Growing Partnerships: Public Gardens Are Helping Cities Address Urban Challenges

Chicago’s official motto is “Urbs in horto,” which in Latin means “City in a Garden”. In the nearly 200 years since its founding, Chicago has continued to live up to this propitious designation through its cultivation of urban green spaces. From the creation of Lincoln Park in the mid-1800s to the debut of the much-beloved Millennium Park in 2004, the people of Chicago have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with their urban landscape.

While the city’s green space focus has historically been on the development of urban parklands, a growing interest in public gardens has led cities like Chicago to explore the potential of these cultural institutions in helping address a variety of urban challenges. Unlike parks and community gardens, public gardens are distinct in their mission-driven focus; rather than existing solely as recreational destinations, public gardens are cultural institutions that exist to provide services to a community.

In “Public Gardens as Sustainable Community Development Partners: Motivations, Perceived Benefits, and Challenges,” Meghan Z. Gough and John Accordino examine the ways in which these spaces, which have not traditionally been seen as partners in public provisions, are becoming invaluable resources to cities in areas as varied as water management, waste reduction, and economic and community development.

The authors examined the relationships between cities and public gardens by administering a survey to 417 member gardens of the American Public Gardens Association and conducting 96 expert interviews. The survey received a 27 percent response rate from a total of 111 gardens that were equally distributed throughout the country, with 75 percent of responding gardens located in close proximity to a city’s central business district. The survey questions focused on the motivations, successes, and challenges of building and sustaining partnerships with public gardens. The authors also visited nine case-study locations, chosen by a five-member committee of public garden officials, to examine the community engagement impact of public gardens.

The study finds that public gardens serve three primary roles in a community: as educators in sustainability, trainers in urban horticulture, and technical experts to other community organizations. The most popular type of partnership among respondents was with schools.  Among respondents, 66 percent of responding gardens were partnered with schools to provide children with environmental and fresh food education, while 38 percent of responding gardens worked directly with schools to develop environmentally-aware curricula.

The authors also find that public gardens have the potential to grow jobs and bolster the economy in areas of high unemployment and low-quality nutrition. Twenty-five percent of responding public gardens trained community members how to grow food, while five percent provided job training and certification programs targeted toward those with limited job access. As technical experts, 10 percent of gardens were involved in the redevelopment of vacant lands, an act that has been shown to raise the value of adjacent lots by as much as 30 percent.

The authors’ interviews with local government and community organization officials also revealed other ways in which public garden partnerships have benefited communities. In San Diego, the City’s Water Department partnered with the local Water Conservation Garden to educate residents on conservation strategies. As a result, 61 percent of residents who visited the garden applied water conserving landscape changes at home.

In New York, the Department of Sanitation partnered with public gardens to form the New York City Compost Project, which educates and trains city residents in effective methods of waste reduction. According to officials, the city relies on public gardens as community relations and outreach tools that are better positioned to reach residents than more traditional municipal outlets. Further, 53 percent of responding gardens were engaged in community development projects. In St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden organized a neighborhood development plan that successfully revitalized four neighborhoods adjacent to the garden, an area that was renamed “The Garden District.”

Although the study reveals crucial insights into the potential of public gardens to improve communities, the authors also acknowledge a response bias in their survey, raising important questions as to the scalability of the projects profiled. Further studies on the costs and impact of public garden partnerships will help determine the true value of urban green spaces to our communities, but this study shows that public gardens have come a long way from their traditional roles as horticultural urban oases. They exist not only as vital resource-providers in many communities, but also as significant government partners that can help to enhance cities’ capacities to serve their residents. As cities continue to deal with resource scarcities, officials would do well to consider the opportunities for non-traditional partnerships that may already exist in their own backyard.

Feature Photo: cc/(YoChicago1)