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Save Mitchell Park's Community Garden

Tell the City Council that you want them to keep the community garden at Mitchell Park.

Save Mitchell Park's Community Garden

Mitchell Park's Community Garden would be the fourth in the city

The City Council is considering replacing a planned Community Garden at Mitchell Park with a parking lot. Community gardens have a wide range of benefits to our communities and the environment, including:

  • Providing beautiful open space in urban areas
  • Creating an avenue for people to consume locally grown food, thus preventing carbon dioxide and other harmful vehicle emissions
  • Providing educational opportunities and vocational skills for youth
  • Giving access to nutritious and secure food source for low-income people

Please follow these easy steps to take action:

1. Copy and paste the following letter into your email client.

2. Add any of your own comments. This will really make the message more meaningful.

3. E-mail your comments to the City Council.

Sample Letter

Dear City Council,

I am writing to strongly oppose replacing the planned community garden at Mitchell Park with a parking lot.

Community gardens add tremendous value to our city. They provide youth with educational opportunities and a way for people from our urban areas to have access to fresh, nutritious food. Even more importantly, they encourage people to eat locally grown food, which is one of the most effective ways to lower our carbon dioxide footprint and prevent other forms of air pollution.

Also, the proposed parking lot has many drawbacks. One, it's dangerous. The curved driveway proposed in this drawing is next to the playground. Kids would climb on the boulders, presenting a special challenge for drivers with slower reaction times. Please consider the potential impacts of two driveways across the sidewalks on two sides of this small park. We also think bushes and berms on both sides of the south driveway would seriously impede the vision of drivers coming out across the walkway.

Two, the parking lot is larger than the building and introduces unpleasant elements of asphalt, cars, noise, and additional lighting into the green space. A trash container the size of a car is undesirable next to the main sidewalk into the park. That large BBQ area under the redwood trees takes another big bite out of the green space and would create a hangout that would not be easy to see from the street.

Three, it's unintended. The land for this park was never meant for parking. This proposal is also in conflict with the Master Plan, which came about through much discussion over many years and favors a community sense of place. The demands of a few should not outweigh the needs of the many.

Four, the parking lot will encourage driving. While most of the people complaining about parking do not live here, whereas most of Mitchell Park's neighbors enjoy walking there. The drivers are not really interested in the park, only parking. But while they can park elsewhere, we can't get more park. At great expense – economic and ecologic – removing four street spaces nets only 12 parking spaces for seniors.

Finally, there are alternatives to building a parking to solve this problem. Helping seniors with transportation options is a much more sensible solution. It has become clear to most everyone that planning for sustainability includes reducing cars, car-related infrastructure, air and water pollution, and over-reliance on fossil fuels.

Diminishing the park to try and please a small number of disgruntled people will not make anyone happy, including them. Many seniors who come here have complained for years that they don't like the building in Mitchell Park. Those who don't like the building will never like this location, even if you compromise the park on their behalf.

Thank you for preserving our increasingly precious open space. I believe the Mitchell Park community garden will add more value to our neighborhood than a couple parking spaces ever will. Please do not change our park's master plan.

Sincerely,


[name]

[address]