Growing Partnerships: Public gardens are helping cities address urban challenges 

About the Author

Aaron Rosenberg is a staff writer for the Chicago Policy Review and is an MPP student at the Harris School of Public Policy. He has also been published in the Columbia Political Review. He is interested in social policy and community empowerment issues. 

Chicago’s Motto

Chicago’s official motto is “Urbs in horto,” which in Latin means City in a Garden. 

In the nearly 200 years since its founding, Chicago has continued to live up to this propitious designation through its cultivation of urban green spaces. From the creation of Lincoln Park in the mid-1800s to the debut of the much-beloved Millennium Park in 2004, the people of Chicago have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with their urban  landscape. While the city’s green space focus has historically been on the development of urban parklands, a growing interest in public gardens has led cities like Chicago to explore the potential of these cultural institutions in helping address a variety of urban challenges. Unlike parks and community gardens, public gardens are distinct in their mission-driven focus; rather than existing solely as recreational destinations, public gardens are cultural institutions that exist to provide services to a community. In “Public Gardens as Sustainable Community Development Partners: Motivations, Perceived Benefits, and Challenges,” Meghan Z. Gough and John Accordino examine the ways in which these  spaces, which have not traditionally been seen as partners in public provisions, are becoming invaluable resources to cities in areas as varied as water management, waste reduction, and economic and community development.The authors examined the relationships between cities and public gardens by administering a survey to 417 member gardens of the American Public Gardens Association and conducting 96 expert interviews. 

The survey received a 27 percent response rate from a total of 111 gardens that were equally distributed throughout the country, with 75 percent of responding gardens located in close proximity to a city’s central business district. The survey questions focused on the motivations, successes, and challenges of building and sustaining partnerships with public gardens. The authors also visited nine case-study locations, chosen by a five-member committee of public garden officials, to examine the community engagement impact of public gardens. The study finds that public gardens serve three primary roles in a community: as educators in sustainability, trainers in urban horticulture, and technical experts to other community organizations. The most popular type of partnership among respondents was with schools.  Among respondents, 66 percent of responding gardens were partnered with schools to provide children with environmental and fresh food education, while 38 percent of responding gardens worked directly with schools to develop environmentally-aware curricula. The authors also find that public gardens have the potential to grow jobs and bolster the economy in areas of high unemployment and low-quality nutrition. | Twenty-five percent of responding public gardens trained community members how to grow food, while five percent provided job training and certification programs targeted toward those with limited job access.