Monday was the first community meeting. We arrived early. We had our two printed siteplans, a couple rulers, and pens. We also compiled a set of sustainable strategies that we were going to offer to the community:

 

 

It was very windy, and we pinned our drawings to the table with rocks. It took about a half hour for everybody to trickle in, and the community meeting began. Maria talked about their plans as a whole–her vision for this community garden is to become a hub in the region for others to learn about various strategies of organizing as well as tactics for farming. As the sun began to set, the 15-odd people who worked the land began outlining on pieces of paper their vision for the garden. Each person was given a piece of paper, and later, everyone’s ideas were consolidated into a single plan drawn by Maria and Arturo on the whiteboard. Little attention was paid to the sustainable strategies handouts throughout the meeting, while two women in the back did seem interested.

 

 

 

 

Overall, the atmosphere during the community meeting was exciting and enthusiastic. The community concerned itself primarily with the layout of the space, not so much the aesthetics or the materials they were going to use. Everything was functional–the interest of the community was to use the land efficiently yet leave space for recreation and education. We went home with notes and a sketch of what needed to be realized. The next step was to digitize the plan and make it  accessible and legible for the community and the city.