[Chapter_Fourteen] the fence

Sun Nov 7 16:04:42 PST 2010

One great quote from the film:

“Every time you close loops, you’re quality of life is enhanced...” -- James
Stark

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 3:01 PM, margaretha haughwout <xmargarethax at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Last night a few of us went to see Starhawk’s new movie called
> Permaculture: the Growing Edge  at Madrone Studios. One of the things
> Starhawk said during the panel discussion is that the edge is where the gold
> is. The margins, the fence line, the difficulties. It’s interesting because
> there’s a way in which all of our problems/ opportunities (in permaculture
> problems and opportunities are the same) at the farm can be tracked to the
> reality and the metaphor of the fence. How can we make the most of this
> edge?
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Jay <protojay at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The morning after the “Attack on the Bees<http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/bee-murder-at-hayes-valley-farm-unknown-attacker-sprays-hives-with-pesticide.php>”
>> at Hayes Valley Farm, I was walking around the fence line looking for holes,
>> evidence of the vandalism, hoping to find a can of Raid or something that
>> could be fingerprinted or traced.
>>
>> I met one of the farm’s neighbors on this walk, the property manager of
>> the building on Octavia and Hickory. I asked him about the holes in the
>> fence on Hickory Street, and mentioned the vandalism that had occurred the
>> night before.  He offered to keep an eye on the site from his window and
>> when cruising around the neighborhood in his car.
>>
>> Since then, he has called me a few times.  The day after our first
>> encounter, there was a burglary at the site, someone stole 3000 pounds of
>> cardboard<http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-07-23/bay-area/21994721_1_bee-colonies-vandals-sprayed>,
>> and my new friend called to let me know when the east gate was open and not
>> locked.  This is how I learned about the crime. After that, there were a few
>> other late night calls with thoughts on security, and a few neighborly
>> hellos over the summer.  We talked about the fence-line some more, the new
>> neighborhood-watch styled public safety group being formed to ensure safety
>> and security on the farm and in the neighborhood, and friendly small-talk.
>>  I invited him to participate in the Public Safety Meetings with the Hayes
>> Valley Neighborhood Association.  Later, I learned that he has lived there
>> for years, has been his old cars in the alley since the before the freeway
>> closed (he actually used to have more of them), and had even complained
>> about the farm (on behalf of his tenants?) in the earliest of days of the
>> project.
>>
>> Two weeks ago a security specialist walked the site with me and assessed
>> areas of concern, mostly along the fence and in a few places within the
>> site. Just last week, during METHODS 101: Permaculture Design Basics<https://docs1.google.com/document/d/1m2-j1YZPmjG-sh_s3PdcieqLL_wQqrW9Rwxr1dCYgC8/edit#>,
>> one of the students decided to address safety and security on the farm as
>> their design project.  During the site assessment, issues were identified.
>>
>> There were some trees and overgrown brush along the alley at Octavia and
>> Hickory Streets that were preventing any of the lights from the big parking
>> lot on Oak and Octavia from shining into the alley, creating a dark,
>> boxed-in area that was obvious to the both the security specialist and the
>> newest of observers as the easiest access point and biggest “hole in the
>> fence”.
>>
>> The assessment continued to describe the problem with clean up here is
>> that the trees were hanging over the old cars.  Cars which belonged to the
>> same property manager.  Apparently he had been asked many times by the
>> community to move them, to help in clean up the alley, and he had always
>> ignored these requests.
>>
>> Near the end of the METHODS 101 class, I noticed Robert parking in the
>> alley, and began to talk to him again from the top of the off-ramp berms.
>>  We talked about the trees and the light and he offered to help.  We talked
>> about his cars being in the way, and he offered to move them.  He went on to
>> to tell me why there were so many paper plates near the corner of the farm’s
>> fence. He explained he had been feeding some cats who patrolled the farm at
>> night by.  We talked a little bit about how the pile of plates weren’t
>> really the best thing for the plants growing on the fance, and that maybe we
>> could figure out another way.  Feeding them on the outside wouldn’t work,
>> putting a dish on top of the fence wouldn’t work.  He liked the idea of a
>> feeding tray attached to the inside of the fence, that he could pour food
>> into...
>>
>> Then, we talked about the tomatoes.  He was very impressed with them and I
>> gave him a handful to enjoy, here is the shot I took through the fence -
>> http://protojay.tumblr.com/post/1489300766.
>>
>> -Jay
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 2:59 PM, margaretha haughwout <
>> xmargarethax at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> That story reminds us that our presence is new on this site. Homeless
>>> folks have been on site for much longer than we have, and this is an
>>> uncomfortable positioning. Many of us know the narratives of gentrification
>>> and marginalization that frequently come with the creation of urban gardens;
>>> the white people come and make a robust and pleasing green space, the rents
>>> go up and so does intolerance. And yet we also have an obligation to the
>>> city government for permitting us to be on site, and an obligation to the
>>> neighborhood, to look “respectable.” We need to protect the daytime
>>> community from getting hurt, and the tomatoes from getting trampled. How do
>>> the permaculture values of earth care, people care, and fair share figure
>>> here? How do we care for all the people that tread across this site? What is
>>> the fair share? Who gets the food? Who recognizes it as food? Is it too far
>>> fetched to think this farm might help the drug addicts that trespass here?
>>> Today Jay and I discussed designing a safe enclosed space with small trees
>>> and other food forest layers for the nighttime users.
>>>
>>> Another acquaintance regularly meets with the upper crust designers in
>>> Hayes Valley (of which there are many). These are people who don’t know
>>> permaculture, never come to the farm, but think they know urban design. She
>>> says they frequently ask what the hell is going on over there. Why doesn’t
>>> it look good? Our fence line is in flux right now. There’s a big area we’re
>>> sheet mulching and there’s a lot of cardboard. It looks like trash because
>>> it is! We’re closing that loop, turning trash into nutrient and resource. We
>>> start all of our plants from seed, rather than buying big full plants, so we
>>> aren’t transforming overnight. We’re a farm.
>>>
>>> Somehow to me the fence is emblematic of our unique positioning as an
>>> inner city farm. It is a constant reminder of the larger national,
>>> civilized, and urban infrastructures we operate within: of land ownership,
>>> upper class values, of real and perceived dangers that come from class
>>> divisions and unequal distribution of resources.
>>>
>>> /m
>>>
>>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 2:49 PM, Jay <protojay at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> My good friend tells this story:
>>>>
>>>> “Last fall, a group of us would meet for brunch on Sundays.  This was
>>>> before we were given permission to open the gates (to activate the
>>>> space and provide the community with access to it). We were dreaming
>>>> about "Volunteer Work Parties" on the giant lot.  After brunch, we would
>>>> walk around the perimeter fences to observe the site.  After a few walks, we
>>>> had met quite a few neighbors, who loved to talk about the potential for the
>>>> space and what they had been observing over time.  We came to know the fence
>>>> line very well.  We would admire the recently dumped furniture, look for
>>>> freshly cut holes in the fence and other signs of life.
>>>>
>>>> Along Laguna Street, at the west gate, two large gates locked with a
>>>> formidable chain and series of married locks.  The fences were all topped
>>>> with barbed wire. At the south gate, along Oak street just east of Laguna,
>>>> there was a hole in the fence big enough to crawl through but not so big
>>>> that you could push a shopping cart through.  The hole in the cyclone
>>>> fencing was hastily cut and sharp of the passageway.  The more formal double
>>>> doors at the east gate was unlockable.  The frame of the doors was
>>>> stationary and the fencing slid open like a shower curtain.  It was clear
>>>> people had been camping under one of the Melaleuca trees.  A tent and tarp,
>>>> piles of trash, and a dumpster lined the path. On one section of the fence
>>>> near the east gate, an entire section of the fence was removed from pole to
>>>> pole.
>>>>
>>>> On one beautiful sunny day last December, we visited the site with a
>>>> good friend who was excited to shoot some "before shots" of the site for a
>>>> documentary. We parked in the Octavia and Oak street parking lot, turned on
>>>> the camera, hauling tripods and some extra gear, and approached the east
>>>> gate.  As we "slid back the curtain" of the fence and walked right in, we
>>>> were immediately warned off by a barking dog.  The large, gray black lab-mix
>>>> was protecting its owner's campsite. We continued, and proceeded along the
>>>> ravine.  We took video of the homeless' camp, the tents and trash that lined
>>>> the inside of the path. And the broken bottles and needles that lie all over
>>>> the place.
>>>>
>>>> We slowly walked through the site and up towards the west gate.  We had
>>>> been there for a little while, testing different lenses and lighting and
>>>> shooting some footage of the ramps.  At one point, while heading back down
>>>> the offramp, we noticed something "going down" at the east gate.  A couple
>>>> of more people were now assembling there, milling about behind the parking
>>>> valet shack that was stationed right outside the gates.   We wanted to get
>>>> out of there, but all of this new action was happening at our entrance (and
>>>> planned exit).  With some adrenaline, we remembered the hole in the south
>>>> gate and decided we should try to squeeze through their rather than "run the
>>>> gauntlet" of the barking dog, the camp, and the new gang forming at the
>>>> gate.
>>>>
>>>> I went first through the hole, to show my documentarian friend how to
>>>> get low and avoid the spikes.  As she got through, she started to stand up
>>>> and scratched her arm on the fence.  It looked pretty bad.  That night,
>>>>  after showing her family what happened, she never came back to the farm.
>>>>
>>>> So, the footage is in an archive somewhere (for now) and one day she
>>>> might come back to shoot some "after" shots...”
>>>>
>>>> -Jay
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> http://protojay.tumblr.com/
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 2:47 PM, margaretha haughwout <
>>>> xmargarethax at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On our farm we find heroin needles in between the broccoli plants. We
>>>>> have a barbed wire fence that wraps around the entire 2.5 acres of our
>>>>> "freeway food forest" -- a food forest that is rising from the ruins of a
>>>>> freeway that collapsed and then lay dormant for 20 years. At night there is
>>>>> a pregnant cat that makes the place her own (all the sheet mulching has
>>>>> stirred up the mice and rats). Other folks crawl through the fence at night
>>>>> too. With perhaps one exception, the people that come at night aren't the
>>>>> same people that come during the day. Often “fresh” needles appear in the
>>>>> morning. The stories we write about here all have to do with the chain link
>>>>> and barbed wire fence that was on site when we arrived. The forces it is
>>>>> meant to keep out, the forces it is meant to contain, the edge it creates
>>>>> around our site, the fact that it is there at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> ...
>>>>>
>>>>> There are regular potlucks Tuesday evenings on the farm. Last week I
>>>>> didn't go, but I live really close by, so I got a text message from a friend
>>>>> saying she way stopping by. She came up saying she wouldn't stay long as she
>>>>> was getting up at 5:30am tomorrow morning to let H.O.T. - Homeless
>>>>> Outreach Team<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m2-j1YZPmjG-sh_s3PdcieqLL_wQqrW9Rwxr1dCYgC8/edit?hl=en>through the gates to talk to the folks that were sleeping there. "I guess
>>>>> someone called them,” she said. I said I’d get up with her. I was curious. A
>>>>> few minutes later I got another text message from another friend leaving the
>>>>> potluck. "Coming over!" it said. Friend no. 2 came up and we told her how we
>>>>> were getting up early for the Homeless Outreach Team. "Oh," friend no. 2
>>>>> said; "I called them. That was me."
>>>>>
>>>>> This call was predicated by several debates in our community about the
>>>>> homeless. Some feel we should let them sleep in the farm, others are more
>>>>> wary. Personally, I like the idea of city worn homeless people finding the
>>>>> soft sheet mulch to sleep on, and maybe even helping themselves to some
>>>>> cherry tomatoes. For a farm built on the principles of people care and fair
>>>>> share as well as earth care, we are torn by what it means to give them the
>>>>> boot. Youth education coordinators despair over the fact that a child might
>>>>> come across a needle before they do, and since we lost our bees this
>>>>> summer from a senseless act of violence<http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/blog/324-two-killed-and-one-attempt-at-the-farm.html>,
>>>>> we are all a little more skittish. The last time I sat with the women who
>>>>> were at my house after the potluck, we had heated debate on the topic around
>>>>> another table at another house in the neighborhood. It ended with all of us
>>>>> agreeing if there was such a thing as a needle drop box that was configured
>>>>> in a way that you couldn't reach back in and use the old needles, it would
>>>>> be a good idea to install a few of those around the perimeter. We also
>>>>> agreed that eventually we should probably just take the fence down.
>>>>>
>>>>> The obvious issue at hand in this story might be how to handle the
>>>>> issue of homelessness and nighttime drug use on our urban farm. The not so
>>>>> obvious issue in this story, but one that we want to tease out and explore
>>>>> is how we decide what to do about the homelessness and the needles -
>>>>> and the fence. In the scenario above, some of the farmers debated it at
>>>>> length and then one person took action ad-hoc without really having a method
>>>>> of checking in with the rest of the community. Also, the way in which the
>>>>> conversations occurred were very ad-hoc, and happened at a variety of nodes
>>>>> located not only on the farm but in the neighborhood around it - both inside
>>>>> and outside the farm. There is a lot to say here about how we make decisions
>>>>> on the farm, particularly when they negotiate between the farm and the city,
>>>>> the inner and the outer, day and night, permacultural and urban. A lot of
>>>>> times decisions happen exactly in the manner I’m describing above. This is a
>>>>> thread someone might pick up for discussion: the thread of decision making
>>>>> and accountability when our values ask us to be responsible to the land, the
>>>>> common people and the terms of our lease asks us to be accountable to a
>>>>> larger hierarchy. I love the unfolding at play in the story above, but what
>>>>> if friend no. 2 decided to call the cops instead of H.O.T.?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> ♫ Spread the word, please help us support the farm on Kickstarter!
>>>>> http://bit.ly/hvf-kickstarter
>>>>>
>>>>> Lead Researcher, Hayes Valley Farm
>>>>> http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/
>>>>>
>>>>> Lecturer, Film and Digital Media
>>>>> University of California Santa Cruz
>>>>> Communications 151
>>>>>
>>>>> chapter fourteen<http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net>
>>>>> http://www.beforebefore.net/
>>>>> http://www.bitterpattern.net/
>>>>>
>>>>> I am best contacted by email:
>>>>> xmargarethax at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net mailing list
>>>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net at lists.beforebefore.net
>>>>>
>>>>> http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If we're not working together, we're destroying each other."
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net mailing list
>>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net at lists.beforebefore.net
>>>>
>>>> http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> ♫ Spread the word, please help us support the farm on Kickstarter!
>>> http://bit.ly/hvf-kickstarter
>>>
>>> Lead Researcher, Hayes Valley Farm
>>> http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/
>>>
>>> Lecturer, Film and Digital Media
>>> University of California Santa Cruz
>>> Communications 151
>>>
>>> chapter fourteen<http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net>
>>> http://www.beforebefore.net/
>>> http://www.bitterpattern.net/
>>>
>>> I am best contacted by email:
>>> xmargarethax at gmail.com
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net mailing list
>>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net at lists.beforebefore.net
>>>
>>> http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If we're not working together, we're destroying each other."
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net mailing list
>> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net at lists.beforebefore.net
>>
>> http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> ♫ Spread the word, please help us support the farm on Kickstarter!
> http://bit.ly/hvf-kickstarter
>
> Lead Researcher, Hayes Valley Farm
> http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/
>
> Lecturer, Film and Digital Media
> University of California Santa Cruz
> Communications 151
>
> chapter fourteen<http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net>
> http://www.beforebefore.net/
> http://www.bitterpattern.net/
>
> I am best contacted by email:
> xmargarethax at gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net mailing list
> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net at lists.beforebefore.net
>
> http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net
>
>

-- 
"If we're not working together, we're destroying each other."
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