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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ALLEY EMPLOYEE APPEALS TO RESIDENTS TO DISCOURAGE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

Andrea Williamson

Caitlin Lockhart

A new trend has begun withrespect to Seattle’s downtown alleyways. According to an article written by Natalie Swaby for King 5 News onSeptember 8, 2011, the trend was begun by Seattle resident Todd Vogel. Vogel had moved into an office off Nord Alleyjust east of 1^st Avenue South, between South Main and South Jacksonstreets near Occidental Park in one of Seattle’s more sketchy areas. A neighbor, Jack Bennetto, was quoted inSwaby’s article as saying, “There were a lot of people that would come here touse it as a bathroom or for drugs or prostitution.” Vogel was quoted in the article as saying, “…people who do unhealthy things don’t want to be around people who do healthythings.” So Vogel decided to institutechange. He placed a table, which he boughtoff Craigslist for $26, in the alley and encouraged neighbors to put out plantsand flowers on their balconies. Hecontacted the city and arranged for trash to be picked up daily so the largedumpsters could be removed. He alsoapplied for grants and gathered donations. Vogel is quoted in a blog by Gabriel Campanario of the Seattle Times assaying, “We started respecting the space and people started to respectit.” Now Nord Alley is the venue formonthly happenings, such as evening jazz performances or pet adoption events,and has sparked a trend.

We visited Nord Alley on arecent cold, but dry, January day. Therewere a few trash bags sitting out, presumably waiting for the daily garbagecollection. There was also a deliveryvan blocking the south entrance. NordAlley did have potted plants, a bird feeder, and a beautiful sculpture mountedon the building’s side above our heads. Despite the presence of a transient population in Occidental Park, wefelt comfortable walking through this alley. Surly this is a great trend for the city!

Sources:

Campanario, Gabriel. “Downtown alley leaves dark days behind,welcomes pedestrians.” http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seattlesketcher/2011184707_green_alleys.html
Feb. 24, 2011.

Toole,Daniel. “Tight Urbanism: Alley Architecturein the US, Australia, and Japan” http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2319461

Swaby,Natalie. “DowntownSeattle alleys undergoing transformations.”
http://www.king5.com/news/cities/seattle/Downtown-Seattle-alleys-undergoing-transformations-129464393.html
September 8, 2011.

All photos by Caitlin Lockhart.

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Reading the Narratives In Between Spaces

DIY Urbanism: A Definition

The intentional and artful layering of physical, colorful objects on existing urban infrastructure. The goal, to demarcate a specific space as a significant place, to invite consciousness to the place and its surrounding context; to entice onlookers to peel away the visual and colorful layers of texture in order to reveal and interpret the story rooting that place in the urban environment.

Site: "In Memory of Robby"

Location:
Intersection of University Way (The Ave) and Campus Parkway

Time of observations:
January 10^th, 2012, 9:00am

Surrounding context of site:
Two major roads University Way and Campus Parkway. Heavy amounts of cars, buses, university students, pedestrians, bicyclists; all navigating these roads and intersection at a fast speed.

Objects and materials used in site area

-flowers

-crosses with hand written notes and messages

-origami cranes

-string

-fabric

-bicycle regalia

-t-shirts

-beer cans

-Jimmy John sandwich bags

The story:
September 10^th, 2011, Robert Storm Townsend, a beloved and vibrant bicyclist, worker at Jimmy John's Sandwich Shop and member of the local bike community was hit by an oncoming car in this intersection. Five months ago, his friends and members of the local bike community erected this memorial in his honor. By pure luck when documenting this site, we met Alex, a dear friend of Robby. Alex (seen in the last photo of the slideshow) visits this site and memorial everyday, to bring Robby breakfast. “The most important meal of the day,” shares Alex, he brings a donut for himself and for Robby and sits by the memorial looking into the traffic, reflecting on his dear friend. Alex and his friends plan to keep adding to Robby’s memorial with flowers and by adding permanent lockers and storage space with tools so that people can come to this place to remember Robby.

Robby’s memorial is a moving example of DIY urbanism by the local bike community that illustrates how the stories in a place are preserved and brought to life through objects and their form. From a distance, the memorial is easily noticeable through the large objects and colors layered on top of each other, but when you look closely, you can see the details that tell this particular story.

By: Malda Takieddine and Angelica Rockquemore