Urban Greening in Richmond, Where do we go Next?

Photo by Adam Goldsmith

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about urban greening in Richmond. Elliot Harrigan recently personally paid for the non-profit Project for Public Spaces to come to Richmond and speak about how we could balance public access and private development on the river.  The Downtown Masterplan continutes  emphasizes the importance of the river to Richmonders.  And preserving our green spaces and creating new ones is a topic I keep hearing over and over again.

Truth be told, when I get any free time these days, where do I find myself and my family? Most likely either at the river or IN the river swimming.  I feel a pull so strong to Pony Pasture that often our family will go far out of our way, just to spend a bit of time there.  In fact, Pony Pasture has become so popular this summer that they’ve had to institute a parking plan, because there is simply not enough parking for all the people who want to spend the day there.

The RVANews reporter who  recently covered the Elliott Harrigan event, called for Richmond to learn from  examples of cities who have done what we want to do.  And now, Richmonders are being given exactly that opportunity.  Green Tonic: Urban Gardening for Health & Wholeness, on Aug. 4-5 at Lewis Ginter Botanica Garden, will bring in experts from New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia so that we can learn from their best practices.  The save the date card says:

Learn about exemplary community gardening
and urban greening initiatives in Philadelphia,
New York, and Chicago; the policies and practices
that help them succeed; and what Richmond
area residents can do to take urban gardening
and greening in our community to the next level.

As many of you know, I daylight as a PR & marketing coordinator at  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, so I need to say right up front, that it is part of my job to promote this symposium. But wow, how lucky am I to get to encourage others to attend and learn from experts on such an inportant topic.  If you are interested in helping Richmond be the best city it can be, this event is for you. If you love Richmond, and want to help to work to preserve its green spaces, this event is for you, and if you simply love Richmond becuase it has so many great CSAs, farmers markets and community-building community gardens, this event is for you.

If you’d like to see a play-by-play of the days activities, you can look at a PDF of the complete agenda, or if you just want to sign up – registration is now open.