I'm all for a little bit of guerrilla gardening and reclaiming some small part of the area currently devoted to the demands of the automobile, so here's a quick plug for PARK(ing) Day UK - September 18th 2009.
Mind you, the suggested one day conversion of parking spaces seems a bit...weak. My own permanent PARK(ing) space can be seen here, in an old picture that dates back to before global warming really took hold (otherwise known as winter a few years back):
The viewpoint doesn't really show it off to best advantage - there are more plants off-screen to the right - but I can hardly do a better job now it's dark out. Anyway, being privately owned, I'm not sure if it counts, but it should. I do pay ¥25000 per month for it, but that is really a fiddle to get round JAMSTEC's silly rules over house rentals rather than a real parking space rental.
As an aside, I don't think there is actually that much need for guerrilla gardening in Japan. The climate being what it is, any unused space is reclaimed very rapidly (eg spot the greenness peeking though here). Also, people here are pretty keen on gardening and like to put pots out wherever there is a few inches of space - in fact that same residential road where the scrap metal dump is, is also lined with flowers, tomatoes, and chilli plants all through the summer. The problem is in really in preventing people from paving, repaving, and expanding over undeveloped areas at an ever-increasing rate.
Mind you, the suggested one day conversion of parking spaces seems a bit...weak. My own permanent PARK(ing) space can be seen here, in an old picture that dates back to before global warming really took hold (otherwise known as winter a few years back):
The viewpoint doesn't really show it off to best advantage - there are more plants off-screen to the right - but I can hardly do a better job now it's dark out. Anyway, being privately owned, I'm not sure if it counts, but it should. I do pay ¥25000 per month for it, but that is really a fiddle to get round JAMSTEC's silly rules over house rentals rather than a real parking space rental.As an aside, I don't think there is actually that much need for guerrilla gardening in Japan. The climate being what it is, any unused space is reclaimed very rapidly (eg spot the greenness peeking though here). Also, people here are pretty keen on gardening and like to put pots out wherever there is a few inches of space - in fact that same residential road where the scrap metal dump is, is also lined with flowers, tomatoes, and chilli plants all through the summer. The problem is in really in preventing people from paving, repaving, and expanding over undeveloped areas at an ever-increasing rate.
2 comments:
Speaking of the 'solvent smell' -- have you ever invited anyone to drop off a little fan/collection filter you could run for a week or two and send out to find out what exactly it is that you all are breathing over there?
I'd think there would be a professional interest in finding out what's in the air from the dump.
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?id=127954
I think it has been tested, actually. Not that anyone would tell us the results. The dolphin meat gets tested too...and that's too toxic to put in landfill so gets given to schoolkids for lunch.
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