Urban Agriculture in Southeastern San Diego:

Vacant Lot SurveyOBJECTIVE: Evaluate the suitability of Southeast San Diego’s 591 vacant/undeveloped lots for possible use as community gardens.

FINDINGS: 76 of the 329 vacant lots (those deemed worth classifying) are “good” candidates for use as community gardens.

ACTION: Initial steps are underway to transform one of the privately held “good” vacant lots into a community garden. The landowner is an eager participant. Creating a community garden on this privately owned lot is a significant test case (model). It will shed light on opportunities and constraints re using private property as community commons.

THE BIG PICTURE• Opportunities and Benefits• Agenda for Action Research

Catalyst of The Good Bioregion Movement

ConsultantsBob Leiter, Land Use/Regional PlannerJanice Pezzoli, Community GardensIlya Zaslavsky, Information Technology

Community Commons

Study Area:•Sherman Heights   •Logan Heights   •Grant Hill   •Memorial   •Stockton   •Mount Hope   •Mountain View   •Southcrest   •Shelltown   •Chollas View   •Lincoln Park   •Valencia Park   •Emerald Hills   •Encanto   •Alta Vista   •Broadway Heights   •Jamacha Lomita   •Skyline, Bay   •Bay Terraces   •Paradise Hills

Southeastern San DiegoEncanto NeighborhoodsSkyline-Paradise Hills h

591 Vacant Lots

Planning & Decision Support System

Bioregional Workbench,

Google Earth,

CommunityVizCommun

ity Commons

Survey Questions Lot size Topography Sunlight Water Soil condition Electrical Power Visibility Maintenance Fencing Vehicle Access Parking Property

Ownership Community

interest

SOURCE: Victory Gardens, San Diego Roots Sustainable Food ProjectJames A. LaGro. 2008. Site analysis : a contextual approach to sustainable land planning and site design. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Survey MethodGoogle DocSocial media used to organize students

The Workers• 91 UCSD

Students • 58 SDSU

Students• In 33 Teams

The Product329 Lots Surveyed20 Field Reports

27 Good Vacant Lots, West of I-805 49 Good Vacant Lots, East of I-805

N = 329

Project New Village

Red bounded property is a vacant lot slated to become to become a community garden

4540 Ocean View BlvdNeighborhood is 77% Latino, 13% African-American

SESD: the right place at the right time to spur alternative development

Problems arising from climate change, peak oil, peak fresh water, mounting economic and ecological stresses, unhealthy food systems and living conditions are combining in troublesome ways.

These problems are (1) stressing institutional, fiscal and management functions to the breaking point, and (2) creating conditions ripe for “rooted” agropolitan development based on localization (sustainable place-making using local social, economic and bioregional assets)

SESD has a favorable geographic location, and advantageous mix of diverse cultures, creative leaders, entrepreneurial nonprofit orgs, centers of education, and ecosystems.

SESD’s neighborhoods are well positioned to advance urban agriculture; the time is right to rally around a vision of "agropolitan development” (progressive bioregionalism). PNV and others are leading the way.

Next Steps State-Market-Civil Society Relations

Recalibrate our measures of wealth, well-being and the importance of community commons

Integrate efforts to create new livelihoods and rooted communities with efforts to establish the basis for a new progressive ecological democracy

Tie the food systems movement into related sustainability challenges (e.g., food-water-energy nexus)

Community-University Relations Build information and communications systems that make it

easier for community-based organizations, scientists, scholars and students to join forces linking knowledge-to-action for the common good.

Empower grassroots social innovation with scientific innovation, and vice versa.

Research Institutions

Civil Society & Planning

Bioregion & Ecological Democracy

BioRegional Vision