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A conversation among community land access facilitators

Tuesday, April 22 – Wednesday, April 23, 2014

This two-day event will engage advocates, policy makers and other stakeholders in best practices for community access to land, focusing on New York City (April 22) and then expanding the conversation to cities around the world (April 23). 

Feel free to distribute this widely to your networks! Vacant Acres is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

NOTE: You will need to register for each day of the event separately as capacity is limited. Follow links below to register and click on the map to see details about where participants are coming from.

April 22: The New York Experience (REGISTER HERE)
66 West 12th Street, Room 510
1:30-5:00pm, starting with snacks & registration

2:00pm Identifying Opportunities & Facilitating Transformations: Creating Oases in All Our New YorksNew York City Community Gardening Coalition (NYCCGC), on the history of community gardening in NYC — Haja & Cindy Worley, gardeners
NYC Parks Department GreenThumb, on NYC’s unique program for making municipal land available for community use — Nancy Kohn, Director
Design Trust for Public Space, on design solutions for transforming community gardens into inclusive spaces — Caroline Bauer, Production & Program Associate
Assembly Member Joseph Lentol, on potential incentives for private land-owners to make their land available to neighbors
Prospect Farm, on running a farm on a privately-owned vacant lot in Brooklyn — Meera Bhat, farmer

3:15pm  Protecting Community Access to Land: Keeping Our GreensLegal Teams and Plaintiffs from the LaGuardia Corner & Boardwalk Community Gardens, on the role of Public Trust Doctrine & Litigation — Aziz Dehkan, NYCCGC Executive Director plus guests
New York City Community Gardening Coalition, on transparency, accountability & legislation — Raymond Figueroa Reyes, NYCCGC Board President

4:00pm Establishing Long Term Management: In PerpetuityNew York Restoration Project, on non-profit ownership and the role of design and capital projects — Chris Vanterpool, Capital Team
Brooklyn Queens Land Trust, on the land trust model of protection for community property — Demetrice Mills, board president
Cooper Square Community Land Trust, on combining housing and community space through a community land trust on the Lower East Side — Katy Lyle, Board Member
NYC Community Land Initiative, on building capacity for more community property in NYC (invited)

April 23: Sharing best practices from urban vacant land transformation facilitators around the world (REGISTER HERE)
55 W 13th Street, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
9:00am-5:00pm 

9:30am    Identifying Opportunities & Facilitating Transformations

Gaelle Janvier, Alternatives, Montreal, Canada
Joe Mulligan, Kuonkey Design Initiative, Haiti & Southern CA USA
Jeffrey Kruth, Cleveland Urban Design Initiative, OH USA
Bob Grossman, Philadelphia Horticultural Society, PA USA
Gil Lopez, Smiling Hogshead Ranch, Queens, NY USA
Israel Cruz, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, CA USE
Sara Longo, Oakland, CA USA
Mark Glassock, Community Health Councils, Inc., Los Angeles CA USA
Thomas Gooch, 3,000 Acres, Melbourne Australia
Sanjay Kharod, New Orleans Food and Farm Network, LA USA

1:30pm Protecting Community Access to Land

Becky Lundberg Witt, Baltimore Community Law Center MD USA
Aissa Richardson, African American United Fund, Philadelphia PA USA
Marco Clausen, Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin Germany
Farida Vis, Everyday Growing Cultures, Manchester UK
Aresh Javadi and members of More Gardens!, New York City USA

3:00pm Developing Models for Predictable Land Tenure

Johanna Rosen, Equity Trust, Amherst, MA USA
Miriam Avins, Baltimore Green Space, MD USA
Thiago Soares Barbizan, Cidades Sem Fome/Cities Without Hunger, Sao Paulo Brasil
Amy Laura Cahn, Garden Justice Legal Initiative, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, PA USA

4:00pm Establishing Long Term Land Management

Matt Delsesto, Boston Food Project, MA USA
Kevin Egolf, Iroquois Valley Farms, NY USA
Jacqueline Hand, Esq., Univ. of Detroit Mercy School of Law, MI USA
Ben Helphand, NeighborSpace, Chicago IL USA

5:00pm Reception
55 W 13th Street, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center

Image credit: Kristen Bonardi Rapp
Turning Vacant Acres into Community Resources