community gardens & gentrification
Exploring the connections in Minneapolis, MN
Community Gardening
What is a community garden?
Community gardens are diverse spaces. Community gardening, unlike private gardening or urban farming, is a shared process in which members of the public garden in a collective space for their own personal needs.
Community gardening practices vary based on the size of the plot, who owns the land, and the driving purpose of the garden. One of the big differences between gardens is whether gardens are split into individual plots or gardened communally.
There are about 300 community gardens in Minneapolis!
This map represents nearly 80 community gardens. These gardens were identified in the Minneapolis Urban Agriculture Survey in 2019.
This subset of gardens can help us learn more about the diversity and role of gardens in Minneapolis.
Colors represent the age of the community garden, with older gardens displayed in darker greens and younger gardens displayed in lighter greens.
Many of these gardens have been around for more 20 years, while others have emerged in the last 1-5 years.
Zoom in on the map to check out gardens in your neighborhood, and click on the gardens for more information.
How do gardens impact their communities?
Gardeners anonymously shared their perspectives with us on the impacts of community gardens in their neighborhoods.
Gardens can be a source of food security, providing communities with healthy produce.
"We want to make food accessible to everyone who needs it, and we’re always going to keep it that way.”
"We grow so much food that we’re able to give back to the community if they’re in need or if they ask.”
Gardens can be a space to learn about growing food and connect with nature.
“Especially if they help plant the stuff, that’s when kids are like ‘oh...I’m eating those snap peas because I helped put that in the ground, I'm eating that!’”
“You have people who just want to sit in a garden because it feels peaceful and it’s just quiet.”
Gardens can be a space to build community and celebrate culture.
“I try to encourage people to use the space. If they wanted to have a cookout there with their family they can do that, just give us a heads up.”
“In our first year [creating] the garden, it was, ‘what can we do to make this space feel secure and feel safe and feel comfortable for everybody?’”
Gardens can improve the aesthetics of a neighborhood.
“This neighborhood is better because a lot of people have worked really hard...there is no trash on this street and we've got beautiful flowers, beautiful plants on the bank of the community garden.”
“Over the years, people used to throw a lot of trash in there when it was just a big vacant lot, but we don’t pick up a lot of trash in there like we did in the earlier years.”
What are the impacts of these changes in neighborhoods?
Some people worry that community gardens might contribute to "green gentrification."
“Is [gardening] a gentrified kind of thing? It can be a signal.”
At the same time, gardeners also see community gardens as a positive way to protect green space in an urban area.
“I think...[people] love the space, they appreciate the space, so I think green space in an urban environment is really important. So I would hope that we do prevent more development.”
Gentrification
What is green gentrification?
Green gentrification is the process through which "greening" increases the desirability and cost of living of an area.
Increasing costs can cause economically-vulnerable residents to be priced out of their neighborhood.
The introduction of new parks, bicycle greenways, eco-friendly construction, and even community gardening have all been linked to green gentrification.
Is Gentrification Happening in Minneapolis?
In 2019, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota published a report on the spread of gentrification through the Twin Cities. This map shows their findings for Minneapolis.
Using Census data, the researchers looked at economic changes like property values and rent, as well as demographic changes like the percentage of a population with a college degree and the median income of residents, to determine whether or not a neighborhood gentrified during this period.
Red neighborhoods did gentrify between 2000—2015, while blue neighborhoods did not gentrify over this time period.
Take this map with a grain of salt.
Gentrification is a dynamic process, can mean different things in different contexts, and is really hard to measure quantitatively. This map provides one snapshot of an experience that's hard to capture in numbers. The areas in red show neighborhoods where the biggest and fastest changes occurred, but gentrification happens in small pockets of neighborhoods all over the city, not just in these neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods not colored in were considered "not eligible to gentrify" because, in 2000, the median income in these neighborhoods was already more than the city average.
Click on the neighborhoods to view pop-ups with the demographic and economic information used to decide if a neighborhood has or hasn't gentrified.
Median Home Value in Minneapolis
One key indicator of gentrification is the median home value in a neighborhood.
Swipe the bar to see the median home value for neighborhoods in 2000 on the left, vs the median home value in 2015 on the right.
(click the arrow button in the top right when you're done sliding.)
Gardening and Gentrification—are there connections?
To explore the relationship between gardens and gentrification,
we looked at gardens located in the neighborhoods of Minneapolis that were considered "At Risk for Gentrification" in 2000 (shown in blue on the map).
Splitting this into areas that had and had not gentrified by 2015, we divided gardens into four categories:
1) Older gardens in areas that gentrified
(we defined "older" as a garden that has been around for more than 10 years)
2) Newer gardens in areas that gentrified
("newer" gardens are those that are less than 10 years old)
3) Older gardens in areas that did not gentrify
and 4) Newer gardens in areas that did not gentrify
One way to explore this relationship is through quantitative data. We looked at changes in property values in the areas surrounding gardens over time, to see if any patterns emerged. Data were sourced from Hennepin County's property tax database.
We also talked with garden managers from each of these categories to hear how they think about the relationship between gardens and gentrification.
(Quotes from interviews are presented anonymously to protect the privacy of interviewees.)
Looking at older gardens, what does quantitative data tell us about the relationship between gardens and property values in areas that gentrified?
The Soo Line Community Garden was started in 1999. The blue dotted line shows the change in property values within the circle around the garden from 2002-2019, while the orange shows the city average. Property values surrounding Soo Line have been steadily increasing, even during periods when the citywide trend is decreasing.
The Emily Peake Memorial Garden was founded in 2002. Property values surrounding this garden increase in the years following its founding and fluctuate with city trends.
The quantitative data shows increases in property values in the areas surrounding older gardens. These increases are consistent with city-wide increases.
Qualitative data helps us contextualize these trends.
In older gardens located in areas that gentrified, we heard gardeners express a complicated relationship with gentrification.
While they were proud of the work that their garden had done to clean up their neighborhood, they worried that this helped make the neighborhood more attractive to developers.
"Before, the [garden] site was strewn with litter, junk, and broken glass—in other words, underutilized neglected urban land."
"The whole space kind of changed ...the units of development that have risen up around us...there are two right down the street from us right now that are being developed."
On the other hand, they saw that as gentrification progressed, their garden physically prevented some land from being developed, slowing gentrification and preserving green space for their community.
"[The garden] is surrounded by development. So...a lot of the gardeners feel like we’re always going to be threatened by development."
What does this relationship look like for newer gardens in gentrified areas?
The Taylor Street Garden (blue line) was started in 2016, once property values in the area were already well on the rise. Property values have continued climbing since, even when city-wide trends (orange) have shown decreases.
The Sheridan Neighborhood Organization Garden was also started in 2016, just as property values in the area were beginning to recover following the 2008 Recession.
Let's see what our qualitative data tells us about these trends.
In gardens that have emerged following gentrification, many garden managers discussed ways their garden can ease the impacts of gentrification on communities.
The manager of one garden mentioned allocating space in the garden based on need, with priority given to those who are lower income, renters, older residents, or who don't have their own yard for gardening.
“One thing we pay attention to is where they live and if they have green space in their yard...or if they happen to be an elder in the community that doesn’t have a yard as well. And so we’ll see...a lot of seniors that are on fixed incomes that want a garden but don’t have the capacity to pay for a plot.”
The manager of another garden described donating produce from the garden to daycare centers for children from low-income families.
"I used to go...deliver 25 CSA shares of produce [from the garden], and as the families come, if they want to grab that bag they just take it. And they were gone every week...You know that the food is going to be used.”
"Our focus is on feeding the younger generation in our neighborhood.”
At the same time, the businesses now thriving in gentrified areas often provide financial support to the garden and many of the garden members are newcomers to the neighborhood.
These gardens are, in part, enabled by the gentrification of their neighborhood and can serve to cement the shift in the cultural character of the neighborhood.
"[At our garden] we have some fresh young 20-year-olds who just moved into the neighborhood”
"We have a lot of people that are really into like juicing, or being able to harvest their own food in their plots”
We also talked to gardeners from gardens located in areas that have not yet gentrified but that feel the pressures of development, gentrification, and displacement.
Managers of older, established gardens in neighborhoods that have not gentrified felt their gardens helped build a sense of community.
Gardeners described the coming together as a community to clean up vacant lots. They expressed the importance of their garden as a space for community members to come together, and to support one another.
“They get to know somebody who lives on the next block, not only through casual contacts in the garden, but when we have events in the garden as well, they get to meet people...it’s been gradually becoming a place where people are happy living here and enjoy each other.”
Gardens in these neighborhoods can help reify the cultural identity of a neighborhood.
However, by and large, gardeners from older, long-established gardens in neighborhoods that haven't gentrified really didn't see a strong connection between their garden and gentrification.
“We didn’t feel like gentrification was affected by the garden, but we may be wrong.”
Quantitative trends tell a similar story
Started in 2004, property values surrounding the Community Peace Garden (blue) have risen and fallen without a clear trend.
Similarly, changes in property values surrounding the Eat Street Community Garden don't seem to have much of a relationship with the founding of the garden. Property values in this area show a sharp increase in the late 2000s, nearly a decade after the garden was founded.
Gardeners from recently-established gardens in areas at risk for gentrification hoped their garden would prevent gentrification and displacement in their neighborhood.
They felt the threat of gentrification coming, and wanted their garden to be a resource to prevent the displacement of their neighbors.
One garden operated fully communally without individual plots. Neighbors were welcomed to come and go and garden and use the space as they pleased. All of the food grown there was available for community members to take freely.
"We don’t rent out space or beds, it’s like, look, here's the food we got growing and if there's something you want to see in here...we can either try and purchase it ourselves, or you can grow it, or whatever. We don’t do membership stuff because...this is a bit more of a gentrified area and it's going to get even more...I’ve seen it in other neighborhoods...these community gardens, you have your own little box and you pay for it...but if you want to grow something here, you better be willing to share it.”
They hoped that by connecting with long-time residents of the neighborhood, serving as a source of food security, and providing a space for community building, their garden could be a source of resilience against gentrification.
This garden manager hoped their garden could empower residents to take control of their food and their space.
"[Gardening is] a means of access, trying to fill in the gaps, because we experience food apartheid over here."
“It's resistance, it's survival, it's liberation for us.”
Still, the threat of gentrification was on their mind.
“I see [gentrification] coming in waves...and it’s like trickling in where I'm at...We’re still here, it’s my neighborhood, too.”
Quantitative trends underscore these concerns about the threat of gentrification.
While still lower than the city average (orange) property values surrounding Logan Blooms (blue) have been steadily on the rise since its founding in 2016, suggesting increasing economic pressure in this neighborhood.
Likewise, property values surrounding the Franklin Steele Community Garden (blue line) are also on the rise. Just started in 2018, the impact the garden will have on this trend is yet to be seen.
Takeaways
In gentrified areas,
community gardens can protect green space from development.
At the same time, community gardens can shift the perception of a neighborhood in a way that paves the way for gentrification or shifts the cultural perception of the neighborhood that makes its historic residents feel out of place.
Intentional choices can help make community gardens inclusive spaces for all residents that ease the effects of gentrification.
Material strategies include prioritizing low-income neighbors and renters, charging membership fees on a donation or needs-based scale, and donating food to organizations that serve low-income communities.
Collaborating with long-time residents can help make sure the garden is serving the needs of all members of a community.
In neighborhoods where development and gentrification loom,
community gardeners see their gardens as a way to build the resilience of their community.
Resilience can come from community building through working and gathering together at the garden. Resilience can also come from making the food grown in the garden freely available to all who might need it.
Gardens that reflect the character of a neighborhood can help serve as a form of resistance to displacement from gentrification.
Gardens can transform a space from a vacant lot to a place for community. However, the context of a real estate market always pushing for the next development puts gardens in a precarious position. Intentional choices made by gardeners can shape the impact of gardens on communities.
Key Takeaways
Through spatial analyses and interviews with garden managers, we found that the relationship between community gardening and gentrification is complex.
Community gardens can be spaces for people to grow food, learn about gardening, meet their neighbors, and recreate in nature. Gardens can help address issues of food insecurity while also improving the aesthetics of a neighborhood.
One possible complication from community gardening is the capacity for gardens to contribute to green gentrification. By improving a neighborhood, gardens might inadvertently lead to increased interest in development, or rising property values which can displace vulnerable residents.
However, gardening can also be a way to resist gentrification. Community gardens create space for community members to connect and build neighborhood resilience together, which may provide an avenue to protect shared community resources.
Limitations
Some factors limited our analysis of community gardening and gentrification in Minneapolis.
First and foremost, gentrification is a complicated process that is hard to define. There is no perfect quantitative or qualitative measure for gentrification, so examinations of gentrification are limited by their definition. For our purposes, we used measures of gentrification as determined by CURA, but we recognize that there are limitations to this definition.
Next, in our analysis we only examined a subset of community gardens. There are hundreds of gardens in Minneapolis, and each garden has its own context, history, and purpose. Gardens are really diverse! By only examining a sample of these gardens, there are likely other patterns and narratives that we could not include.
Finally, it is important to recognize that the patterns we analyzed in Minneapolis are not necessarily the same as those in other cities. Even St. Paul might show different relationships between gardens and gentrification due to the many factors that influence both of these phenomena.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who generously shared their time and perspectives with us to discuss community gardening in Minneapolis. We appreciate all of your insights and experiences!
