter. It was suggested again a few years ago and suddenly it was a great idea but now we've expanded and don't have any room.

[plwhit]

Originally Posted by LilyLady

Huh?
Instead of calling the garden plots overgrown, the city inspector couldn't see the that vegetables and flowers were growing? Makes me think the garden was "inspected" from behind a steering wheel.

The bank didn't know that the land was being used, yet over 15 people had been tending plots?

Rather than talking to the press after the fact, were the bank and the gardening coordinator not talking to each other beforehand?

Hmmmm....pardon me, but my cynicism is showing through...

Why is it the banks responsibility to find out who is using their property?

Why is it the cities responsibility to determine what flora/fauna is growing in a patch of dirt?

Why didn't these illegal garden growers find out who owned the patch of dirt first, and get permission from said owner before illegally using it for their own purposes?

Hmmmmm sounds like stupidity on the illegal garden growers part to me

The bank has no responsibility to the gardening coordinator who is illegally using the banks property.

Should have brought the gardening coordinator and his/her minions up on trespassing charges, fined and thrown in jail...

[CaptainNJ]

who gave them the rights to grow their little gardens there? the community should pay the bank the cost of cleaning up the property.

[Sapperdoc]

At the risk of sounding like a hemp sandals wild hair tree hugger...

Any human being that does not have reverence for the crazy voodoo that mother nature pulls off to convert sunshine and soil into snacks should probably have their head examined. Guess what kids, we came from dirt, we end up as dirt. If you think you're above the whole circle of life thing going on in the nearest garden, dig up an old grave and see what the worms have left. It ain't much. We are not special and unique snowflakes. We are all slowly decaying soil amendments. Burned or boxed, you feed the plants sooner or later.

Humans like to act as if they're above this process. We're not.

Having said that, if a person, a corporation, or even a bank RENTS (yes, rents, you think you own your property, but if you pay property taxes, you only RENT) land, they do, in our litigous society, assume legal responsibility for that property. Bottom line, garden folks should have asked. But done is done, and the bank COULD have done the community a much greater service by organizing this guerrilla garden, getting some "no fault" use contracts drawn up, and telling those garden folks that half their stuff goes to the nearest soup kitchen. That's rent. Where's the down side there? Gardeners get to keep doing their thing, poor people get fed, and the bank gets to look like it actually cares about the community it's in. How much is that worth in commercial advertising? What does it cost the bank? The answer is "alot" and "nothing." Legally yes, the bank was "in the right" all the way around and the culinary squatters were wrong. Legality isn't the whole picture.

Food is life. Wasting it is stupid. A hard lesson learned when you're already hungry.