Audio By Carbonatix
For almost a year now, residents of downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village neighborhood chipped in their time and money on a community garden occupying a once-scrubby scrap of land. They built raised planter boxes and bamboo fences and just put in a new water line. They grew eggplant and broccoli and herbs — bushels of fruits and vegetables to show for their weekly labor.
Then, early today, they discovered that their community garden had been razed. Workers showed up this morning and quickly disposed of the raised plots, the fences, the water line, and all of the unpicked produce.
The wrecking crew had been hired by the land’s new owner, City National Bank of Florida, which foreclosed on the land last month. Without word to the neighbors who had built the garden, City National sent in its demolition team.
Kate
Sheffield, one of the gardeners, discovered the razed land this morning.
She was
shocked to discover a year’s worth of work gone. “We knew all
along that it wasn’t going to last forever,” she told the Pulp. “But we
didn’t think that it would just be a few months and then the garden
would be destroyed.”
Isabel Fernandez, marketing director for
City National, said the bank didn’t know the property had been used as a
garden. The bank foreclosed on the property and three neighboring lots
last month from the developer, who had financial troubles. Asked about
the community garden, Fernandez said: “That’s not the official use of
that lot.”
Downtown residents built the garden at 415 NE Third Ave.
last summer after getting permission from the developer who owned the
property, Sheffield said. What started as just a couple of patches of
produce soon grew to 20 plots maintained by 15 people. Some came once a
week, while others were there every other day.
The garden arrived at a time of resurgence for Flagler Village, a community of homes, apartments, and businesses (including New Times)
north of Broward Boulevard and east of Federal Highway. It brought
together a few like-minded residents who revived the neighborhood’s
civic association and began planning for beautification projects, more
art walks, and monthly meet-ups.
Shortly after City National
foreclosed on the property, a Fort Lauderdale code enforcement officer
cited the garden on May 18 for overgrown weeds and trash. Gardeners came
out May 27 and cleaned up the land. “We spent the day weeding — in the
rain — to comply with the code violation,” Sheffield said.
But
Fernandez said the bank didn’t know that the gardeners had cleaned it
up. After the bank received the citation, it hired a crew to clean up
the land without knowing that the workers would be tearing down a
community garden. “When we got the property,” Fernandez said, “it was
not being maintained.”
City National was founded in 1946 in Miami
Beach and claims that it maintains a policy of community development.
“Help build the community, and the community will help build the Bank,” City National’s slogan boasts. It has had its own history of financial troubles. In April 2010, it entered into an agreement
with the Comptroller of the Currency after the government agency
discovered “unsafe and unsound banking practices” due to shaky loans.
Finding
foreclosed properties in Flagler Village isn’t hard — the housing
bubble led to speculation in the neighborhood, and now several lots sit
empty. When asked if she’d work on taking over another lot to build a
garden, Sheffield mustered a bittersweet laugh. “I don’t know,” she
said. “That’s all I can say about that right now.”
Follow The Pulp on Facebook and on Twitter: @ThePulpBPB. Follow Eric Barton on Twitter: @ericbarton.
