Socioeconomic Views of Urban P-Patch Gardens, Mike S. and Kevin B.

Our photo diary presents personalized aspects of several P-Patch community gardens in Seattle. We took photos at the Beacon Hill, Bradner, Immaculate, Judkins and Belltown gardens on the morning of Thursday, January 12, 2012. Documenting a spectrum of “do-it-yourself” elements that we observed, we noticed the range of socio-economic influences on the garden elements. The gamut included homemade compost walls from shelving materials, plastic bottle hot-houses, intricate mosaic and tiling, and anonymous homeless person’s detritus. We were struck by the creativity and personality that communities and individuals display in the urban P-Patch movement. Some of the personalization is decorative while others are functional. These elements contribute to everyday urban life and fabric, helping relate and reveal our relationships to food in an urban context.

As a whole, the activities and spaces of P-Patches are sanctioned and planned. We started to question if unplanned spaces is a required component of “do-it-yourself urbanism”. As Margaret Crawford said in Everyday Urbanism, “Everyday space stands in contrast to carefully planned, officially designated, and often underused spaces of public use.” Although guerrilla gardening on vacant property might be more traditional DIY urbanism, the smaller details of the p-patches certainly show the DIY spirit of the people using the spaces. We propose that even within government sanctioned spaces, communities and individuals can create their own spaces using what resources they have.

Using the details we photographed, it is possible to gather an impression of the socioeconomic background of the neighborhood using the gardens. Belltown, full of young money, has solar panels and elaborate decorative mosaics and is also used by the poor of the downtown area as a home or hangout spot (among the items left behind were two pairs of pants, body lotion, and small bottles of alcohol). On the less moneyed side of the spectrum, plastic bottles and refrigerator shelving are used as gardening tools. The story of the neighborhoods begins to emerge through the fine details of the gardens, and we were successful in capturing the homemade and eclectic nature infused in our urban P-Patch gardens.





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Children’s Visualization Involvement within the Community

By Jin A Chung, Kailin Wang and Chuhan Zheng

The Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) was founded in 1980 in order to build a community within the Phinney and Greenwood neighborhoods in Seattle1. It is located at 6532 Phinney Avenue North. The PNA provides many opportunities for community members to meet and collaborate together to build a strong neighborhood. To create a cohesive space for the community, all sectors of the community must be considered. Often children are left out in this process. However, within the Phinney Neighborhood Center, one can easily see that children have been considered as valuable community members.

The site was visited in on January 7th. On the site, there are two PNA buildings; the main PNA center on the top slope, and the lower PNA center where the preschool and playground are located. (As shown in Site Map above) A set of pedestrian stairs is located in between the two buildings. The design of the stairs illustrate children’s involvement – the mosaics which cover the stairs are painted by children in the neighborhood (Slide show, photo 5 and 6). By doing so, that children collaborate and articulate beauty into the neighborhood. On the side, there are two different playgrounds located on the opposite views in front of the Phinney Neighborhood preschool: one built on the slope with slides for the older kids (Slide show, Photo 4) and one with boundary shields providing toys for younger kids (Slide show, Photo 3).

The playgrounds show that children are considered in the design of the neighborhood center. These are the space for the children. On the other hand, by painting the mosaics on the stairs, the children also actively involved in the creation of community space. The PNA site is essentially a space designed for the children and by the children.

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Resources: 
Phinney Neighborhood Association: http://www.phinneycenter.org/