More Than Just A Garden

Dear friends and neighbors – we need your help.

You may or may not have seen a few of Denver’s urban community gardens throughout your neighborhood. These are some of the last strongholds of an era that firmly believed in community building. Here, neighbors become friends, help each other, share their knowledge, expose their children and other family members to the joy and skills of gardening, donate crops to local foodbanks, compost, contribute to a positive neighborhood experience, and most of all, grow food, real food (and sometimes even cultivate bees, which, as we all know, are in dire straits).

Community gardens are a central characteristic and quality of a healthy urban neighborhood. Unfortunately, one of them is in imminent danger to fall prey to Denver’s urban development and infill machinery.

El Oasis, one of the 180+ community gardens managed by Denver Urban Gardens (DUG), a non-profit organization, is in the process of being partially sold for $1.2M to a Denver developer to build a pair of duplexes. The plot was donated to DUG in 1988, with the strong intent by the donors, to be perpetually used as a community garden. DUG’s Board of Directors, ignoring the wishes of the original owners, decided to sell the land to cover a growing budget deficit. We are in full support of DUG’s mission, but are committed to fight tooth-and-nail to stop the sale and development of this neighborhood staple.

As a first step, we need your signature to urge DUG to consider better alternatives that won’t conflict with their mission and to contest the rezoning of this property for development.

Sign the petition here: http://chng.it/VyMPDZjd7L

Thank you for your support!

Our struggle to save the garden has not gone unnoticed. See how the news and media outlets have been covering this story:

Denver NorthStar

The Denver Post

Westword

Fox31 Problem Solvers