Description
TitleCapital City Farm: modeling a way forward
Date Created2020
Other Date2020-05 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (ix, 167 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionThis thesis uses an investigation into Capital City Farm, a two-acre urban farm established in 2015 in the City of Trenton, New Jersey to explore the multifaceted challenges urban agriculture faces in urban post-industrial spaces and communities. Despite 2019 being its most successful year in terms of production and programming, the project struggles with sustainable funding, staffing and community engagement. Part One contextualizes Capital City Farm with the concepts of sustainability; resilience; urban issues such as redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification; environmental justice; citizen participation; and urban agriculture in order to understand how urban agriculture may be a means to address the environmental, social, economic, and justice issues in communities like East Trenton.
Part two interrogates Capital City Farm’s recent past and current situation according to Land, Labor, Liquidity, and Leadership strategies. Interviews with Farm stakeholders, regular visits to the Farm property, and a visit to the Trentoniana collection at the Trenton Free Public Library provide the material for this investigation. This section finishes with an evaluation of Capital City Farm and the recent Garden State Agrihood proposal for the community that frames the Farm as in a new community development model. This analysis suggests that, while many facets of the concept of the Farm and the Agrihood are valuable and worth pursuing, the Farm is unsustainable without an adjustment of the Agrihood Board’s commitment to address participation, maintenance, and management.
The final section projects different organizational models the Farm could take: Garden State Agrihood managed cooperative, Garden State Agrihood managed Farm, Non-Profit managed agriculture program, Mercer County managed agriculture park, or just city managed open space. It concludes with a discussion of what could be possible with more study and general lessons learned throughout the investigation that can be applied to the practice of landscape architecture and design of public spaces. Best practices like good communication, community participation, multiple site visits, and intention are even more crucial in communities such as East Trenton. Otherwise, landscape architects and other design professionals risk perpetuating the injustices of the past.
NoteM.L.A.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD graduate
LanguageEnglish
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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