Can urban gardens be developed as meeting points for modern local communities, or are we " light-years away" from such novelty in terms of urban development practices? An answer to this question could be found in RU:RBAN: urban agriculture, nowadays in the shape of urban gardens managed by citizens, is stepping away from being seen only as the practice of growing vegetables within the municipal territory of our cities.
Urban gardens are becoming more and more a gathering place where diverse activities take place around that of growing vegetables: learn new skills and a new profession, socialize, fight poverty, environment education, improve mental health of those suffering from depression and isolation are some of them.
Therefore, this important role played by urban gardens in the every-day life of a local community should, perhaps, be taken into consideration by our policy makers when planning the urban development of our cities. Gardeners’ views and experiences could certainly contribute to the making of new planning policies towards a more sustainable urban development.
Kostas Karamarkos, the Lead Expert of RU:RBAN, has written a detailed article on the project’s scope, progress and next steps. In his article Mr Karamarkos puts together the different definitions of an urban garden illustrated in today’s literature and sets up a challenge: why not think of an urban garden as a real “social hub” and a sort of “think tank” where new ideas arise, ideas that could be supported by local authorities and policy makers in order to improve citizens’ quality of life?
Definitely something to think about…and, as Mr Karamarkos says, it would be interesting to see how policy makers in the cities of the RU:RBAN network (Rome, Thessaloniki, Caen, Krakow, Loures, A Coruña and Vilnius) take into consideration this topic.
The article, redacted in Greek and sent to the Greek and the Cyprian URBACT National Points for dissemination purposes, has been published on a local newspaper in Kozani (Western Macedonia, Greece).
