Disrespect and Despair
Our hometown of Peoria, Illinois suffered a small crisis due to an indignity foisted upon a small community garden this past week.
Here’s the big picture: Renaissance Park Community Garden, located at 622 W. Main Street near Sheridan, had been operating for a decade on a small plot of land belonging to the owner of the gas station next door. Note: the owner lives in Wisconsin. [Update: the latest communiques would indicate that the gas station has recently been sold, along with the lot at 622 W. Main where the Garden is situated – presumably, it’s the new owner who wants to develop the lot in some fashion. Question to self: If this is the case, then why was it seeded with grass after razing? Also: Who is the new owner? Are they local?]
A dedicated leadership and corps of volunteers maintained a vegetable garden, donating food to community members each season. [Note: the garden is in Council District 2, which is officially a “food desert.”] The space also served as a respite for homeless individuals, particularly during the pandemic, when the main library and its branches remained closed. [Note: apparently the only place neighborhood residents can purchase food is the gas station’s market.]
On Thursday, September 3, the garden was razed and its furniture and art works – created by and for the garden over the course of years, and the property of RPCA – were summarily put in a storage facility belonging to the City of Peoria.
This happened – after a decade of community building and hard work – without the City of Peoria even notifying the officers of RPCA. Here’s the group’s statement, which was released on Friday, September 4 (from their Facebook page):
- OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON COMMUNITY GARDEN
Renaissance Park Community Association
9/4/20
Statement drafted by Per Ellingson, President RPCA and Angie Ostaszewski, Vice President RPCA, with support from Jessica McGhee, Founder, RPCA and Lula Peoria, Adam Gasper, Treasurer, RPCA, and Jay Ritchie, Garden Coordinator
Please direct questions and media inquiries to Adam Gasper, Treasurer, RPCA
Phone: 219-616-6804
Email: repsagmada3@gmail.com
Yesterday, September 3, 2020, Renaissance Park Community Association (RPCA) was shocked to learn the community garden was being razed by a City of Peoria contractor. We immediately began a calling campaign to understand what transpired for something so heartbreaking to occur. We would like to outline the facts for our community in the hopes that we can come together to create a solution from this tragedy.
President Per Ellingson would like to share, “This action is not representative of our community. We believe West Main is a diverse and inclusive area that celebrates all of its residents. We are a community of artists, gardeners, volunteers, and more. We believe in dignity and respect for all of our neighbors, and we will find a path forward for the garden because of the incredible support within this community.”
The Renaissance Park Community Garden was founded by Jessica and James McGhee ten years ago with volunteers and community support. The plot is owned by the adjacent gas station land owners who gave permission for the lot to be used as a community space. Volunteers cleared the lot and transformed it into a garden space. Since then, it has served as an urban park, a place to obtain fresh and free produce, a music venue, an art space, and a resting spot for many members of our community. Every object in that space was lovingly created and placed, including, most recently, a stage for performances that was hand-built by volunteers with materials funded by the City of Peoria Innovation Team.
On Friday afternoon, our president Per Ellingson received several calls that the garden was being razed. This was the first time anyone in our organization had been notified that this was taking place. He immediately went to the garden and began a string of phone calls to gather information on how this happened. Below is an outline of what we learned.
-The contractor razing the garden works for the City of Peoria. The city worked with the owners of the lot to arrange for it to be razed in preparation for business expansion.
-When we spoke with Councilman Chuck Grayeb as to why we weren’t informed, he said he assumed the organization was defunct. We would like to make it very clear that, although we have not hosted events in the garden for several months due to COVID, it was still an active space and was tended to regularly by our garden coordinator and community volunteers. City representatives have our contact information as it is listed in the City of Peoria neighborhood association directory, and it is easy to find and contact us via our website and social media, which is still active.
-City representatives on site told RPCA that all equipment would be taken to storage and we would be given the first opportunity to pick them up, while other workers on site notified RPCA that the items had been committed by the city to go to another non-profit. We have heard from Ross Black, City of Peoria Community Development Director, as of this morning that the items are in storage. Again, RPCA was not involved in any discussion prior to this regarding the ultimate destination of our belongings.
-While arranging for the plot to be razed, neither Councilman Chuck Grayeb nor any other city representatives involved coordinated support or alternative options for the homeless individuals who visit the garden on a regular basis.
In order to try to accurately and concisely communicate our position, we would like to share what we believe should have happened.
-As soon as city representatives were aware that the plot would be repurposed for business expansion, they should have notified RPCA. RPCA would have arranged to haul all materials safely, without damage, and began a proactive search for a new garden location.
-We also believe city representatives should have reached out to one of many extraordinary non-profits that support our neighbors experiencing homelessness and arranged proactively for service and support for those losing a resting place. If RPCA had been notified, we would have offered to coordinate the involvement of these organizations as well. During a pandemic, it is even more difficult for homeless individuals to receive basic services, or find places to even use the restroom or obtain water.
-Unfortunately, these non-profits now have to react to this tragedy and coordinate resources as quickly as possible rather than being given the opportunity to be a proactive part of the solution. This is the time we should be coming together to help our most vulnerable rather than shutting out community advocates who are willing to put in the work.
-With notice, the community would also have been given an opportunity to provide input on this decision and have closure. Many of us were shocked to tears seeing a beloved space wiped away without warning. Unfortunately, the manner in which this was done was extremely divisive and we believe this could have been prevented.
We’d like to close our statement by sharing a few calls to action for those who want to take a next step on this issue. We are grateful to the owners of the plot for allowing us to use the space for a decade. We do not take this for granted and understand and support their decision to expand their business. Where our frustration originates is the manner in which this transpired, and we place that blame on 2nd district councilman Chuck Grayeb. If you are interested in supporting the garden, we ask that you consider doing the following:
1. Contacting 2nd district council Chuck Grayeb to share your dissatisfaction via phone at 309-213-6629 or via email at cgrayeb@peoriagov.org.
2. Reach out to Renaissance Park Community Association via Facebook and volunteer to help us find a new home for the garden. We will be forming a working committee to bring together our energy and passion to create a new and welcoming garden space.
- Also on Friday, a “competing” statement was released by the District 2 City Council member, Chuck Grayeb (also released via Facebook):
“The City and conscientious proprietors of business will not permit gardens that are untended and strewn with garbage, weeds, litter, and discarded needles on West Main or anywhere else. Citizens who live in the area should not have to watch folks urinating and defecating as they drive by or witness drug deals going down. The property owner of the gas station is looking at an expansion at Main and Sheridan and has been working with City Staff. I am happy to work with any organization which has the CAPACITY and work ethic to maintain an unblighted area. Also, in this time of Covid, there were multiple violations of CDC and Illinois guidelines at this site. For many years, the volunteers did the hard work. This garden area remains private property, and we must thank a very generous proprietor who did not have to allow any such use in the first place. The City does not own the property and cannot compel ownership to do anything, if any land remains after the new gas station/ store is built. I do stress that the City will work with any responsible organization if another plot of land is located that is being offered. I remain very proud of our West Main merchants and West Bluff neighborhoods and know that they have a huge stake in this area. I will also remind the former owners of Blue that we helped them abate issues at a neighboring business when they were on West Main.”
When Grayeb was informed that members of the Association were upset (distressed, actually), he simply noted that he’d assumed the association was defunct – but Grayeb is an experienced member of the City of Peoria government and knew very well how to contact the officers of Renaissance Park at any time; after all, they’re listed in the City’s Neighborhood Associations, and he could have picked up the phone and called the President (Per Ellingson, who lives on Douglas Street off Main). But he didn’t.
Whose responsibility was it to notify the Renaissance Park Community Association that the site was to be razed? The (new) owner’s or the city’s?
Shouldn’t the City of Peoria, and specifically the Councilman for District 2, have taken the initiative to notify the interested parties once he knew the owner hadn’t? Grayeb claims he thought the Association was “defunct,” which is the ultimate excuse for failure to notify. If the RPCA no longer existed, neither the owner nor the City (through Grayeb) had any responsibility to notify anybody – it was analogous to clearing an abandoned property. [Note: the City of Peoria hired the equipment to raze the site, not the owner, and the Association’s property appears to have been stored in City storage.]
- Here’s a message from Thursday (?) purportedly written by Grayeb (signed with his initials) and forwarded to someone (“Pinck KT” in the comment thread on Grayeb’s FB page):
Note: “MBRA” = the Moss Bradley Residential Association. For those not familiar with the neighborhood, it’s worth scrolling through the photo gallery on their home page to get an idea of what it’s like, because that plays a role in how we interpret the chain of events that led to the garden’s destruction. [Here’s a typical Moss Avenue property for sale to give a sense of property values in this neighborhood.] [Sid Ruckriegel, an at-large colleague of Grayeb’s on the Peoria City Council, is the MBRA Treasurer.]
Mr. Grayeb’s Facebook page is rife with rumors and accusations flying back and forth among some commenters (though some, we should note, are gracious and high-minded and polite; apparently, though, the Councilman has been deleting comments for the past 24 hours – there are quite a few commenters noting that their initial comments have “disappeared”).
A sampling of comments:
“Sorry I had to comeback to say one last thing. Since when is it the responsibility of a group of volunteers to clean up used needles and human excrement, isn’t that the kind of streets and sanitation responsibility of the municipal government? You denigrate Renaissance Park Community Association NFP as irresponsible and lacking capacity and work ethic, then thank the land owner for letting volunteers clean up his mess and provide community services on his neglected property, but not a word of gratitude to the volunteers that funded it, built it, and maintained it and the garbages and planters along the West Main corridor, doing the city’s job for ten years.” [Marcus Fogliano]
“It really saddens and angers me to see the complete disregard for both the community members that created this space and the folks who were most currently using it as a safe space. The problems that those folks may have are not erased by removing a garden. Are you working on a solution for that?” [Jackie Henson Armich]
“Instead of acknowledging the loss, all I see are baseless accusations and widening of divisions. Furthermore, instead of listening to constituents, you are deleting comments. It’s alarming, to say the least.
“Absolutely nothing about this helped our 2nd district community. It’s a tragic loss. Our household stands with the Renaissance Park Community Association NFP” [Mae Gilliland Wright]
“What kind of person fights so hard when people are obviously aggrieved over something that literally would have taken 5 minutes. Like… even if the place still had to go, you really can’t apologize when it’s pointed out you lacked almost literally the least amount of courtesy possible?” [Angie Ostaszewski, volunteer and wife of Renaissance Garden President Per Ellingson – a notably gracious comment, given that Ostaszewski and her husband were stalwarts of the garden.]
We sense that Councilman Grayeb caved to more powerful (i.e. monied) interests, and we believe it improbable someone so knowledgeable of City government didn’t bother to contact the Garden’s officers for the reason he cited (“assumed it was defunct”). More likely, the pandemic led to some neglect, both of the garden as well as of the trash that was accumulating in and around it, including refuse left by the homeless who used it as a refuge during the past six months. This is not a criticism of the officers and volunteers – social distancing would have meant that not as many people came out to help on a regular basis from March to June-July. But it’s clear from comments on Grayeb’s FB page that there were at least some efforts made to keep it maintained, do some planting, and clear refuse (this stretch of Main Street tends to get messy). Volunteers did what they could in a very challenging time for the city, the state, and the country.
The presence of homeless individuals and accumulation of refuse (both human and man-made, including, according to some – not all – commenters, syringes) probably led residents in the wealthy Moss Bradley neighborhood to complain to at-large City Council member Sid Ruckriegel (who lives on Moss Avenue), although some members of the Moss Bradley Residential Association claimed that the topic wasn’t raised at the meeting held outside on the front lawn of the Pettingill-Morron House on Wednesday (?) night. [Note: Who’s telling the truth here? Who knows, at this point?]
There was no possible justification, apart from the excuse of indifference (and that’s an explanation, not a justification) for the failure to notify Peoria’s Homeless Services (Heart of Illinois Homeless Continuum of Care) in advance of the razing. When volunteers returned to the site after the garden was destroyed, the homeless people who had found respite there had dispersed, and no one was able to locate them.
The Renaissance Park Community Association board has stated that it will be looking for another site to start a new garden in future, the implication being that they’ll be looking for another owner to donate land for cultivation (and other community activities – art exhibits, concerts, etc.). We would suggest instead that they request that the City make one or more Peoria land bank properties available to neighborhood residents – and while they’re at it, why not extend the offer of one or more plots of city-owned land to some of District 1’s neighborhoods too? The City should undertake to clear and turn the soil in advance of any property’s being turned into a garden, the soil should be tested to make sure it is free of contaminants, and we would suggest that such lots be planted in nutrient-rich cover crops for one year before cultivation proper begins. This time could be spent in re-incorporation of the RPCA (perhaps as a cooperative), in professional development, in community outreach, and in training volunteers.
Two types of disrespect were demonstrated by the City (and Council member Grayeb) towards its residents here: (1) towards the Renaissance Park Community Association itself – both its Board and its volunteers, as well as the neighborhood residents who had felt themselves a part of a vibrant community, and (2) towards the homeless population who took refuge in the Garden when the pandemic had shut down other refuges/public venues.
Footnote: In 2018, the City of Peoria erected a “parklet” two blocks further west, in the 800 block of W. Main, outside an ice cream parlor called “Las Delicias”:
“For months … the city Innovation Team or I-Team met with area residents, neighborhood groups and businesses to get their feedback on some ideas to revitalize the area. The parklet was seen as an inexpensive method to link the areas north of Sheridan Road to the areas closer to the Bradley University campus.”
This is a stretch of Main Street located not far from Bradley University which is struggling mightily to gentrify. Clearly, however, the City is expending effort (and money – the cost of a parklet runs between $5,000 and $10,000) to make this section – roughly, six-eight blocks between Sheridan and University Street – more attractive (“upscale”). There are small boutique-like shops, some ethnic restaurants, a charity shop, a Habitat for Humanity Restore among others along this stretch currently.
But apparently a community garden didn’t fit into the plan. We’ll close with another quote from Coucilman Grayeb, reporting on initiatives in the neighborhood as of August, 2018:
“The upscale 25 million dollar Muse Housing Development has been approved by the City Council. It will serve the UofICOMP and BU student clientele with 330 more people residing, studying, and spending disposable income in our neighborhoods and great City, come August of 2020.
“The historic Larkin Building at Main and Sheridan is undergoing a facelift. The experimental Bloomberg grant parkelet— a people oasis— outside Las Delicias was a great success and look for more of them.
“We have applied for 25 million dollars of federal money to do a complete rebuild of West Main from Laura Bradley Park to Water Street. Features will include a bike path and wider sidewalks and more exciting al fresco dining opportunities for our restaurants.” [Emphasis added]
The keywords here: “upscale,” “facelift,” “oasis,” “complete rebuild” and “al fresco dining opportunities” all spell “gentrification.”
And when gentrification comes, there’s no place for the homeless among us.