Cited! (but still blighted)

Today, June 11, 2008, the Food Not Blight community garden was served with a "Stop Operating Order" for lack of a business occupancy license. That's right, less than three weeks after we started our city government has told it's citizens "please stop beautifying an abandoned and blighted property. Please don't grow food to donate to the needy."


Why hasn't the city acted with the same speed and zeal to cite the property owners for failing to mow the lot? Why hasn't the city gotten after the illegal dumpers, many of whom are repeat offenders? Where are the bright pink notices of violation for them?

Instead of going after the owners of the property, who are known to the city, Mt. Rainier is instead pursuing its own citizens for trying to do something good. I guess the city prefers the current arrangement of using your tax dollars and our public works employees to maintain the lot.
City Manager Jeannelle Wallace just emailed Food Not Blight to say that owner has complained and expects the garden to removed today, and that he is coming by tonight to inspect the lot. Implicit in this statement is the fact that the city will remove the garden on the landowner's behalf! This property owner is just beyond the pale. First he neglects the lot, leaving its care to the city; a neglect so complete that citizens feel the need to take action. Now he wants the garden removed and expects it to be done immediately and by the city!

We have pleaded to have the owner contact us to see if we can have the garden stay until this proposed development is ready to begin. He claims the property will be "developed soon with possible condominiums" - how soon could that be since he has no planning permissions, and if the proposed development is still "possible" it must not be imminent. If the garden is removed, we fully expect the owner to return to neglecting the property and the city to return to its enabling role.

At the very least the city should take this opportunity to strongly encourage the landowner to maintain his own property!

Please tell Ms. Wallace and the Mayor what you think about what is happening:

City Manager Jeannelle Wallace - jwallace@mountrainiermd.org
Mayor Miles - mayormiles@malindamiles.com

UPDATE: 6:10PM
Ms. Wallace contacted Food Not Blight and stated that the city has no intention of removing the community garden. Ms. Wallace also provided us with the contact info for owner and we are going to get in touch ASAP to ensure the future of our garden.

Thank you to all of you that emailed the city already!! Keep the support coming.

Why we are doing this project

Over the holiday weekend a car with DC plates pulled up to one corner of the empty lot with our garden and started dumping buckets of construction waste right on the ground. When challenged the man said: "Who cares? This lot is full of crap already."

What is Food Not Blight

Mount Rainier, Maryland is a beautiful, diverse little town full of wonderful people. We share a border with Washington, DC and our main drag, Rhode Island Ave, is one of the gateways to DC. In fact, the Rhode Island Ave corridor is known as the Gateway Arts District and is home to a number of art galleries, art studios, and artists themselves. We have a terrific food co-op called Glut and the best ice cream shop around, Island Style.

But we have our problems too. Like many older suburbs, Mt. Rainier took a bit of a downturn a few years back and there are some lingering issues. One pervasive problem is landowners sitting on blighted property that they don't take care of, won't redevelop, and won't sell either. Sadly a good hunk of our main street in the arts district is tied up by landowners sitting on blighted properties. To add insult to injury, our tax dollars pay for the maintenance and upkeep of these properties - Mt. Rainier public works even has to mow the lawn!

As concerned citizens we said, this must stop. Our first project is Food Not Blight, sponsored by the Mount Rainier Community Garden Association. Our goal is to turn blighted empty lots into beautiful gardens where we can grow food and native plants to share with our neighbors. Food Not Blight aims to unite the community by turning a community eyesore into a community resource. By coming together to make these gardens, we unite as neighbors and stand as a community to tell these absent landlords - no more!

Our first garden is at the corner of 33rd and Perry St. and anyone who wants to plant a plot is welcome. We have some space available right now in raised beds, and more space is on the way as we plan to build more raised beds by reusing waste lumber from a construction site. You are welcome to build your own bed, or contact us and let us know and we can try and get you some wood for a new bed or give you some space in an existing bed.

If you are interested in starting a community garden in your own corner of Mt. Rainier, let us know because we would love to help.

Together we can take back Mt. Rainier!