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Asheville food advocates say city failed them

Mackensy Lunsford
mlunsford@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE - The Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park, once the site of the segregated Stephens-Lee High School and then a rubbish-filled lot, is now a place where the increasingly coveted paw paw grows — at least as long as it's spared from the chainsaws some say come from "gentrification."

Perssimons have fallen to the ground in the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park created by Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit dedicated to solving food insecurity through urban agriculture.

The nation's first edible park has been recognized by The Smithsonian, New York Times and multiple scientific articles about food security. Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit dedicated to solving food insecurity through urban agriculture, has had a contract with the city to maintain the park since 2002.

This site boasts more than 40 varieties of fruit and nut trees, including figs, apples, hazelnuts, plums and peaches. And now Bountiful Cities says the city felled four mature fruit trees in the tiny park without making a real effort to notify the group.

Even though thousands of volunteer hours have gone into maintaining the park, the story of how heirloom apple trees and half a chestnut came to be felled there seems to have started with just one resident of the East End neighborhood, one the oldest historically African-American communities in the city and now the site of a cluster of new developments.

In emails dating to 2014, that resident complained repeatedly to the city's Neighborhood Coordinator, Marsha Stickford, about lack of lighting in the park.

"I've been walking through more often since the sun has been setting later and have noticed debris (clothing and such) and a tent set up in the garden," the resident, a member of the East End neighborhood wrote. "It looks like transient people have taken to sleeping there again. It seems like it would be less hospitable to them if it were well lit. It's easier for them to hide in the darkness."

Duke Energy surveyed the site and said having lights installed and maintained in the park would require removal of trees and other vegetation. John A. Gavin, CFM Parks Planning and Development Manager, suggested a meeting with city staff, neighborhood residents and Bountiful Cities.

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"We have been dancing around this one for about 2 and (a half) years," Stickford, seemingly exasperated with the situation, said in an email to Gavin.

Stickford acknowledged the city's agreement with Bountiful Cities, but said "they are not upholding their end" in maintaining the park, a point Darcel Eddins, Bountiful Cities executive director, disputes.

"Between the kudzu and the lack of lighting, I know APD would like to see some major changes for the area to make it less attractive for camping and other nuisance behavior," Stickford wrote. " ... I think we can make a case for needing to do whatever in order to get the lighting installed."

Eddins said the situation points to a systemic failure by the city to honor the efforts of homegrown volunteer groups as Asheville bends under the weight of new residents.

A hand-painted sign denotes that a tree produces pears in the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park created by Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit dedicated to solving food insecurity through urban agriculture.

"Does one squeaky wheel get their way because they're scared?" Eddins said. "Can we have a conversation about gentrification?"

The East End neighborhood once directly connected to The Block, home of the historic YMI Cultural Center. It lost its physical connection to that portion of the city when, in the '70s, Asheville’s urban renewal projects bulldozed through.

Development has brought a shift in demographics from a predominately African-American community. "Many residents are concerned about the effects of emerging gentrification, which they see as a further threat to the neighborhood’s history and character," says information on the neighborhood association's Facebook page.

Asheville native, community activist and Stephens-Lee alumna Gloria Howard Free helped build the edible park, formerly the Stephens-Lee Edible Park, on the site of her former African-American secondary school in 1997. She was behind the push to rename the park Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park after the black botanist and chemist, who died in 1943.

"I love very deeply Dr. Carver's connection with nature," Free said in a 2003 Citizen-Times story. "The woods and forest served as his cathedral. He would ask questions, listen to instructions, then he would go into his laboratory and create at a very high level."

Eddins said the city's destroying of trees runs counter to the vision for the park. "The park was named that for a reason, to highlight people of color who have done these magnificent things, and this is what we do?" she said.

Now, from the west end of the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park, City Hall looms large. Deeper into the woods, paw paw trees still stand as a monument to native foods and what can be done when many hands come together in the name of food security.

The paw paw tree bears the largest edible fruit in North America. High in antioxidants, the tropical-tasting fruit was eaten by native Americans and relished by settlers. It even had a founding father fan in Thomas Jefferson. Though it fell out of favor with food industrialization, the paw paw has seen a resurgence as foraged foods and native foodways see renewed interest.

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Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park was the first place John Buscarino tried paw paw. "It started a lifelong love affair for me," he said.

Buscarino is a now member of the Buncombe Fruit and Nut Club, whose members refer to themselves as "fruit nuts." The Fruit and Nut Club holds periodic care days in the Edible Park, clearing brush, mulching and painting identification signs.

Buscarino said cutting down edible trees stands in opposition to the Food Action Plan, created by the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council to help solve food insecurity in the city.

Michael Deeney, 38, of Winston-Salem, hangs out in the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park for the day on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016. Deeney said he has been in town for about a month and a half and spends his time in various parks around town but hasn't been sleeping in the edible park.

The Food Action Plan prioritizes community gardens, planting and protection of fruit and nut trees and makes it easier for farmers’ markets to blossom in the middle of food-insecure neighborhoods.

When drawing up this year's Strategic Plan, Asheville City Council recommitted to fight food insecurity in the city, creating room in the budget for Bountiful Cities to get a coordinator for the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council, a position that should further hold the city's feet to the fire over food initiatives.

It can't come a moment too soon, said Buscarino.

In February, the Fruit and Nut Club drew up an email petition to save 15-year-old trees at the edible orchard at the Montford Recreation Center. The city planned to relocate them, and the club, which was not notified in advance. It said the trees would not survive the move.

"More than 1,000 citizens signed the petition that basically reiterated the city's Food Action Plan guidelines to them," said Buscarino.

No trees were lost, but trust was. And this latest incident at the Dr. George Washington Carver feels like "a slap in the face," said Buscarino. "The history is fresh, and I don't understand why they're not aware of us and where we're coming from."

"A lot of people feel like the Buncombe Fruit and Nut Club is the exact civic engagement group that the city needs, that the city keeps encouraging and says it wants to see," he said. "But the city just negated a 15-year investment in the food security in the city of Asheville," he said.

To be sure, the edible park has been subject to multiple reports of homeless encampments, "suspicious" persons, fights, drug use, loud music and various nuisance calls. Police-service call reports dating to 2003 show 257 incidents reported in and near the park — the edible park doesn't have an address and, because of its proximity to the Stephens Lee Recreation Center, officer-generated reports use 30 George Washington Carver Ave. for incidents at the park and the rec center.

Buscarino said he's not dismissing safety concerns. But he thinks the city's assertion that it cares about protecting community assets like urban gardens amounts to little more than window dressing.

Michael Deeney, 38, of Winston-Salem, poses in a tree in
the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park where he was hanging out for the day on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016. Deeney said he has been in town for about a month and a half and spends his time in various parks around town but hasn't been sleeping in the edible park.

"We feel (the city) keeps saying they're on our side, and these edible parks keep winding up on the chopping block, and we're the last to know," he said.

And the city's felling of fruit trees to address vagrants in the park seems like particularly misplaced effort, he said. "Cutting down trees is not a meaningful way to confront issues of 'house-lessness' and drug addiction that our community is facing."

Buscarino hopes all stakeholders can be involved in future discussions over the fate of public parks.

"If we can bring everyone together, I have no doubt we can get meaningful solutions and make our community a beautiful and livable place for everyone," he said. "But that's not going to happen if the city is making unilateral decisions about safety that affect food security, landscaping and parks."

That's not to say the city has done nothing to prioritize food security.

Councilman Gordon Smith helped found the Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council but now primarily acts as its liaison to the city and advocate. Smith noted the city has made good on many food security efforts put forth by the Food Policy Council.

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Those include allowing farmers markets to blossom in areas zoned for residential use, paving the way for the Oakley Farmers Market.

The city also approved the shutting down of Market Street to host the downtown Asheville City Market tailgate market on Saturdays beginning in spring, an effort that will cost the city $14,000 in parking meter fees over the course of the season.

Additionally, the city of Asheville's 2016-17 Strategic Plan includes $60,000 in the budget for Food Action Plan coordination and backyard composting.

The city will also soon begin work on the Edible Mile along the French Broad River West Greenway, connecting Haywood Road to the French Broad River Park with a mile of fruit and nut trees and other edible landscaping.

But Smith said nothing excuses the recent events at the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park or the edible orchard at the Montford Recreation Center. He noted that food-positive efforts like pollinator habitats and urban gardens are built into the Strategic Operating Plan, along with other city priorities like affordable housing and transportation.

A hand-painted signs point out trees that grow apples and hazelnuts in the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park created by Bountiful Cities, a nonprofit dedicated to solving food insecurity through urban agriculture.

Smith said the city's leveling of fruit-bearing trees in a city where hunger is an issue points to the need for a paradigm shift. "That's the problem right there, crystallized at that moment," he said. "No one thought to themselves, oh this is food."

He agreed city staff failed to effectively communicate and plan with nonprofit partners, "blowing up" at city manager Gary Jackson over the edible park incident. "I let him know it that the will of Council was unanimous and clear around the Food Action Plan, and that this was a failing," Smith said.

Asheville Parks has since met with Bountiful Cities and other Food Policy partners to prevent further incidents. The groups will collaborate to come up with lighting solutions that don't require cutting down more trees.

It's an important effort for the city, Smith said. The power of edible parks weighs more than the bulk of their fruit.

"To me, this is more about having food in your everyday life — it's more about that education and cultural piece — schoolkids walking past food, recognizing it's not just from the grocery store but that this is all stuff that grows around us," Smith said. "It's about a familiarity with an ecosystem where food access is just normal. That, I think, is the most valuable piece of efforts like the edible park."

City staff have since apologized to Bountiful Cities, said Eddins. But she said the apologies seem disingenuous.

"Ultimately, they work for us, as tax payers, but how do we make city staff accountable for things like this?" she said, reiterating the need for a paradigm shift as the city grows and changes. "You, the city, don't get to lead this conversation, but participate as an equitable party to the rest of us."

Michael Deeney's belongings are set up in Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park where he was hanging out for the day on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016. Deeney said he has been in town for about a month and a half and spends his time in various parks around town but hasn't been sleeping in the edible park.