RE: Can parks revive decaying U.S. cities?
Hates Idiots has the right idea. Right now I'm looking for an appropriate action group to join. We actually have several, but they're insufficiently militant to make entertaining news and therefore accumulate little political presence, making them easy to ignore. For example, there is a large vacant corner lot at the end of my street. Some of the neighbors planted it in grass and shrubs with one border of flowers while seeking City approval. Then they put up a "Please Do Not Mow" sign on it. Despite the obvious mini-park development, the sign and pleas to the City, the City has mowed off all of the improvements. That, of course, hasn't stopped someone from erecting a nice, big garish billboard on the property and selling the advertising space. The City obligingly mows around it.
We are currently turning part of the vacant lot next door into an urban garden - and are landscaping it with big rocks. If and when the City challenges us, we intend to make as big a stink as we can to oppose them - while keeping careful record of our supporters, whom we hope would constitute a pool containing some militants willing to help do something similar to what Hates Idiots suggests.
