Rogers Park Green Space and Food Systems Coalition
Community Meeting, October 14th, 2008
Summary of Meeting
On October 14, 2008, approximately 40 people gathered in Rogers Park to voice concerns and exchange ideas about the impending loss of the Sophia Garden, a thriving urban green space owned by Loyola University. The meeting was organized by the Rogers Park Green Space andFood Systems Coalition.
The meeting began with a history of the garden, presented by members of the garden’s
leadership team: Brian Gleichauf and Patricia Holdrege, of the Chicago Waldorf School;
Mary Black of the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture;and Thea Maria Carlson of the Angelic Organics Learning Center in Chicago. Attending the meeting were a wide variety of Rogers Park community members, including business owners, local garden group members, Chicago Waldorf School parents and staff, Loyola students, clients and staff of the Marjorie Kovler Center and Heartland Alliance, and other concerned neighbors.
History
The Sophia Garden sits west of the Loyola el stop on land that is owned by Loyola University.Since 1997, Loyola has allowed the Chicago Waldorf School, which emphasizes gardening and nature in its curriculum, to use the land as a garden, free of charge. Since its creation, the Sophia Garden has grown into an immensely productive vegetable, fruit and flower garden, and a thriving ecosystem of native plants, bees, grasshoppers, butterflies, and local and migrating birds. The garden is complete with raised beds, a tool shed, compost piles, carved stone sculptures, and colorful painted panels. Over the years, the Chicago Waldorf School has teamed with other local organizations—including the St. Ignatius Food Pantry, the Kovler Center, and the Angelic Organics Learning Center—to share the bounty and beauty of the garden. Visible
from the Loyola el platform, the Sophia Garden has become a beautiful and unique green space for the Rogers Park neighborhood and Loyola University community to enjoy.
From its initial loan of the garden space, Loyola was upfront with the Chicago Waldorf School that the university would someday develop the site, at which point the garden would have to move. In 2007, Loyola informed CWS that the plan for a mixed use residential/retail building would break ground on November 1, 2008. The demolition of the building at 1225 W Loyola Ave immediately east of the garden site, was also slated for that date.
In response to the development plan, the garden leadership team has spent the past six months working on many levels to identify alternate locations for the Sophia Garden. But vacant and available land is scarce in Rogers Park, and no site has yet been secured. The Waldorf School has since removed three sections of concrete in front of the school and has moved a small portion of the plants and soil Sophia Garden to this new location, but the hopes of maintaining a larger garden remain.
Recently, Loyola has communicated that the development of the actual site of the Sophia Garden has been postponed. The university has, however, maintained its November 1st deadline for the Chicago Waldorf School to end use of the garden. The demolition of the building east of the garden will proceed, and the university plans to use the garden site as a staging area for demolition equipment.
In light of Loyola’s delaying development of the site, and in response to the growing community interest to protect the garden, the leadership team called this October 14th meeting to form a broader neighborhood coalition, share ideas and plan next steps in maintaining green space and sustainable food systems in Rogers Park.
Themes of the Meeting
As meeting attendees shared thoughts and visions relating to the garden, two main themes emerged:
(1) The community is passionate about the Sophia Garden and the green space it
provides, and (2) The garden provides Loyola with a valuable asset that could help position the university as a leader in the sustainability movement.
1. Community Passion for Sophia Garden and the Importance of Green Space for the
Community Neighbors of the garden shared their deep appreciation for the garden and the importance for designated green space in the neighborhood. The Garden as a Community Builder: Several residents explained how the garden adds value to the community and has the potential to bring neighbors together. One resident described how he stops by the garden every day on his way to work. “The garden is a center point for neighbors to start talking to one another,” he said. “So many people are mourning the loss of the garden.” Several parents communicated the value of having an open green space for their children to visit and explore. The Sophia Garden has also been a place for many people with diverse backgrounds to garden together. The Kovler Center, for example, helps refugees and survivors of torture from around the world; in the Sophia Garden, they have been able to reconnect with agricultural skills from their home countries and share knowledge with others in the garden. One new Rogers Park
resident who recently helped develop a recycling program at the University of Ohio suggested that a garden/green space has great potential for creating jobs within a community. The Garden as a Spiritual Connection: The garden is a place of the spirit; green space feeds the soul. One meeting participant suggested that, as a Catholic institution, Loyola University is in the position of fostering that spiritual connection for the community. Attendees agreed that holding an upcoming community lantern walk in the garden would be a good way to illustrate community support for the garden and represent the spiritual significance of this greenspace [the lantern walk is scheduled for Thursday, October 23, beginning at Uncommon Ground at
6:30pm].
The Garden as Classroom: Loyola students attending the meeting described environmental
courses at Loyola that could be connected to the garden, such as the new Solutions to
Environmental Problems (STEP): Food Systems course, which will be offered by the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy (CUERP) beginning in the Spring 2009 Semester. Student projects through the course will explore, how to make food systems more sustainable, including “envisioning and planning a campus garden.” One Loyola student active in a student group exploring local food and urban agriculture explained that the garden is important to many Loyola students. Another meeting attendee noted that Loyola also has continuing education classes that explore “green” issues, such as eating locally. In addition, students at the Chicago Waldorf School attend gardening classes as part of their grade school curriculum, and Waldorf
kindergarten children regularly play in the garden during their recess time.
The Garden as Therapy: Local social service providers have used the Sophia Garden as a place to support their work with clients. A Kovler Center staff member who attended the meeting said the garden is “very important” to her job. “It’s a tool for community support for program participants…to socialize, break the loneliness and isolation, and feel like a part of the community.”
2. The Sophia Garden and adjacent land provide Loyola University an opportunity to
position itself as a leader in the sustainability movement.
A number of attendees voiced urgency in helping Loyola University to see that the Sophia Garden and land surrounding it are more valuable as a green asset than as another mixed-use development in our urban landscape. A main theme of the evening was that local farming and sustainable food systems are timely social, environmental and political issues. Two days before this community meeting, the New York Times Magazine featured an article, written by Michael Pollan, exploring the measures the next President of the United States should take to reform our nation’s food and farming policies. The article addresses how a new food policy based on local, sustainable food systems can help remedy many of our country’s ills, from the national health care crisis to the energy crisis and climate change.
Loyola students at the meeting shared information about existing environmental classes at the university and the potential for connecting even more university courses to the garden. Many at the meeting said they would like to see Loyola use the garden and adjacent land to to create a cutting-edge university program in sustainability/environmentalism rather than more residential and retail space.
Meeting participants were enthusiastic about communicating their support and vision with Loyola, and agreed that it is important to communicate with the university in a spirit of partnership, not antagonistically.
Actions
There were several calls to action among meeting participants, who brainstormed ways the community could support the garden.
•
Write letters to Loyola University before November 1. (Mary Black will help consolidate
key points to keep our message cohesive as a group.) Identify Loyola contacts to receive letters, as well as Loyola contacts who would be supportive of continued use of the garden for their own coursework, including professors from various disciplines related to sustainable food systems/environmental studies
•
Write up ideas/plan in form of business plan to present to Loyola—show that garden has
sustainable business possibilities (Peter, Loyola student)
•
Provide evidence to Loyola of comparable university programs in sustainability, food
systems and environmental issues.
•
Create and circulate a petition
•
Create blogs with photos of garden
•
Create and distribute Flyers
•
Create compelling visual statement to illustrate support for garden (i.e., distribute green ribbon to tie on fence)
•
Produce lantern walk in the garden (Sue Smock-Lawson and CWS contacts) – Scheduled
for Thursday, October 23 at 6:30pm.
•
Follow-up meeting (in garden or other site?) to widen base of action. Uncommon Ground
offered space for holding meetings.
•
Connect with other organizations that might be potential partners in building this
movement: Chicago Department of the Environment, Talking Farm, city of Evanston,
Chicago Botanic Garden, NeighborSpace, Slow Food Nation, Urban Habitat, Chicago,
More Loyola students and neighbors, Media (Uncommon Ground beekeeper works at
Tribune), Sadhu Johnson (Mayor’s sustainability expert, lives in Rogers Park), LEED
certification of neighborhoods (Susan Mudd) and others
How to help:
Anyone who would like to get involved can join the Rogers Park Green Space and Food Systems Coalition google group at http://groups.google.com/group/rp-green-space-food-sys or contact Brian at bgleichauf@gmail.com or 773.610.4213
There we are.
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