How do we improve
communities by protecting land?
This is a question that
NeighborSpace has been attempting to answer as we embark on developing a
first-of-its-kind strategic conservation plan.
The development of the plan is driven by standards and practices that
all land trusts affiliated with the national Land Trust Alliance(LTA) are
required to follow as guiding principles. It’s also fueled by some very practical
considerations: According to LTA, land
trusts that focus on strategic priorities and create conservation visions
typically raise more funds and protect more land more efficiently than those
who jump at any opportunity without an overarching plan.
The plan is considered to
be the first of its kind because there is really no model for land conservation
planning in first-tier suburbs (like the area within the URDL in Baltimore
County) in the same way that there are models for planning in more rural
areas. This is among the reasons that the
National Park Service offered to work with NeighborSpace on the development of
such a plan, so that a model could be developed and disseminated for use by conservation
organizations like NeighborSpace in other parts of the country.
Step one in developing
the plan is to define what we mean by a livable community. (We’ll have more to say about the planning
steps in future posts). Fortunately there are many prior efforts upon which to
draw in developing this definition, which, in essence, provide that livability
is a subset of sustainability – in particular, those attributes of
sustainability that directly affect people living in a community. Kaid
Benfield, Sustainable Communities Program Director at the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDS) says that a sustainable
community is a place "where use of
resources and emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants are going
down, not up; where the air and waterways are accessible and clean; where land
is used efficiently and shared parks and public spaces are plentiful and easily
visited; where people of different ages, income levels and cultural backgrounds
share equally in environmental, social and cultural benefits; where many needs
of daily life can be met within a 20-minute walk and all may be met within a
20-minute transit ride; where industry and economic opportunity emphasize
healthy, environmentally sound practices."[1]
In
other words, a sustainable community is one where social, environmental and
economic demands (also known as “the three pillars of sustainability”) are
balanced: “neighborhoods sporting
healthy amounts of green space and shared vegetable gardens; mass transit,
biking and walking replacing the majority of automobile traffic; and mixed use
communities where schools, residences and commercial spaces are near each other
and are powered by solar panels, geothermal heat pumps or windmills.”[2]
As we decide what this means for land
conservation within the URDL going forward, it is helpful to look backward in time at some of
the land we protected earlier in our history and at the contributions those
parcels have made to the sustainability of communities within the Urban Rural
Demarcation Line (URDL). In this post,
we’ll travel to our Gwynn Oak Ave. site in Woodlawn. If you drove by there on the evening of Tuesday, August 7, you
would have caught a glimpse of Don Knotts as the “Incredible Mr. Limpet,” the protagonist
in a 1964 Warner Brothers film in which a mild-mannered Brooklyn bookeeper with
a passion for fish magically turns into a dolphin. The Graystone Community Association hosted
this outdoor movie night in recognition of “National Night Out,” America’s night out against
crime. This nationwide campaign seeks to
heighten crime and drug prevention awareness; generate support for, and
participation in, local anticrime programs; strengthen neighborhood spirit and
police-community partnerships; and send a message to criminals letting them
know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
Roughly 40 people of all
ages turned out with folding chairs, blankets and tiki torches for the event,
along with a contingent of officers from the Baltimore County Police Department
and representatives from the Red Line, the 14. 1 mile mass transit corridor planned
to extend from the Social Security complex in Woodlawn to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus. Graystone Community Association President,
Jim Amos, expressed his appreciation for the 13 years he had spent in the community
and urged those in attendance to get to know their neighbors. Kerri Lastner, past president of the association and event
organizer, underscored the importance of getting together as a community “just
to have fun.” Woodlawn Christian Fellowship Pastor Michele Perrera and her
husband, Tom, were also on hand to share in the festivities and to provide a
movie staple, fresh popcorn, to all in attendance.
In
the movie, Mr. Limpet struggles for acceptance and has few passions in his life
as a man, but finds great reward and happiness, with the help of his underwater
friends, once transformed into a fish. There
are some parallels, here, for this very diverse community, in terms of its
ability to come together in acceptance and celebration of individual
differences and, thereby, to strengthen the neighborhood and to overcome the
challenges targeted by “National Night Out.”
A painter’s tarp
stretched between two apple trees on a quarter acre of otherwise vacant land is
hardly fodder for a masterpiece – unless and until we can appreciate it in a
broader context. When it serves to
bridge the all too familiar divides of race, age, socioeconomic status and
religious belief and to knit diverse individuals together as a community, it
becomes a magnum opus and a hallmark of sustainability. Imagine what our inner suburbs could become if
every community had a small parcel of land like the NeighborSpace site on Gwynn
Oak Ave. and a community association like Graystone to manage and program it.
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