Public Comment

The 2,240-word screed on alleged “turf battles” over a community garden in North Oakland, published last week in the Berkeley Daily Planet, mischaracterizes what is essentially a kerfuffle of the author’s own making. In truth, there would be no controversy to speak of had Robert Brokl and his partner, Alfred Crofts, not grumbled to the city of Oakland about potential hazards posed by some citrus and avocado trees that are part of this modest food-growing effort. 

It was Brokl’s and Crofts’ grievance that resulted in the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee’s June 8 vote to require community garden organizers to obtain a conditional use permit at a cost of $2,900. Since then, Oakland city councilmember Jane Brunner has stepped up to pick up the tab for the permit on grounds that “it does not make sense to charge so much money from volunteers who are helping to maintain and improve a city park.” 

For more than a year, organizers of Dover Street Park’s “Healthy Hearts Youth Market Garden and Orchard” have worked on the project in close consultation with representatives from Brunner’s office, city parks and recreation and public works departments. As with most bureaucracies, conflicting advice was given about what paperwork and permits were needed, numerous emails between the parties show. 

Ultimately, however, this project is one that enjoys the support of the city and of the community, including more than 400 residents of the Dover Street area who signed a petition in support of the effort. As far as we know, it’s the nation’s first organic community garden to partner with an obesity prevention clinic. 

Thus, Brokl and Crofts may find themselves alone in this battle, which is unfortunate and ironic given that the pair was part of the core group that pushed to create Dover Street Park as part of the old Merritt College campus redevelopment more than a decade ago. They possess an encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s byzantine zoning requirements and their expertise and energy can be a force for positive change in the face of major development threats, such as the proposed expansion of Children’s Hospital Oakland in 2007. Had the measure not been defeated, the high-rise would have cast a chilling shadow over the Dover Street neighborhood and bulldozed some people’s homes at taxpayers’ expense. 

As for Dover Street Park, for years, neighbors have been struggling to maintain this small, underutilized and overlooked playground located behind the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and the North Oakland Senior Center. The threat of poor visibility, thorny vegetation and potential injuries due to tree climbing existed at the park long before the creation of the community garden project, yet now are suddenly cited as reasons for a conditional use permit. 

The food-growing project began in 2009 when councilmember Brunner and her staff facilitated a meeting between the Dover Street Neighborhood Group, a loose coalition of neighborhood volunteers; Phat Beets Produce, a local non-profit whose mission is to provide affordable access to healthy food for families in North Oakland and West Oakland; and the Healthy Hearts Obesity Prevention Clinic, which serves Alameda County children at risk for obesity. 

Phat Beets and Healthy Hearts were interested in meeting neighborhood delegates in order to create an innovative, communal garden around the edges of the park. With the guidance and encouragement of Brunner, parks and recreation and public works, the volunteers submitted a plan for a garden, procured an approval, and set about creating a small vegetable-growing oasis along the weed-invested park perimeter. 

Public works provided mulch and a water source. Brunner’s office offered to donate four fruit trees. Garden workdays were scheduled for each Wednesday evening and the first Sunday of each month. In addition to green thumb activities, the Dover Street Neighborhood Group hosted several park events including Summer Movie Night, National Night Out, and a celebration of Cesar Chavez Day, which attracted over 300 attendees. The Healthy Hearts Obesity Clinic created a summer internship for nine teenaged patients to help with garden maintenance. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has had her portrait painted on the park’s back fence. 

As a result of this newly found energy and enthusiasm, the park is getting cleaner, safer and more popular. Parents walk their children to the park from west of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, from the heart of Temescal and from the Berkeley border. Neighborhood daycare centers bring their broods to check out the collard greens and artichokes. Senior citizens stop by via wheelchairs, walkers, and on the arms of friends. 

Easter egg hunts, birthday parties, special holidays, and graduations are regularly celebrated within the park. Tai Chi enthusiasts habitually work out in its grassy oval center. Kids learn how to ride bicycles and scooters along the paved pathways. Newborns in strollers are rocked back and forth while their older siblings play on the slides and monkey bars. Gates are not locked because there is no longer a need to lock them. Nearby residents report no bothersome noise or suspicious loitering. 

A long-range plan for the garden will be soon submitted to the city for negotiation and fine-tuning. Phat Beets Produce, Healthy Hearts Obesity Clinic and the Dover Street Neighborhood look forward to putting in many more hours in the garden weeding, planting, hoeing, watering, laughing and getting to know our neighbors. We hope that you -- and Brokl and Crofts -- will join us in improving this budding urban oasis. 

Susan Parker and Yasmin Anwar are North Oakland residents and neighbors of Dover Street Park. 

For more information, visit the Dover Street Neighborhood Group Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dover-Street-Neighborhood-Group/126951537387171 

The Dover Park Connection blog is at http://doverparkconnection.blogspot.com/ 

Phat Beets Produce is at www.phatbeetsproduce.org