Friday, January 20, 2012

Quesada Gardens and SF win national award

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee accepted one of five 2012 GRO1000 Gardens and Green Spaces Awards at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter meeting in Washington, DC yesterday. The award benefits the Quesada Gardens Initiative and its effort to address the social environment alongside the physical one through citizen empowerment and grassroots involvement.

The award is part of a partnership program of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the ScottsMiracle-Gro Company, and includes up to $10,000 worth of products from ScottsMiracle-Gro.  It recognizes "cities for the creation of innovative public gardens and green spaces, and recognizes mayoral stewardship in the development of urban greenscapes," according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors' press release issued yesterday.

San Francisco and Quesada Gardens Initiative are one of five city and project partnerships to receive the 2012 award.  The winners were "selected by a panel of former mayors and national garden experts from a pool of more than 80 applicants," according to the press release.

The other winners were Baltimore (Upton Edible Garden), Columbia South Carolina (Greystone Blvd. Beautification Project), Cleveland (Urban Agriculture Innovation Zone), and Corpus Christi (Lindale Park Community Garden).

Quesada Gardens Initiative is an innovative community-building effort in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.  The grassroots organization is respected for the creation of community and backyard gardens, public gathering spaces, public art, and other projects that residents envision and implement for themselves.

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