[Communications] Native Garden Ordinance

[Lorraine Kells]

Sean,

You sent an email this morning to a small group of CCGA community
gardeners, omitting quite a few people who were vocal in the chat at the
Town Hall.  If you truly seek input from CCGA, you might think more
inclusively of our working groups, especially CCGA Communications.  The
email for the communications committee is in this email.  No one of us
works in isolation, and as volunteers, we would appreciate your recognition
that while we will communicate within and among our working groups, it is
not the same as your reaching out to begin with, especially as you now say
AUA's support is in question.

Now that your organization recognizes how truly community gardens are
impacted, why do you still insist we cannot represent ourselves?.  It would
be a stronger gesture on your part, showing recognition as well as respect,
to seek representation for our own spokesperson in the meeting with Alderman
Hopkin's office and IEC tomorrow afternoon.  We have concrete, positive
comments to make  and we are up for it.

It must be clear, if CCGA had been drawn into this policy making from the
start, the proposed ordinance would be stronger and more widely approved.
So why not start now. You represent urban farms, we represent community
gardens more authentically and our collaboration can be better with that
recognition.

Best,
Lorraine Kells, Co-Chair CCGA Education Committee





On Thu, Mar 4, 2021 at 8:37 AM Sean Ruane <sean at auachicago.org> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Great to see so many community gardeners at the native ordinance town hall
> on Tuesday! After that conversation, we followed up with the City yesterday
> morning and confirmed that community gardens CAN be ticketed through the
> weed ordinance, which is contrary to what had been previously communicated
> by the City and Alderman Hopkins Office. Prior to yesterday, AUA had not
> made a decision about whether or not we supported the ordinance, but given
> that information, we are not in support.
>
> We were invited to a conversation with Alderman Hopkin's office and IEC
> tomorrow afternoon to provide concrete suggestions for improving the
> ordinance to ensure that it is equitable and represents the interests of
> all growers throughout the City, not just owner-occupied lots. If you all
> have time before 2 pm tomorrow, I'd like to hop on a call to hear more
> about CCGA's concerns and proposed changes and ultimately ensure that I'm
> appropriately communicating those proposed changes during the call on
> Friday.
>
> I know that there is another call trying to be scheduled between CCGA,
> IEC, Openlands, AUA, etc..... but I think it would be helpful to touch base
> today or tomorrow before the call at 2 pm tomorrow.
>
> Let me know what works.
>
> All my best,
>
> Sean
>
> --
> *Sean Ruane*
> *Executive Director*
> *Advocates for Urban Agriculture*
> *he/him/his*
> *sean at auachicago.org <sean at auachicago.org>*
> *815-931-1743*
> *auachicago.org <http://auachicago.org> *
>
> *Interested in providing technical support to Chicago growers? *
> *Join the AUA Grown in Chicago Council today! *
> *Applications available until February 28th. *
>
> <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfw7SNU1Byk1xb9h7Bki-HSit2h2DGne2ysctt9z6R977xSWg/viewform?mc_cid=928d978d95&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D&gxids=7628>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/pipermail/communications_chicagocommunitygardens.org/attachments/20210304/e2faf33b/attachment.html>