City dedicates S.E. land to aid immigrant farmers

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

By David F. Ashton

The Bee, Nov 25, 2009

David F. Ashton / THE BEE

Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Mayor Sam Adams at site of the city’s newest “Victory Garden” located at the edge of the Ardenwald/Johnson Creek Neighborhood.

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It was a crisp, sunny morning on Tuesday, October 6th, when a handful of officials and neighbors gathered at a vacant lot in Inner Southeast Portland, just across the street from the Clackamas County line and the City of Milwaukie.

The occasion marked the formal transfer of management of the property east of 3405 S.E. Sherrett from the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) to the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). Working with Mercy Corps, the BPS will develop an income-generating opportunity for Nepalese farmers.

“We are taking an unused piece of property, at the very edge of the City of Portland and Multnomah County, and putting it into urban agricultural,” Mayor Sam Adams explained to THE BEE before the program began. “Immigrant farmers will be planting organic produce for their own use, and also selling it at the local farmers market.”

The lot, Adams added, has long been on the books as surplus City land. “Because it is in an awkward location, it’s not suitable for park land. But, it is great for agricultural production within the city.”

After introductions of the dignitaries on hand, Adams began, “First, I want to acknowledge and thank Commissioner Dan Saltzman for his early pioneering leadership on ‘Eatable Cities’. The strategy was very groundbreaking, if you’ll pardon the pun, in terms of getting the city to get clearer on what property that it needed and didn’t need, and to put the latter into agricultural use.”

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