June 1981 RAIN Page 13 blacks have roots in both places. Look, I was brought up in D.C. but =LING rTOS things. Our CETA jobs are not real jobs. We're getting lazy. Wendy Johns. Kids respond to constructive ideas that make common sense. They couldn't believe that when Walter and I went to school we demanded that teachers stay after school and work with the slower kids. But it makes sense. You 've got to plant seeds early and nurture them. N.S. The Ontario Laker's vision is an inner-city one, yet it also has a rural tone. How is that 7 Walter Pierce. That's because most poor blacks, and not so poor also worked on my family's small farm in Prince George's County, Maryland, I was always busy with crops, animals, fixing up things. It's the same Inside the ghetto-building a stadium, clearing the field. The very first thing we did at Community Park West in 1978 when we finally owned the land was build community gardens. We taught kids about nutrition as we started composting and building fences. In 1979 we had 12 plots; in 1980 we had 50. In 1981 we're doing terrace gardening like the Japanese and intensive farming to get every inch of available space under cultivation. Wendy Johns. But we have to work to form co-op apartments or else the condominiums come in and before you know it, new, rich people will be in those gardens. Walter Pierce. This year we want to start trees growing in Prince George's County. In future years these would supply our annual Christmas tree sales program. As we take ownership of buildings we want to start rooftop greenhouses, food canning projects, wholesale marketing, and our Latin-American organizations already have a catering service we work with. N.S. Can low-income, inner-city people relate "ghetto recyWhen a young person gets ownership in something, things change. cling" to the traditional environmentalists concerns which started the waste recycling movement 7 Walter Pierce. It will be hard. Because low-income, unemployed youth are totally powerless and have no security. They do not worry about poisoned rivers, and foul air, and carcinogens in food even though these evil things are hurting them. They have to worry about crime in their schools, and streets, about surviving, and managing to grow up with enough skills. But garbage recycling can be a bridge. A job has direct meaning. A community business means money. Kids need a piece of turf to call their own. If recycling can do this it really is an "appropriate technology" for minority youth. Wendy Johns. Walter and I saw the Bronx Frontier Development Corporation composting project in New York. We saw Resource Recovery Systems recycling business in Branford, Connecticut. Fifty jobs created. Our people can get into that. I mean, work hard for something. After recycling puts us to work baling paper and smelting aluminum, then natural curiosity will lead us to learn about energy savings, and materials conservation. Then we'll all be environmentalists, too. But will the environmentalists come to appreciate ou r world and ou r day-to-day reali ty700 For more information on " Neighborhood To Save Our Cities: What Needs to Be Recycling Obsolete Buildings, Public Recycling," see Don e, Henry Reuss , Public Affairs Press, Technology Inc., 1301 Pennsylvania 419 New Jersey Ave., S. E. , Washington , Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20004 Citizen Action Manual: A Guide to Recy DC 20003. cling Vacant Property in Your Neighbor Neighborhood Conservation and Properhood, Department of Interior, C Street Neighborhoods A Self-Help Sampler , ty Rehabilitation: A Bibliography, Office between 18th and 19th Streets, N. W., Office of Neighborhood Development, of Administration, HUD, Washington, Washington, DC 20240. HUD, Washington, DC 20410 DC 20410. A Partnership Approach to Neighbor Citizens' Guide to Maintaining Neigh "Loan Package to National Consumer hood Commercial Reinvestment, Office borhood Places, Heritage Conservation Cooperative Bank," Ontario Lakers Coof the Comptroller of the Currency, 490 and Recreation Service Information Ex operative Association, 2390 Champlain L'Enfant Plaza E, S.W., Washington, DC change, Division of P.A. R. T.S. , 440 G Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009, 20219 Street, N. W. , Washington , DC 20243. 202/332-4417 or 202/232-4108.
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