1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. 2 00:00:04,559 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to cool people who did cool stuff. 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,080 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy. I don't have a clever thing, 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 2: so instead I'm drawing attention to the fact that I 5 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,840 Speaker 2: don't have my guest today is kinda boo. Hi cat, 6 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 2: How are you, Margaret? 7 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm relatively good. 8 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 2: Wild Life updates between when we totally recorded this on 9 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 2: a totally different day, not five minutes ago, yeah. 10 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 3: Six hours. Oh yeah, it's totally different day because it's 11 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 3: coming out on a different day. Anyways, I got laid 12 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 3: off today, but I'm really enjoying hearing about community gardens 13 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 3: and after this, I'm going to get a penia kolata. 14 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's good. 15 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 3: Yeah, if you come to DC, there's this place that 16 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 3: has the best penia kolatas. Like it's unbelievable. 17 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,159 Speaker 1: You know, I haven't had it seen at Kilata in 18 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: so long, But like you're saying, and I'm like, why 19 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: haven't I that's so weird. 20 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 3: Why haven't you. I'm a big fan. When I was 21 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 3: like a bar tender, I was like really into whiskey 22 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 3: and drink all these whiskey bands. And then after I 23 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 3: stopped bartending, I was like, you know what, whiskey's great 24 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 3: and I appreciate it and all this stuff, But what 25 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,680 Speaker 3: if I just drink really fun stuff, like really. 26 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:14,400 Speaker 2: Might as well. 27 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: I recently just had Cosmopolitans are delightful, apple tinis. Prosecco 28 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:25,320 Speaker 1: goes with everything. Name one food that doesn't taste good 29 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:25,920 Speaker 1: with prossecco. 30 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:29,319 Speaker 3: I can't, I dare you. I simply cannot, Margaret, I 31 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 3: dare you. 32 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 2: I barely drink anymore. Well, it started because I started 33 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 2: living rurally and so I had to drive everywhere. So 34 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,319 Speaker 2: I only drink at home because I don't drink and drive. 35 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 2: And rural areas in this country are just designed for 36 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 2: people to drink and drive. There's no way to go 37 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 2: to a bar where I live without driving home after drinking. 38 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 2: It's not Yeah, so if you live in a city 39 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 2: like bars make sense to me in cities, and they 40 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 2: don't make sense to me in the country. And I mean, 41 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:00,919 Speaker 2: the answer is that everyone here just drinks. And but yeah, 42 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 2: I refuse to all that education as a kid actually 43 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 2: worked on me. I'm like the one person that dare 44 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 2: worked for it. That's not true. I did a bunch 45 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 2: of drugs when I was younger. 46 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 3: Sorry, parents, we're living like drinking and driving for that 47 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 3: not not condoning it at all. This is this is 48 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 3: not a pro drinking drunk driving statement, but it's so 49 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 3: much more empathetic to drive drunk in the suburbs, you 50 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,839 Speaker 3: know what I mean? Yeah, it's like, I really do. 51 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 3: You didn't have to do this, and people, you know, 52 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 3: you can make as many conspiracies you want about fifteen 53 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 3: minute cities. I live in a neighborhood where I can 54 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 3: walk to everything and it's amazing, and I have transport 55 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 3: and all this shit. Guess what, I don't have to 56 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,760 Speaker 3: drive drunk. And I also don't have to go live 57 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,480 Speaker 3: in a house that has molding that's going to fall 58 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 3: off within eight months. 59 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 4: Yeah. 60 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 3: Sorry, I hate suburbs so much. 61 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 2: No, it's okay, because that's actually what we're going to 62 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,680 Speaker 2: talk about. First. You all are listening to part two 63 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 2: of a two parter about community gardens, specifically around New York, 64 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 2: although obviously we mostly talked about Detroit last time, because 65 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 2: I love context and where we last left our heroes. 66 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 2: We actually don't have any named heroes, but community gardens exist. Kat, 67 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 2: I don't know if you knew this but overall, do 68 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 2: you know that white Americans act kind of racistly? Wait 69 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 2: what I know? I know it's in data. I wouldn't 70 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 2: believe it if it wasn't in data. 71 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:34,839 Speaker 3: Because what if the data is racist against white people? 72 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 3: Do you think about that? 73 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 2: It probably is. I'm white and I've never met anyone 74 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 2: being racist. 75 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 3: Yeah, that checks out. 76 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the least truth thing. Well, okay, the first 77 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 2: half of that sentence was right, I am white because 78 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 2: of social anyway. Whatever. Okay, So in the nineteen sixties 79 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 2: and seventies, you've got what's known as white flight, when 80 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 2: white people abandon the cities on moss and redlining and 81 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 2: other explicitly racist property laws allowed white people better opportunities 82 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 2: to leave cities and head for the suburbs throughout the fifties. 83 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 2: Often they relied on welfare to do this, because low 84 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 2: cost mortgages were provided through the GI bill. 85 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 3: I did not even think about that. Yeah, the true welfare. 86 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 2: Queens, No, them meant farmers, honestly, Like, look, don't get 87 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:29,919 Speaker 2: me wrong, love me some farmers here and there. But 88 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 2: if you are a farmer and then you complain about 89 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 2: welfare of people in the cities, I got nothing nice 90 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 2: to say to you. So cities were getting poor fast, 91 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 2: which sped up the exodus of people who were able 92 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 2: to leave again because of systemic racism. It's mostly white 93 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 2: families that were able to leave. There was also a 94 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 2: social cause. In nineteen fifty eight, the social scientist named 95 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 2: Morton Grodsen's said quote, once the proportions of non whites 96 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:03,040 Speaker 2: exceed the limits of the neighborhood's tolerance for interracial living, 97 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,719 Speaker 2: whites move out. Studies in the nineteen eighties and nineteen 98 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 2: nineties showed that black Americans are fine with a fifty 99 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,679 Speaker 2: to fifty ethnic composition, but white people, the white people 100 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 2: who were willing who checked the yes, I'm willing to 101 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 2: live inter racially, were mostly only willing to do so 102 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 2: if they were still the majority. So it's like what 103 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 2: we all kind of knew, we now have. Well, you know, 104 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 2: for the past forty years, we've had data showing that 105 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 2: white people are like, yeah, yeah, as long as there's 106 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,359 Speaker 2: only a couple people of color around them, chill, you know. 107 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 2: So white people left the cities because suddenly there was 108 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 2: no white people in the cities. Because the people were 109 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:45,559 Speaker 2: the white people were able to leave the cities because 110 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 2: of a combination of welfare and racism, and with less 111 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 2: financial investment in the cities, the cities got poor. By 112 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 2: the early nineteen seventies, there was something like ten thousand 113 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:58,480 Speaker 2: vacant lots in New York City that had become public 114 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 2: property as a result of unpaid property taxes. So those 115 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:04,840 Speaker 2: are just the ones that were abandoned by people who 116 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:09,280 Speaker 2: stop paying taxes entirely. People started taking over and I'm 117 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,159 Speaker 2: going to talk about the squad and scene there sometime, 118 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 2: but today is not that day. People started gardening the 119 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 2: lots and it started with a meeting. I think community 120 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,839 Speaker 2: organizing meetings have to be the biggest like discrepancy between 121 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 2: how cool the stuff they get done is versus how 122 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 2: boring it is to go to the meetings in all 123 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 2: of history, or I'm too fidgety to sit through them. 124 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I've been in a lot of meetings 125 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 2: in my life. Often what you plan to do is 126 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:41,359 Speaker 2: very exciting, but it takes a certain kind of thinking 127 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 2: to decide. The meeting itself is exciting. But this meeting. 128 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 2: You shouldn't be afraid of meetings, because this meeting in 129 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:51,480 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy three started a movement that has fed uncountable 130 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,920 Speaker 2: millions of people across the globe since it started. Because 131 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 2: at this meeting, they started the Green Gorillas, which in 132 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 2: turn started the modern community garden movement. I haven't have 133 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 2: you ever heard of the Green Gorillas. 134 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:07,160 Speaker 3: No. 135 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,680 Speaker 2: I knew a lot about New York City community gardens 136 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 2: from my time living there in the early aughts, but 137 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 2: I didn't know as much about its origins. 138 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,280 Speaker 3: It sounds like a cute little school club. 139 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 2: I know. They were really wholesome, they like, I mean, 140 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 2: the Green Gorillas. Yeah, And that's the thing, is like 141 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 2: people kind of whitewash a lot of the community garden 142 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 2: history and they only started talking about when, like the 143 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:33,720 Speaker 2: Parks Department gets involved in stuff. But it's like wholesome. 144 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 2: But it is like crime, and wholesome crime is like 145 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 2: my whole vibe sometimes. 146 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: So. 147 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy three, a woman named Liz Christy, alongside 148 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 2: others who aren't named because history likes to pick one 149 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 2: person to single them out, called for a meeting but 150 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:51,239 Speaker 2: what to do about a vacant lot in the Lower 151 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 2: East Side of Manhattan. She was tired of watching kids 152 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 2: play in broken glass. She'd already seen three dead bodies 153 00:07:57,880 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 2: carried out of the lot as people died of exposure 154 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 2: or violence. I actually looked up there's like basically a 155 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 2: squatty museum and Lower East Side, and some of their 156 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 2: photos and exhibition stuff is online and there's a photo 157 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 2: of kids playing in one of these abandoned laws. It 158 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 2: looks like a war zone. There's way more than I 159 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 2: expected as someone who lived in New York in the 160 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 2: early odds. So the neighbors got together and they were like, 161 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,679 Speaker 2: we're going to garden this space. And they posted flyers 162 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 2: in multiple languages because again that's the important thing to do, 163 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 2: and they started raising funds for equipment, but mostly they 164 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 2: ended up paying for everything out of their own pockets. 165 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 2: They actually tried to do this properly. They talked to 166 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,239 Speaker 2: the city about their plans and they even paid for insurance, 167 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,520 Speaker 2: and the city was like, nah, you can't work this 168 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 2: property because you don't own it. And the people were like, hey, 169 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 2: we were asking to be polite, we're going to do 170 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 2: it anyway. And so they hauled out trash, they hauled 171 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 2: in soil, and they split the place into lots for 172 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 2: neighbors to have gardens. They called it the Bowery Houston 173 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,840 Speaker 2: Community Farm and Garden, And so the city came rushing 174 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 2: in and was like, all right, if you're going to 175 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 2: do it anyway, well, now we wanted to be proper 176 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:15,959 Speaker 2: and have paperwork. They got a one month, one dollar 177 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:17,680 Speaker 2: a month lease from the city. 178 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 3: That's like Planet Word over here in DC. 179 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me about it. 180 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:28,560 Speaker 3: It's a this museum that's dedicated to like literature and 181 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 3: linguistics and stuff like that, and it was founded by 182 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 3: a second grade teacher. It just it's like one of 183 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:37,120 Speaker 3: the newest museums in the city. And she was a 184 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 3: second grade teacher and then she married I think like 185 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 3: Thomas Bridman and was like, let me use all this 186 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 3: money for something good and created this really cool, like 187 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 3: the most accessible museum I've ever been to that's all 188 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 3: about like how words formed. There's like this giant library 189 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 3: where you can just pick the books off the shelves 190 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 3: and sit there all day. It's pay what you wish. 191 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:00,559 Speaker 3: It's all donations, and it's in this old big schoolhouse 192 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:02,680 Speaker 3: in the middle of DC. And the city gave them 193 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 3: a I think it's ten dollars a year rent for 194 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 3: the next hundred years. 195 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 2: Nice That next hundred years is a big important part 196 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:12,480 Speaker 2: of it, and it's going to come up a lot 197 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 2: because they don't have this, these folks when they're getting 198 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 2: their one dollar a month. That's cool. I really, I'm 199 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 2: really spoiled. I grew up near DC, and so in 200 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 2: my museums are free, and I don't understand the idea 201 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:27,800 Speaker 2: of paying for museums. It's like, I mean, I pay 202 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 2: for it a lot out of my taxes. Like I 203 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 2: should be done paying for it at that point. 204 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:36,199 Speaker 3: Is how I tend to always like explaining to people that, like, 205 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 3: if I'm in Penn Quarter, I just go into the 206 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:40,400 Speaker 3: portrait gallery and hang out with my favorite painting for 207 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 3: ten minutes. Like that's a completely impossible to like comprehend 208 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 3: idea in pretty much everywhere else. Yeah, but yeah, go 209 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 3: to planet where if you're in DC. It's just when 210 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 3: I plug that real quick. 211 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:58,200 Speaker 2: That's cool. I honestly love museums and I'm going to go. Yes. 212 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 2: So this park that they started, the first community garden 213 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 2: of this style that was started in New York in 214 00:11:04,559 --> 00:11:08,680 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy three. It's still around. It is now over 215 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 2: an acre and it is renamed the Liz Christie garden, 216 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:15,160 Speaker 2: and they was renamed that nineteen eighty five after Liz 217 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 2: died of cancer. Twenty gardeners still work there, maintaining mature 218 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 2: trees and ponds of fish and turtles and shit. But 219 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 2: it's never enough with these hippies, right, they saved one 220 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 2: vacant lot, and now they're trying to save all the 221 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 2: other vacant lots in the city. When will they read 222 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:34,360 Speaker 2: these people? I know, I know. So they started the 223 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,760 Speaker 2: Green Gorillas, and sometimes they ask for permission from the city, 224 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 2: but quite famously, they often didn't. If you ever want 225 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,280 Speaker 2: to read a one sentence description of their tactics, it's 226 00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:46,720 Speaker 2: usually they went around throwing condoms full of tomato seeds 227 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:48,080 Speaker 2: over fences into empty lots. 228 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:50,760 Speaker 3: Awesome, I'm guessing that tied up. 229 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:56,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, I assume so too. It's an oversimplification. They usually 230 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 2: used water balloons or Christmas ornaments, which I'll be sleeve 231 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:05,600 Speaker 2: would work better. These are called seed bombs. And now 232 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 2: I'm going to go on a long tangent and talk 233 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 2: about seed bombs because they're fucking cool. Fuck. Yes, seed 234 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,560 Speaker 2: bombs are fucking cool. It's written into the script. Most 235 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,720 Speaker 2: of the time they're made from compost clay and seeds, 236 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 2: and they're developed. According to everything you'll read about them, 237 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 2: they're developed from an ancient Japanese practice. And if I 238 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,319 Speaker 2: see a lot of articles that say in ancient Japanese 239 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:28,720 Speaker 2: practice without sources, I'm going to side eye the shit 240 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 2: out of that. They were rediscovered in nineteen thirty eight 241 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 2: by a Japanese gardener who seems pretty cool, and so 242 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,559 Speaker 2: it is a practice that has come out of Japan 243 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:42,200 Speaker 2: and might be ancient. The guy who reinvented them, his 244 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 2: name was Masanobo Fukuoka. And in the West, you've got 245 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:50,720 Speaker 2: these early organic moves, like he's doing this stuff at 246 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 2: the early twentieth century, right, and that's before the organic 247 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:56,679 Speaker 2: mat movement really kicks off. It's during this period where 248 00:12:56,679 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 2: everyone's like, we want to turn agriculture into industry because 249 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 2: we're really excited about destroying the entire world. And so 250 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 2: one of the Western version of hey, what if we 251 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 2: didn't do that was this Austrian guy who invented biodynamic 252 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:18,880 Speaker 2: farming named Rudolph Steiner, and he's real fucking strange. His 253 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 2: thing is organic farming meets wingnut religious stuff, and it 254 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 2: is considered one of the antecede into the modern organic 255 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 2: farming movement. Have you ever heard of this stuff? 256 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:27,320 Speaker 4: No? 257 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,319 Speaker 3: But I love things that sound insane, and this sounds insane. 258 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 2: Yeah. There's like stuff like, in order to grow certain food, 259 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 2: you'll like take an animal manure and put it into 260 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:41,199 Speaker 2: a horn of an animal and then you'll bury it 261 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:43,560 Speaker 2: for like a month under the right phase of the moon, 262 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:45,199 Speaker 2: and then you dig it up and then you use 263 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:49,679 Speaker 2: that as fertilizer. Yes, and it's kind of cool, honestly, 264 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,480 Speaker 2: Like I can't actually hate it. I just stayed on 265 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 2: a biodynamic farm in Finland when I was anyway whatever. 266 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 2: But it's like it's also like not always great in 267 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:03,839 Speaker 2: a lot of ways, and it's like not particularly scientific. 268 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:09,240 Speaker 2: So the Japanese antecedent to the organic farming movement seems 269 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:13,280 Speaker 2: cooler overall and has had a little bit more staining power. 270 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:18,880 Speaker 2: Japan seemed pretty head in terms of alternative agriculture. Masanobu 271 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 2: was an early advocate of stuff that's becoming more popular today, 272 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 2: like no till farming and organic farming. He called his 273 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 2: method and do nothing farming, and basically he was like, 274 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 2: what if we don't do any work, doesn't that seem 275 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:35,120 Speaker 2: like a better way to live, and I can't argue 276 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:38,600 Speaker 2: with him. He was a scientist who had a religious 277 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,680 Speaker 2: experience that made him be like, I think Western agriculture 278 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 2: is no good, which is true. At first, he kind 279 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:46,440 Speaker 2: of tried to go like a little bit too far. 280 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 2: He was like, well, what if I just don't even 281 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 2: prune the tree? And then he was like, oh shit, 282 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 2: insects are fucking it up and all the things and 283 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 2: doesn't make his good fruit, and so he has to 284 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 2: do like a little bit of cultivation. But he did 285 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 2: a lot of no till farming of rice and barley. 286 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 2: His most famous book is called The One Straw Revolution, 287 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 2: and it doesn't work necessarily for feeding people at scale, 288 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,600 Speaker 2: but it is a really interesting concept. He traveled around 289 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 2: the world with his life. 290 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 3: Wait, I want to hear about those So I don't know. 291 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,360 Speaker 2: Enough about no till farming, yet I'm like starting to 292 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 2: learn more about that stuff, even just through my own 293 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 2: gardening and things like that. Basically, like people are more 294 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 2: and more starting to say, like instead of having like 295 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 2: these carefully cultivated plots where you only plant the one 296 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,160 Speaker 2: plant and then you have to like water it constantly, 297 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 2: if you use like the right kind of cover crop 298 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 2: and all these things. Things can take care of themselves 299 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:37,560 Speaker 2: a little bit more and then like you can do 300 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 2: a lot of stuff without tilling. I don't know enough 301 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:47,360 Speaker 2: about it yet. Cool, but yeah, he I don't know. 302 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 2: It's interesting. I fell down a rabbit hole about it, 303 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,280 Speaker 2: and I've like read about it a whole bunch before, 304 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 2: but I like don't feel like I'm an expert at 305 00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 2: at any any level. And so with his life, he 306 00:15:57,440 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 2: traveled around the world trying to do cool shit, like 307 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 2: you vegetate deserts that were expanding and things like that, 308 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,400 Speaker 2: and he just like did that. He went on to 309 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,120 Speaker 2: do it until he died at the age of ninety 310 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 2: five in two thousand and eight. He's enough of like 311 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,040 Speaker 2: a interesting and wing nutty guy that I'm like waiting 312 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,160 Speaker 2: to find out that he's like some terrible you know, 313 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 2: there's like something going on, but I I'm not aware 314 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:22,600 Speaker 2: of it yet. And he was into seed bombs. You 315 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 2: throw him everywhere you see what grows up on its own. 316 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:30,280 Speaker 2: The classic seedball is five parts clay to one part seeds. 317 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:33,080 Speaker 2: You dry it out and then you toss it somewhere 318 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:37,280 Speaker 2: and then the seeds may or may not stick. When 319 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:39,360 Speaker 2: I was a baby activist, gorilla gardening was all the 320 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 2: rage and all the big protests would regularly have like 321 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,960 Speaker 2: seed bomb workshops the day before so people could toss 322 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 2: seeds into abandoned lots along the march routes. 323 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 3: Wait, oh my god, I just realized, like the gorilla 324 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 3: garden in New York, that's not gorilla, like the animal. 325 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:56,160 Speaker 3: I was like, that's a green gorilla. 326 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: Oh. 327 00:16:57,160 --> 00:16:59,600 Speaker 3: I was like, that's so cute. It's like green gorilla 328 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 3: is like an elementary school club. Okay, nevermind, Sorry, so embarrassing. 329 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 2: All good. So these days you can buy seed bombs 330 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:13,400 Speaker 2: and stores or like on Etsy or whatever, and honestly, 331 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:15,639 Speaker 2: I'm not mad about that because as long as you remember, 332 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,080 Speaker 2: you can make them yourself. On my fortieth birthday, my 333 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:20,240 Speaker 2: family came out to my property and we had a 334 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 2: big bag of seed bombs that they had bought of 335 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 2: like wildflowers, and we just like stood on my porch 336 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:26,399 Speaker 2: and through seed bombs as far as we could. It's 337 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,760 Speaker 2: a very nice way to spend an afternoon and just 338 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 2: for fun. And by that I mean because I want 339 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 2: people to make their own seed bombs, although don't do 340 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:36,119 Speaker 2: it exactly this way because it involves a little bit 341 00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 2: of glittering. I'm going to read from the Green Gorillas 342 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:40,920 Speaker 2: fact sheet that they circulated about how to make the 343 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 2: seed bombs that they made. You take an ornament, you 344 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 2: take pelletized time release fertilizer, peat moss, crumbs, tissue, and seeds. 345 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:51,920 Speaker 2: You start with the seeds in the fertilizer, then you 346 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 2: add wet peat moss, and then you stop it up 347 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,920 Speaker 2: with tissue, and then quote choose a lot that has 348 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 2: a fence and is legally inaccessible. Calculate in advance how 349 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 2: many grenades will be needed to cover the area. Check 350 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:09,439 Speaker 2: carefully before throwing, observe all normal safety precautions. Suggested throwing 351 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,160 Speaker 2: techniques are for Christmas ornaments and underhand throw. For water balloons, 352 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 2: use an overhand throw. And then they have a list 353 00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:18,879 Speaker 2: at the bottom of suggested seeds based on the season, 354 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:23,680 Speaker 2: mostly flowers, sometimes grass or soybeans. And they just went 355 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,120 Speaker 2: around and flour bombed New York. 356 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 3: Awesome. 357 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:32,360 Speaker 2: The Green Gorillas coined the term gorilla gardening. Gorilla gardening 358 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:34,960 Speaker 2: is one of the clearest and most beautiful examples of 359 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,880 Speaker 2: direct action. It's a protest tactic that highlights a problem, 360 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 2: but does so by directly addressing that problem. Basically, gorilla 361 00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:45,879 Speaker 2: gardening is when people, without asking permission, go out and 362 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:49,880 Speaker 2: plant gardens. Sometimes these are carefully constructed and maintained gardens, 363 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,160 Speaker 2: whether for beauty or food or both. Sometimes you apparently 364 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 2: throw a condom full of seeds over a fence. Don't 365 00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 2: do that, by a way, unless you find biodegradable condoms, which. 366 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 3: I say, what if there are biodegradeab all condoms, in. 367 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 2: Which case, probably don't trust them for reproductive health. I 368 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 2: don't know. They'd be kind of cool if people figure 369 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:14,080 Speaker 2: that out. It's also an example of a protest tactic 370 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 2: that is easily recuperated. When I was younger and living 371 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 2: in the Netherlands, I knew all these graph kids and 372 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,400 Speaker 2: they consciously refused to do murals and like graffiti art 373 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,840 Speaker 2: because the city was using legal graft style murals to 374 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:30,520 Speaker 2: attract tourists and gentrify the city. So the kids only 375 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,400 Speaker 2: tagged because it didn't raise property values and it didn't 376 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,160 Speaker 2: lead to the displacement of squatters and low income homeowners 377 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:38,440 Speaker 2: and residents. Basically, they were like, we're going to fight 378 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 2: gentrification by fucking up the city. Visually. But I went 379 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 2: back eight years later and those same folks, who I 380 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 2: could no longer call kids at this point, were doing 381 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:51,199 Speaker 2: beautiful street art. They were still squatters and anarchists, but 382 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 2: they had changed their perspective on this issue. I asked 383 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 2: one guy what changed, and he shrugged and he was like, ah, 384 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:02,680 Speaker 2: I grew up. I wanted to make something pretty. And 385 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,959 Speaker 2: that's just a tension that is going to exist whenever 386 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:12,840 Speaker 2: people take direct action to beautify their environments. But what 387 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 2: isn't attention is the tension of running an anti capitalist 388 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:23,880 Speaker 2: podcast sponsored by capitalist products. I feel no tension whatsoever, 389 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 2: she said, while lying. 390 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 3: Everyone knows Margaret loves ads. She's always saying I love ads, 391 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,560 Speaker 3: are my favorite thing in the world. They call her 392 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:35,560 Speaker 3: Margaret ad lover killjoy. 393 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,320 Speaker 2: I know, and I'm always trying to interject them now 394 00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:40,600 Speaker 2: into regular conversation. I'll be like talking to my friends 395 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,240 Speaker 2: and I'll be like, but you know who else watched 396 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 2: this TV show? Here's some ads, And then they stare 397 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:49,880 Speaker 2: at me because I know, yeah, and I don't read 398 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,160 Speaker 2: the ads, so they just stare at me, and as 399 00:20:52,200 --> 00:21:06,680 Speaker 2: I wait a little while and we're back. So it's complicated, 400 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 2: but I am one hundred percent pro gorilla gardening. It's 401 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,920 Speaker 2: just not without complicated knock on effects like community gardening itself. 402 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,360 Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy three, the Green Gorillas got their start, 403 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 2: the gardeners expanded like wild and the Green Gorillas were 404 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 2: working eighty four gardens by nineteen seventy five. They intentionally 405 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,000 Speaker 2: went around and taught everyone how to do what they 406 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,400 Speaker 2: were doing and helped new gardens do surveys and get plants. 407 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 2: By nineteen eighty six, they had two hundred and fifty volunteers. 408 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,040 Speaker 2: By nineteen ninety one, they were working four hundred and 409 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 2: fifty gardens out of the about seven hundred gardens total 410 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 2: in the city. It wasn't all just peaceful and non destructive. 411 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 2: Bolt cutters were as much a part of their Arsenal's 412 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 2: paperwork was those kind of this thing, we're in retrospect 413 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:52,040 Speaker 2: because all this is very above board, and the Parks 414 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 2: Department runs it now, and so everyone's like wacky, like 415 00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,400 Speaker 2: they threw some seeds around and doesn't like to talk 416 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 2: about like the crime and property destruction part of it, 417 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 2: as if they're ashamed of that was. I think it's 418 00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,440 Speaker 2: part of what made it cool in nineteen seventy eight, 419 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,680 Speaker 2: the Parks Department started to step in more formally, seeing 420 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:16,000 Speaker 2: how popular all this shit was. And I don't want 421 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,960 Speaker 2: to necessarily say that the people at the Parks Department 422 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:21,920 Speaker 2: were being opportunistic or that their goal was recuperation, because 423 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 2: I think that all of these people were looking for 424 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,439 Speaker 2: ways to try and make it last, right. You know, 425 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:30,720 Speaker 2: when you have a squatted space, you're waiting for the 426 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,159 Speaker 2: cops to come and take it from you. And so 427 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,840 Speaker 2: they wanted to work with the city. But of course 428 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,800 Speaker 2: the Parks Department's involvement has in some ways sheltered and 429 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 2: in some ways imperiled many of these gardens. The Green 430 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,359 Speaker 2: Gorillas were anxious to get formal recognition so that the 431 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:51,520 Speaker 2: gardens could survive bureaucracy, and it sort of worked. In 432 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,200 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight, this Parks Department started its Green Thumb program, 433 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,840 Speaker 2: originally called Operation Green Thumb. And there's no space between 434 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 2: green and Thumb, but there is between operation and green 435 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:02,119 Speaker 2: and that annoys me. 436 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 3: You wanted it to be one ward, No. 437 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 2: I probably want a space between all of it, honestly, But. 438 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,400 Speaker 3: If it's all one word, all ower case, that's tallicized 439 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 3: MM hmm yeah, okay, letter underlined. Uh then it's just 440 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 3: pussy and bio but about gardens. Yeah, and I hope that. 441 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,800 Speaker 2: One day someone's going to hear this five years from now, 442 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 2: no fucking clue what that reference was, and. 443 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,119 Speaker 3: Just especially someone who's like thirteen right now, and they like, 444 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 3: they're like, I don't even know what twitter is. 445 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:38,159 Speaker 2: Yeah, iesssics if they only that sounds a basic I know. 446 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 2: Most community gardens that go legit go through Green Thumb. 447 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 2: The Green Thumb license agreement with these gardens is quote 448 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,920 Speaker 2: terminable at will by the Commissioner in his or her discretion, 449 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,159 Speaker 2: at any time upon sixty days written notice. And the 450 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 2: licensee shall have no recourse of any nature whatsoever by 451 00:23:58,800 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 2: reason of such termination. 452 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 3: And this is about the gardens that feed people. Okay, 453 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:08,879 Speaker 3: So these things they want to sound like super villains. 454 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 3: I know, I know they're like, Hey, this thing that's 455 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:16,360 Speaker 3: been around for thirty years that everyone is like, yeah, 456 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,359 Speaker 3: if we want to turn into a music venue, we'll 457 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,479 Speaker 3: get into that later. It was an example where they're like, 458 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:22,359 Speaker 3: what have we just turned into a music venue? 459 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 2: And fuck you? You know, enter our first real villain of 460 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 2: the week. Mayor Rudy Giuliani. What a villain. I know, 461 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 2: I kept thinking he's dead. I know he's not. 462 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:44,480 Speaker 3: He's shilling some like shitty coffee right now. And also 463 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 3: he peed on a hot mic he did, mike. Yeah, 464 00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 3: like he was in a zoom call and he still 465 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:53,280 Speaker 3: let his microphone on when he went to go pee, 466 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 3: and you can hear him pete. 467 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:55,800 Speaker 2: He's a winner. 468 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:01,119 Speaker 3: He's so hot, you know, as he's as in. 469 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: He's literally melting and the flush is coming off. 470 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,639 Speaker 3: Exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly. I think it's really brave of 471 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:08,719 Speaker 3: him to be a sentient wax figure. 472 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:13,000 Speaker 2: I'm surprised that centient wax figures need to be urinate. Honestly. 473 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,120 Speaker 2: That's probably the reason he did it, is there's too 474 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:17,200 Speaker 2: many rumors that he was a sentient wax figure. 475 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, and so like he didn't actually even piss. 476 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:22,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like it was a setup play to 477 00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:23,439 Speaker 2: sound effect. 478 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, he hired someone else that he hired a task grab, 479 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:27,720 Speaker 3: a person to come in. 480 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:28,400 Speaker 1: Yeah. 481 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 2: I mean a lot of people hire people about pe. 482 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 2: Usually it's a different yeah. 483 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 3: And you know that's fine. 484 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,240 Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm not sure whether that was a sex 485 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 2: work reference or a smoking weed reference. But I made 486 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:45,159 Speaker 2: it either way. So if you google America's mayor, you 487 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 2: get fucking Rudy Giuliani. I, however, much prefer mister Potato man, 488 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 2: who had tried to clean up Detroit by cracking down 489 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,240 Speaker 2: on corruption and monopoly, to Rudy Juliani. 490 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,000 Speaker 3: We should make him America's mare again. 491 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 2: I agree. What was his name again, Pingree? I remember 492 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 2: it was his first name. 493 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:03,719 Speaker 3: Okay, it was something kind of silly. 494 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:05,919 Speaker 2: I know, it was like brazen, but it wasn't. And 495 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:06,880 Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, it was like. 496 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:08,600 Speaker 3: A like a white guy name, but like he could 497 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,240 Speaker 3: be like kind of a fun character and historical movie. 498 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:17,240 Speaker 2: Anyways, Yeah, I like him more. Rudy Giuliani is like 499 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 2: the inverse of this man. Rudy Giuliani wanted to clean 500 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 2: up New York City by opening it for business and 501 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 2: has been investigated for corruption and profiteering, the kind of 502 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 2: thing that you know, Pingree spent his life fighting against. 503 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,920 Speaker 2: Giuliani was elected in nineteen ninety three. He too was 504 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 2: a Republican, just the modern version where you suck. He 505 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,920 Speaker 2: too was raised working class. His father was an Italian 506 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:46,119 Speaker 2: mafia man. This is the broken Windows mare. If you 507 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 2: brutally crack down on minor infractions like graffiti, turnstile jumping, loitering, 508 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 2: et cetera. Somehow that stops all the murder and robbery 509 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 2: and shit. I lived in New York City during his reign, 510 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,040 Speaker 2: and I had friends spent three days in jail for 511 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,199 Speaker 2: like hopping turnstiles or getting caught with a joint on them. 512 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,880 Speaker 2: The idea is that if someone sees a broken window, 513 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,359 Speaker 2: they figure it's not a place where the law is enforced, 514 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,919 Speaker 2: so you can kind of do whatever you want. I 515 00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,119 Speaker 2: mostly I used to hop turnstyles all the time, and 516 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,000 Speaker 2: it was like fucking crazy adrenaline rush because I was like, 517 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 2: if I get caught, I'm gonna spend three days in 518 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 2: jail just to save like a dollar fifty or whatever. 519 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,880 Speaker 2: I wasn't. I wasn't the smartest person when I was younger, 520 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:33,159 Speaker 2: like cost benefit analysis, poor whatever. I also believe that 521 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 2: it's lush every day. It would keep you young. 522 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,920 Speaker 3: I mean, you said your fortieth birthday something earlier, and 523 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:41,600 Speaker 3: I was like, I had no idea you were forty. 524 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:49,119 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so and adrenaline russia day keeps aging away. 525 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:54,400 Speaker 2: That's in some cases, Yeah, maybe you're just special. There's 526 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:55,920 Speaker 2: this whole thing where people talk about how like punk 527 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 2: Stone age, But I think it's because we stay dressed subcultural. Now. 528 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,240 Speaker 2: It is true that during his reign, crime went down 529 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,959 Speaker 2: significantly in New York, but so did crime in all 530 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 2: the major cities nationwide. When this policy ended in twenty fourteen, 531 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 2: there was no statistically significant effect on major crime. Broken 532 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,920 Speaker 2: window theory is a crackdown on loitering, not on property 533 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 2: that you leave derelict. Rudy Giuliani fucking hated the community 534 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,560 Speaker 2: gardens because he wanted development. Most of the community gardens 535 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:30,800 Speaker 2: were on city owned property, and he wanted to buldoze 536 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:32,159 Speaker 2: the green space to build housing. 537 00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:36,320 Speaker 1: None of that is surprising religion. Being like I hate 538 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: planned is like okay. 539 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no totally, Like he's just a bastard. He 540 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:43,480 Speaker 2: just sucks. 541 00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would actually love a bastard's episode about him. 542 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 2: Who would be good for that. 543 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:50,480 Speaker 1: I'll make a note, h. 544 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,880 Speaker 2: Sometimes articles will talk about how he wanted to buldoze 545 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,920 Speaker 2: these gardens to build low income housing. This is a lie. 546 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 2: It's even a lie to say that he claimed he 547 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 2: wanted it. He was really blunt in nineteen ninety nine 548 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,040 Speaker 2: and in January on like a radio show. He said, 549 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,720 Speaker 2: this is a free market economy. The era of communism 550 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 2: is over, and by that he I mean one like, 551 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:15,680 Speaker 2: you know, the Soviet Union had collapsed. But I think 552 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 2: he's also specifically being like this era of these community 553 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 2: gardens just doing communism like whatever. In January nineteen ninety nine, 554 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 2: one hundred and fourteen gardens were put up for auction 555 00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,560 Speaker 2: by this city with the intention of selling the land 556 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,080 Speaker 2: to developers. And when they would sell it to the 557 00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 2: land to developers, it was not to build low income housing. 558 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 2: It was eighty percent market rate housing and twenty percent 559 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:44,560 Speaker 2: moderate income housing. I saw this myself a few years 560 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:46,480 Speaker 2: later while I was living in a squad in the Bronx, 561 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 2: and it was the squad was run by an Indigenous 562 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,720 Speaker 2: run nonprofit had been around since I think the mid eighties. 563 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 2: We are in a tenement building surrounded by project buildings. 564 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,360 Speaker 2: The city wanted to bulldoze the building to put in 565 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 2: market rate housing that would have a few low income 566 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,800 Speaker 2: units as available as well, which would massively increase the 567 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 2: overall cost of living in the area. So they wanted 568 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 2: to gentrify that area by bulldozing a squat to build 569 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,760 Speaker 2: quote unquote low income housing, most of which was market rate, 570 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 2: and then in two thousand and four they burned the 571 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 2: squat down to get the squatters out because we kept 572 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 2: tying them up in the courts, and once it was 573 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 2: burned down then there was no thing to fight about 574 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 2: legally anymore. But that's a different story that I don't have. 575 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 2: I was just there. I don't know. I haven't looked 576 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:34,040 Speaker 2: up the details a very long time. Fuck those twenty 577 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 2: years ago, I feel old. Whatever. So one hundred and 578 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,520 Speaker 2: fourteen community gardens were put up for auction without doing 579 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 2: a round of community input, like they're supposed to fucking 580 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,520 Speaker 2: do lip service to, you know, when they pretend like 581 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:50,120 Speaker 2: they care what the community has to say, so they 582 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,880 Speaker 2: like community meetings and everyone can wait to say they're 583 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 2: like bit to city council and then get ignored. You know. Yeah, 584 00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 2: they didn't bother even doing that. 585 00:30:58,120 --> 00:30:59,720 Speaker 3: That's so rude, I know. 586 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 2: But the movement stepped the fuck up during that auction, 587 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,400 Speaker 2: and we we win this one. You could say, I'm 588 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 2: gonna make a pop culture reference, Sophie. You could say 589 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:16,000 Speaker 2: that the community was the wind beneath the movement's wings. 590 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 2: It's a Betty Middler joke, totally modern pop culture. That's 591 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 2: what I'm doing here. 592 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:29,360 Speaker 4: Hello, dear listener, Yes, I heard it too, and fear not, 593 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 4: Margaret has been informed of the correct pronunciation of Bette 594 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:38,719 Speaker 4: Midler's name. No need to come after her on the internet. 595 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 4: Enjoy the rest of the episode. 596 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,400 Speaker 2: Goodbye, that's your reference. 597 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: I was like, is Margaret gonna like name drop Arianna Grande? 598 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,600 Speaker 2: What's happening? No? No, I'm gonna name drop someone who 599 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:57,360 Speaker 2: hasn't been relevant to anyone besides like an old person 600 00:31:57,400 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 2: sometimes getting confused by modern activist language and saying the 601 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,520 Speaker 2: wrong thing and then having everyone get mad, but is 602 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,320 Speaker 2: still a good person. Betty Midler wrote a song called 603 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,000 Speaker 2: the Wind Beneath My Wings or Your Wings or whatever. 604 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 2: The fuck. I don't know. She's a singer, she's great. 605 00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:13,640 Speaker 2: I don't know if she's great as a singer or not. 606 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 2: It's not my cup of tea, but she fucking saved 607 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 2: the day along with some other people. She had been 608 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 2: a New York City activist for decades. At that point, 609 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 2: she was heavily involved a supporting game end during the 610 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 2: AIDS crisis. In nineteen ninety five, she founded the New 611 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 2: York Restoration Project a trust which went to that auction 612 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,960 Speaker 2: and bought sixty of the one hundred and fourteen community 613 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,719 Speaker 2: gardens and put them into a trust. And a trust 614 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,080 Speaker 2: is a way more secure thing than the green Thumb 615 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,480 Speaker 2: program with like the month a month leases and shit 616 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:48,520 Speaker 2: like that. I think Middler herself put millions of dollars 617 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 2: into that. Another fifty two were purchased by another trust. 618 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,960 Speaker 2: The total cost of buying a one hundred and twelve 619 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 2: out of one hundred and fourteen was like four point 620 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 2: two million or something. That people raised, and these are 621 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 2: probably still the most legally protected community gardens in New 622 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 2: York City, the ones that are in these trusts. 623 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:14,360 Speaker 3: That makes me very happy. 624 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:19,240 Speaker 2: I know Juliani, though, would not be deterred, so he 625 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:23,680 Speaker 2: put another six hundred up for auction, and I lose 626 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 2: track of the ins and outs of each garden at 627 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:28,640 Speaker 2: this point. Many of them ended up bulldozed, many of 628 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 2: them ended up being saved, and a lot of that 629 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,040 Speaker 2: saving wasn't just rich philanthropists, which is don't get me wrong, 630 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 2: thank you, Betty Midler. One group that was involved in 631 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 2: that fight was a Puerto Rican direct action and squatters 632 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 2: group called Charis, which is an acronym for the first 633 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,560 Speaker 2: initials of its founders. They squatted a place with some 634 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,480 Speaker 2: former Black Panthers in nineteen seventy nine, and then they 635 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 2: left it in exchange for being given a different building. Basically, 636 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 2: the city was like, oh, fuck, not that one here. 637 00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,120 Speaker 2: Do you want this empty schoolhouse instead? And they're like, yes, 638 00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 2: we'll take this empty school whose which they built into 639 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 2: the Elboheo Community Center, which means the Hut. It is 640 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:12,000 Speaker 2: a five story former public school. That community center they 641 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 2: ran as a community center. They taught classes, they lent 642 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 2: out bicycles, they offered meeting space. A ton of local 643 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:24,360 Speaker 2: theater companies practiced in that space for years. In nineteen 644 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:28,720 Speaker 2: ninety eight, a Giuliani supporter bought it for three point 645 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:33,839 Speaker 2: one five million dollars and then didn't do anything with it, 646 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,080 Speaker 2: and it is still empty as of twenty twenty two. 647 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:37,800 Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw it. 648 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:45,160 Speaker 2: However, during the auction, a group called Jiminy Cricket released 649 00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 2: ten thousand live crickets into the auditorium at the police Place. 650 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:51,439 Speaker 3: Awesome, Okay, that's great. 651 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:58,000 Speaker 2: Yeah. And Charis fought for community gardens. One of the 652 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,799 Speaker 2: founders was this guy named Armando per who was born 653 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:03,840 Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico, moved to New York when he was younger. 654 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 2: If you want to hear a whole bunch of really 655 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,880 Speaker 2: amazing stuff that Puerto Rican New York New Aurekans that 656 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 2: I think they would call themselves got up to. We 657 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 2: did a four parter our first four part about the 658 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 2: Young Lord's movement that did amazing things. Armando Perez was 659 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,280 Speaker 2: murdered in nineteen ninety nine in a murder that people 660 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 2: tend to assume was a political hit because of his 661 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,880 Speaker 2: fight against development. It's also possible that he was killed 662 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 2: by some folks who are dealing drugs that he confronted 663 00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,840 Speaker 2: about dealing drugs, which apparently would have been in character 664 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 2: for him too. The most telling line in the New 665 00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:42,720 Speaker 2: York Times article about his death is quote, because mister 666 00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:45,920 Speaker 2: Perez had been drinking, the police did not initially treat 667 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:53,359 Speaker 2: his death as a homicide. Fuck, yeah, is this bad? Yeah? 668 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,640 Speaker 3: It's just bad. Also means cops, I have no numbers 669 00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 3: on this, but like, there have to be a sick 670 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:02,319 Speaker 3: in a number of people when homicides happen that are 671 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:03,520 Speaker 3: drunk on both sides. 672 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,680 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I would I would presume a majority of 673 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 2: people who kill and or are killed in fights. Yeah, 674 00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 2: I assume alcohol is involved in an awful lot of 675 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 2: these things, right, Yeah, And so for it was like 676 00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:23,840 Speaker 2: months before they found anyone and started like the police 677 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 2: found anyone and started like reporting on it at all. 678 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:27,920 Speaker 2: And I think that they like went and tracked some 679 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,520 Speaker 2: people down because of people starting to be like, y'all 680 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:35,440 Speaker 2: put a hit on him, And it's possible that that happened. 681 00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,520 Speaker 2: It's also possible that he was confronting. He apparently was 682 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,400 Speaker 2: known for trying to convince people that they should not 683 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 2: be dealing drugs on the project building where his wife lived. 684 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:51,960 Speaker 2: But La Plaza Cultural de Amando Perez is one community 685 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,359 Speaker 2: garden that's still around in the East Village and it's 686 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,200 Speaker 2: named after him. Charis first started that garden in nineteen 687 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,880 Speaker 2: seventy six. It wasn't named after him. To start, it 688 00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:04,520 Speaker 2: was like all the groups coming together to start that garden. 689 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:06,719 Speaker 2: You had the green gorilla seed bombing it for them, 690 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,120 Speaker 2: and Charis was like really into geodesic domes. This is 691 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:12,600 Speaker 2: some seventy shit that you probably had to be there, right. 692 00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,520 Speaker 3: I fell into like a rabbit hole about geodesic domes yesterday. 693 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:17,920 Speaker 2: Oh amazing. 694 00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:19,840 Speaker 3: There's like a whole thing of like there's like a 695 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,839 Speaker 3: I was on the off grid living Stubreddit and there's 696 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,279 Speaker 3: like a whole thing just about like various things you 697 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 3: can do with geodesic domes. I didn't know they went 698 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:28,680 Speaker 3: back that far. 699 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:34,560 Speaker 2: Buckminster Fuller showed, who's the guy who like popularized them, 700 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,960 Speaker 2: showed up personally to help them build one on this 701 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,799 Speaker 2: garden when it was not legal, and when was that 702 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:43,359 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six. 703 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:45,759 Speaker 3: I thought these were like a thing that started in 704 00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:47,000 Speaker 3: like the night. That's crazy. 705 00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 2: No, see yah, some hippie shit. Yeah, that's so sick. Yeah, no, 706 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:54,800 Speaker 2: it's it's it's cool. And like I remember actually during 707 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,520 Speaker 2: Occupy there was some I was part of Occupy Santa 708 00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,759 Speaker 2: Cruz and those people who are like really into geodesic domes. 709 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 2: There's so they like built one as they like place 710 00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,719 Speaker 2: in the occupation and stuff. It was cool. I like 711 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,000 Speaker 2: don't get it, but I think it's cool when people 712 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:09,880 Speaker 2: have liked their thing, and I just get really excited 713 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:11,640 Speaker 2: for them, you know, Yeah, and I want to hear 714 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:16,600 Speaker 2: more about it. Yeah, the fights to defend all these 715 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 2: community gardens in the nineties and the early aughts were creative, 716 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,919 Speaker 2: theatrical and confrontational, which was the style at the time. 717 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:28,960 Speaker 2: It's kind of the stuff that built into I'm sure 718 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:30,640 Speaker 2: there are other things that built into it, but it 719 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:34,520 Speaker 2: built into the alter anti globalization movement of the late 720 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,759 Speaker 2: nineties and early aughts, which set up a ton of 721 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,720 Speaker 2: the protest culture around the world that we still have today. 722 00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:46,880 Speaker 2: All of the like horizontal direct action, like theatrical protest 723 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,080 Speaker 2: movement stuff that's been going on all over the world. 724 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:51,800 Speaker 2: A lot of that comes from the anti globe era stuff, 725 00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:57,319 Speaker 2: and this stuff immediately preceded that and then tied into it. 726 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:00,799 Speaker 2: And it just makes me happy that it like when 727 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,279 Speaker 2: I find these like lineages that then carry all over 728 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 2: the world. There's an article about this particular fight written 729 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,040 Speaker 2: by Civil Eats in twenty twenty two. Quote. At the 730 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,400 Speaker 2: height of the protests, as a city was preparing to 731 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:19,640 Speaker 2: bulldoze the East Village's Esperanza Garden, organizers built a structure 732 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,440 Speaker 2: shaped like a cookie, a small tree, frog, and a 733 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 2: cultural symbol of Puerto Rico, with enough room for five people, 734 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:30,080 Speaker 2: so we slept in it every night, said Bill de Payola, 735 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 2: a longtime community organizer amid a court battle to prevent 736 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,520 Speaker 2: the auctioning of gardens. He recalls how the city bulldozed 737 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:38,279 Speaker 2: the land in two thousand and one with the help 738 00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,759 Speaker 2: of the police, forcing out one hundred protesters. And so 739 00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,279 Speaker 2: they did all of this, like civil disobedience and all 740 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 2: these things to try and protect these While they were 741 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,000 Speaker 2: also working in the courts, the green guerrillas would like 742 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:54,359 Speaker 2: dress up as vegetables and raid city hall. Folks kept 743 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:57,400 Speaker 2: starting new gardens. One of the best articles about all 744 00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 2: of this was written by an anarchist journalist named Brad 745 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:03,040 Speaker 2: Will who was and it was written in I want 746 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:04,440 Speaker 2: to say these articles written in two thousand and one 747 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,120 Speaker 2: and two thousand and six. Brad Will was murdered by 748 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:10,040 Speaker 2: the Mexican government while covering the teachers uprising in Ohaka 749 00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,719 Speaker 2: in two thousand and six. He filmed his own death, 750 00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,200 Speaker 2: he wrote down at the Fifth Street squat, which I 751 00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 2: think is where he was living at the time. We 752 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,360 Speaker 2: cleared out the adjacent lot of rubble, drunk carts, piss, bottles, 753 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 2: and rot. We started a green space. The neighborhood kids 754 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,440 Speaker 2: ran wild between the fragile beds. The nuns from the 755 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,280 Speaker 2: Cambrini old folks Home came across the street to praise 756 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,640 Speaker 2: our goodly green emergence. The year before they had been 757 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,120 Speaker 2: lobbying for our viction like because so basically, the nuns 758 00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:38,960 Speaker 2: didn't like the squad and then they opened a garden 759 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,120 Speaker 2: and now the nuns are like, hey, these squaders are cool. 760 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 2: He went and taught Earth First blockade techniques to the 761 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,960 Speaker 2: gardeners at the Chico Mendez Mural Garden and they set 762 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,080 Speaker 2: up barricades and they named it Fort Chico. It was 763 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:56,680 Speaker 2: eventually bulldozed. Activists were doing things like chaining themselves across 764 00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:58,920 Speaker 2: the street. And it was like all of these techniques 765 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:00,759 Speaker 2: that have been developed and forced defence and by Earth 766 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,239 Speaker 2: First brought into community garden defense in the middle of 767 00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,719 Speaker 2: one of the densest cities in the country. And it, 768 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:13,360 Speaker 2: I don't know, makes me happy. Because in two thousand 769 00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 2: and two the movement one again, sort of four hundred 770 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,759 Speaker 2: or five hundred gardens depending on your source were transferred 771 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,600 Speaker 2: into the Green Thumb program, while one hundred and fifty 772 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:30,840 Speaker 2: were developed. And I have no clean and clever transition 773 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:35,399 Speaker 2: from this sentence into an ad and yet I'm doing 774 00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:50,360 Speaker 2: it anyway, because now here's ads and we're back. So 775 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,920 Speaker 2: basically what happened is right. So these four hundred five 776 00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:55,280 Speaker 2: hundred gardens are now part of that Green Thumb program, 777 00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:56,560 Speaker 2: and this is the one where it's like a month 778 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:58,480 Speaker 2: a month lease where they can get fucked over at 779 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:04,520 Speaker 2: any time. But it still was the like they were 780 00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,439 Speaker 2: about to all be destroyed. And now they're like, oh, 781 00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,840 Speaker 2: it's like safe until we specifically come up with reasons 782 00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:15,680 Speaker 2: why we want the land, you know. Yeah, And the 783 00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:20,439 Speaker 2: Green Thumb gardens are precarious. Disaster capitalism, for example, took 784 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,480 Speaker 2: out a Coney Island community garden. It had been running 785 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,840 Speaker 2: for years and having green space actually mitigated some of 786 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,320 Speaker 2: the worst flooding from Hurricane Sandy in twenty twelve. That 787 00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,319 Speaker 2: it destroyed a whole bunch of that area well, and 788 00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 2: it buried the storm buried it Undersand I wonder if 789 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:39,640 Speaker 2: they knew that when they named it Sandy. Anyway, the storm, 790 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,600 Speaker 2: the community came together immediately and restored the garden, and 791 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:46,600 Speaker 2: then the mayor was like, yeah, but what if we 792 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:51,319 Speaker 2: put a music venue here? And the gardeners watched their 793 00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:57,320 Speaker 2: work bulldozed in twenty thirteen. The death cycle of the 794 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 2: community garden is the cycle of gentrification. An area gets 795 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:04,680 Speaker 2: poor and is neglected and often winds up trashed. Community 796 00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:07,839 Speaker 2: residents clean up that trash and beautify the neighborhood, which 797 00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:12,160 Speaker 2: invites new wealthier residents, which displaces people who cleaned up 798 00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:15,920 Speaker 2: the neighborhood. Eventually, the property is too valuable to leave vacant, 799 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:18,439 Speaker 2: and the people who move there because of gardens are 800 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,080 Speaker 2: no longer there. This is the cycle we see. Like, 801 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,280 Speaker 2: you know, artists move to a place because it's affordable, 802 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:26,360 Speaker 2: and then richer artists move there, and then all the 803 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,560 Speaker 2: artists have to leave and whatever, you know, to quote 804 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:34,640 Speaker 2: Robert Gottlieb, writing for the MIT Press, quote in a 805 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,400 Speaker 2: neoliberal age, private property, Trump's community benefits once private owners 806 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:42,760 Speaker 2: and sometimes public entities decide that the land value has improved, 807 00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,480 Speaker 2: often due to the community gardens, and that development can proceed. 808 00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,680 Speaker 2: Gardens are plowed under, even when developments are then postponed, 809 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:56,880 Speaker 2: with the former gardens sometimes reverting to public land, and 810 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:01,120 Speaker 2: of course recuperation comes for us. All there's now a 811 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:03,360 Speaker 2: real estate company that I'm not going to name that. 812 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:09,040 Speaker 2: In twenty fourteen, trademarked the term agrihoods for agricultural neighborhoods, 813 00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,799 Speaker 2: and then I need you to unsay that. Thank you, 814 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:15,680 Speaker 2: thank you, thank you, yep. For the low cost of 815 00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:17,840 Speaker 2: half a million bucks or five million bucks, in the 816 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,480 Speaker 2: right neighborhood, you can buy a house around a centrally 817 00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,200 Speaker 2: planned farm with composting in solar panels. Isn't that exciting? 818 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:26,960 Speaker 3: You can just do that, you know, you could just 819 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:29,760 Speaker 3: do that with I was saying five million dollars. 820 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:34,200 Speaker 2: The next sentence in my script is, honey, I used 821 00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:36,720 Speaker 2: to live in a solar powered cabin with composting toilets. 822 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:42,440 Speaker 2: That cost me about five thousand dollars. And it annoys 823 00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:48,040 Speaker 2: me because the idea of an agrihood is a good one. 824 00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,759 Speaker 2: It is closer to the way that humans develop to live. 825 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,560 Speaker 2: And there are like people trying to do this but good. 826 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,200 Speaker 2: There's a nonprofit that runs an agricultural neighborhood in Detroit 827 00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 2: where the meati the in home value is under twenty 828 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:04,720 Speaker 2: five thousand dollars and is run by a guy born 829 00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:07,680 Speaker 2: and raised in the neighborhood whose grandmother lived in that neighborhood. 830 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:11,560 Speaker 2: People living there share tools and can harvest whatever they 831 00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,200 Speaker 2: want from the farm once a week, and that's like 832 00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,760 Speaker 2: the tech billionaires get all the stuff that we should 833 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,040 Speaker 2: all just have, that we develop as ways to live 834 00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:22,120 Speaker 2: despite being poor, and then they're like, oh, we want 835 00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,480 Speaker 2: all that stuff. It seems classy and interesting, like all 836 00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:28,040 Speaker 2: the fucking boho chic stuff, which whatever I mean it. 837 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:31,640 Speaker 2: I'm not above like making farmhouse style furniture because you 838 00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:32,920 Speaker 2: can make it out of two by four us. But 839 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:36,840 Speaker 2: I guess I am above paying ten thousand dollars for 840 00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:40,439 Speaker 2: farmhouse style furniture. Yeah, that sounds right, ten thousand dollars. 841 00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:42,799 Speaker 2: Furniture should be old as shit and really interesting in 842 00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:46,120 Speaker 2: card with ornate, weird scenes. That's my one day. I'm 843 00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:48,000 Speaker 2: going to start an interior design show and no one 844 00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:49,360 Speaker 2: will listen to it, but I'll be happy. 845 00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,520 Speaker 3: I think it'll be a really great counterweight to Chip 846 00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:57,200 Speaker 3: and Joanna Gains. Yeah that is Oh wait, sorry I 847 00:45:57,800 --> 00:45:59,360 Speaker 3: got I'm like I got. 848 00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:01,480 Speaker 2: The response trans later. Yeah. Please. Yeah. 849 00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:04,719 Speaker 1: And it will be original, that's the thing. It'll be 850 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:06,160 Speaker 1: original and goth. 851 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:10,000 Speaker 3: It won't be the people that do all of the 852 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:10,640 Speaker 3: barn doors. 853 00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:13,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, it will be the same house over and over 854 00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,120 Speaker 1: and over again. There won't be barn doors. A big 855 00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:22,160 Speaker 1: clock and a sign that says, yeah, basically gray floors. 856 00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:23,040 Speaker 1: Gray floors. 857 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:26,800 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but they were all you said gray not great. 858 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,480 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, it was like great gray floors not great. 859 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,880 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah, because a great floor system, but it 860 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:35,479 Speaker 2: shouldn't be gray. You can get a nice It's. 861 00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:38,640 Speaker 1: This Magpie, really Magpie really knows how to pick like 862 00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:42,880 Speaker 1: a faucet fixture and like cool mirrors and like, I 863 00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:45,440 Speaker 1: don't know, don't you have like a swan fawcet fixture 864 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:46,480 Speaker 1: or something fantom? 865 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:49,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, all my sinks. I put in black Swans as 866 00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:54,560 Speaker 2: the fawcet fixtures, including the like weird basement bathroom that's 867 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,640 Speaker 2: covered in graffiti that when people come over, I like 868 00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,080 Speaker 2: hand them paint markers until them to because I you 869 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:06,000 Speaker 2: know whatever. Anyway, Yeah, I really like interior decorating. 870 00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:10,719 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm redecorating right now with Facebook Marketplace, and it's 871 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:13,480 Speaker 3: hell improved my space so well that. 872 00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,200 Speaker 2: Is the only good thing left about Facebook, or maybe 873 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:17,239 Speaker 2: it was the only good thing ever. 874 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:19,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I don't use Facebook at all. I actually 875 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:23,400 Speaker 3: had to create an account to use Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, 876 00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,680 Speaker 3: that's all I use it for is Facebook Marketplace. I 877 00:47:25,680 --> 00:47:28,560 Speaker 3: got this bang and chair, this ikea like prolong chair 878 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,360 Speaker 3: or whatever for you know, good price. Just picked it 879 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,439 Speaker 3: up from a roll that was moving, and now it's 880 00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,360 Speaker 3: my cat's favorite for best friend. 881 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:43,160 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that is you can have nice stuff by 882 00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:48,560 Speaker 2: doing things with people instead of whatever. I'm supposed to 883 00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:49,080 Speaker 2: tie this into a. 884 00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,200 Speaker 3: People that can afford it by it and then you know, 885 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,480 Speaker 3: you give it to someone else instead of throwing it out. 886 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,640 Speaker 2: Yeah. And so as of last year, there's still five 887 00:47:57,719 --> 00:48:00,359 Speaker 2: hundred and fifty community gardens in New York City, seven 888 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,640 Speaker 2: hundred school gardens, seven hundred gardens on public housing, and 889 00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:07,440 Speaker 2: one hundred gardens in the land trusts. And that's fucking cool. 890 00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:09,719 Speaker 2: And that is because of the work that people did 891 00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:12,880 Speaker 2: for years, but especially in the late nineties and the 892 00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:16,000 Speaker 2: early odds. It's the people who dressed up like tomatoes 893 00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:18,640 Speaker 2: and ran into city Hall, the people who released crickets, 894 00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:21,239 Speaker 2: the people who locked down to things, the people who 895 00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:24,040 Speaker 2: wrote hit songs that you all don't appreciate and then 896 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,680 Speaker 2: donated money. And the gardens still exist and they still 897 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:32,399 Speaker 2: do essential work. For example, rather than shut down during 898 00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:36,360 Speaker 2: COVID despite being ordered to, gardeners formed the Bronx Community 899 00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:39,480 Speaker 2: Farm Hubs to grow and donate food to places that 900 00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:42,319 Speaker 2: needed it. They gave away forty three thousand pounds of 901 00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,560 Speaker 2: food in twenty twenty, then one hundred and sixty two 902 00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:48,400 Speaker 2: thousand pounds of food, and twenty twenty one then they 903 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:51,399 Speaker 2: also just started feeding people, but then Green Thumb shut 904 00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:53,800 Speaker 2: them down for that because they were like, couldn't social 905 00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,719 Speaker 2: distance properly or whatever, even though it's all outside and 906 00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:04,920 Speaker 2: they regularly donate to community fridges. Also, I know, it's 907 00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,120 Speaker 2: just like I love these legacy projects that are still 908 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:11,720 Speaker 2: around because of the work that people did. These gardens 909 00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:15,440 Speaker 2: help compost the city's waste. The governor recently cut all 910 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:19,399 Speaker 2: the compost programs funding, but a private, anonymous donation kept 911 00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:23,640 Speaker 2: it going. I assume, as Betty Midler, the nonprofit Grow 912 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,880 Speaker 2: NYC runs fifty two food drop offs and composts eight 913 00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:32,279 Speaker 2: point three million pounds of organic waste every year. And 914 00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:36,560 Speaker 2: I don't know there's You could also tie this story 915 00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:39,160 Speaker 2: back to Detroit, where their entire urban farms that grew 916 00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,600 Speaker 2: up after white flight and the oil crisis left the 917 00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:45,600 Speaker 2: city derelict. And one day we'll talk about them too, 918 00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,400 Speaker 2: but we're not going to talk about today because today 919 00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:52,080 Speaker 2: we're out of script. I'm at the end of it, 920 00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:54,759 Speaker 2: because I did the thing that I was going to 921 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,759 Speaker 2: do and now it's the end of this episode. 922 00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:01,160 Speaker 3: And that's what I loved hearing aboutmmunity gardens. I learned 923 00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:03,359 Speaker 3: a lot, and I think that there's be more of them, 924 00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:05,960 Speaker 3: and I'm going to try to figure out ways to 925 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:07,719 Speaker 3: actively get involved in one nearby me. 926 00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,360 Speaker 2: Hell yeah, yeah, no. I if I lived in the 927 00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:14,279 Speaker 2: city at this point, I would absolutely be looking for 928 00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:18,320 Speaker 2: this kind of thing because it's fucking cool and it's 929 00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:20,680 Speaker 2: you know, they're not always like a lot of them 930 00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:21,960 Speaker 2: are open to the public and that you can like 931 00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:24,120 Speaker 2: go and walk around like being the pretty ones or whatever, 932 00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:30,200 Speaker 2: but like you know, they're often people working specific plots 933 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:32,920 Speaker 2: and you can't necessarily just like immediately start having one. 934 00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:37,680 Speaker 2: But they're worth defending and being involved with. But what 935 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:43,120 Speaker 2: else is worth being involved with is your content. In 936 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:45,799 Speaker 2: the plugs section of the episode. 937 00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:49,560 Speaker 3: You can find my YouTube channel and my TikTok online 938 00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:53,640 Speaker 3: it's kat m aboo abu like a monkey in Aladdin. 939 00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:58,640 Speaker 3: I also have other social media. You can find it 940 00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:00,680 Speaker 3: on a link tree because there are so many and 941 00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,920 Speaker 3: they have different names. Additionally, I just got laid off 942 00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:06,319 Speaker 3: from media matters. I'm good, but I have a lot 943 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:10,439 Speaker 3: of really great colleagues that are looking for work and 944 00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,719 Speaker 3: if we have funds for them in the future, I'll 945 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:15,480 Speaker 3: make sure to keep you all updated on that. So 946 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,240 Speaker 3: please keep an eye out and follow them and hire 947 00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:20,000 Speaker 3: them if you have a job that's open. 948 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:25,640 Speaker 2: Hell yeah, And I'm on a bunch of things. You 949 00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:28,200 Speaker 2: can follow me on Instagram Marder Kiljoy. You can follow 950 00:51:28,200 --> 00:51:31,600 Speaker 2: me on ex at Magpie Killjoy and oh god, I 951 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:33,440 Speaker 2: just said X and ironically. 952 00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:35,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like, wow, that was really impressive. I 953 00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:38,759 Speaker 3: don't know, it's an impressive derogatory. 954 00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:44,400 Speaker 2: No, it's yeah, brains wormed me so. But more importantly, 955 00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:47,520 Speaker 2: I have a book coming out this fall in September 956 00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:50,600 Speaker 2: twenty fourth from Feminist Press. It's called The Sapling Cage 957 00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:54,960 Speaker 2: and it's a young adult book about transwitch who saves 958 00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:57,319 Speaker 2: the world from a magical enclosure of the commons. It 959 00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,720 Speaker 2: does not don't worry, it does not say a magical 960 00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:03,520 Speaker 2: inclues the comments anywhere in the book. I'm it's more 961 00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:07,840 Speaker 2: fun than that. And it is being kickstartered in June 962 00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:10,279 Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four. And if you look up The 963 00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:13,120 Speaker 2: Sapling Cage Margaret Kiljoy or whatever. I'm sure you can 964 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,480 Speaker 2: figure out how to find the kickstarter page and you 965 00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:19,120 Speaker 2: can sign up there to get information about when that 966 00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,560 Speaker 2: kickstarter lunches so you can get copies of it. And 967 00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:24,840 Speaker 2: I'm really excited about it's the best book I've ever written, 968 00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:27,000 Speaker 2: and I have written a good number of books, and 969 00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:29,920 Speaker 2: so that's saying something. Well, I don't know. I mean, 970 00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:31,759 Speaker 2: all my books could be trash, but I think they're good. 971 00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:35,839 Speaker 2: And Sophie, you got anything like, is there any new 972 00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:37,760 Speaker 2: podcasts coming out from her network? 973 00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:42,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, we got two relatively new podcasts. One is Better Offline, 974 00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:46,120 Speaker 1: hosted by ed Zitron. It's a weekly sometimes twice weekly 975 00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:51,960 Speaker 1: podcast about the tech world and why it's so fucked 976 00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:54,960 Speaker 1: up and how it impacts everybody's lives. The other is 977 00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:58,040 Speaker 1: a podcast hosted by my best friend Jamie Loftist called 978 00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,960 Speaker 1: Sixteenth Minute of Fame weekly podcast. 979 00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:02,200 Speaker 3: It looks back at some. 980 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,520 Speaker 1: Of the Internet's main characters and how their viral moments 981 00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:10,040 Speaker 1: affected their lives and our lives. So, if you haven't 982 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:13,439 Speaker 1: listened already, we have two really great episodes that just 983 00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:16,520 Speaker 1: just came out recently about the dress that was white 984 00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:21,000 Speaker 1: and gold. Sorry, and about the Boston slide. 985 00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:23,719 Speaker 2: Cop Oft slid down the slide. 986 00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:25,640 Speaker 1: And went off walk and then it went as all 987 00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:29,279 Speaker 1: over the internet and it's a really great episode and 988 00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:30,680 Speaker 1: it's super interesting to check that out. 989 00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, I listened to both those podcasts. I like everything 990 00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:38,680 Speaker 2: cool Zone Media does. I know that, and you know 991 00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:40,800 Speaker 2: that I'm not chilling because when I have to say ads, 992 00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:42,920 Speaker 2: I look like someone just hit me in the face. 993 00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:48,520 Speaker 2: But I actually like all cool Zone Media's content. And 994 00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:55,520 Speaker 2: better offline is Angry Tech podcast and nothing that Jamie 995 00:53:55,560 --> 00:54:00,080 Speaker 2: Loftis records as bad and this one's particularly good. So 996 00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:03,719 Speaker 2: next week you can hear more Cool People Who Did 997 00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:08,000 Speaker 2: Cool Stuff by listening to it. That's all I got. 998 00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:13,080 Speaker 3: Yay Yay. 999 00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,080 Speaker 1: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of 1000 00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:19,080 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. 1001 00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:22,280 Speaker 3: For more podcasts and cool Zone Media, visit our website 1002 00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:26,080 Speaker 1: Coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1003 00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:28,960 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.