The Gift

The New York Times, the paper of record, has finally thrown me a bone, for my birthday.

I was in brief conversation with the NYT reporter via email a month or so ago about the situation for artists at Industry City and elsewhere in NYC. I've chronicled my feelings about this several times on these pages (here is one), so I will not go into yet another rant on the subject. However, I will say that I am critical of the NY Times for their inability to report this story. Whether intentions were good or not, it always appeared as if, in selling the story to an editor, it required spinning into a glorified real estate advertisement.

The latest story focuses on mid-career artists, those who've been around for quite some time, and their "studio journey." I appreciate that focus because it is the older artists that are hurt the most by drastic rent increases -our lives more inflexibly built around our salaries, pay that is tied to the going rates years ago. The youngest artists are often more flexible and deal with today's rents by group shares of studios or apartments. By force of youth, they also may have less stuff. Every time I have to move to a smaller place, I have to consider which things to throw away.

Now, five months after being forced out of my old studio (it still sits empty) by Industry City, I have finally been able to get organized enough to start working again. This may be the biggest tragedy, if I can use such a term, for artists -the unsettled do not make art, so much time is lost. For whatever it's worth, below is my response to the NY Times reporter.

General:

Since 2004 I have had studios in Red Hook, then Dumbo, then Industry City. Before then I always worked out of the apartments. A resident of Williamsburg in the 90s, I was priced out of those apartments after I returned from grad school in 2000. I've lived in Kensington Brooklyn since 2003.

Thoughts:

Of course my problem with IC is not their desire to make a return on their investments, but their tactics, general mistrust of artist tenants in good standing, incorrect billing, giant rent increases, and failing to recognize or care how much productivity is lost when they force us to move on their whims. Their interest in art has always, unashamedly, been to promote their real estate offerings. I can't even blame them -that's the model, nationally.

It is clear IC is not interested in artist tenancy, or at least not the kind that artists have taken for granted over the last 40 years -those post industrial warehouse spaces are gone thanks largely to residential development and the vogue for loft living, the conversion of the working waterfront to the living waterfront.

I feel like the NYTimes has difficulty writing this story. Instead it turns into some kind of real estate advertisement (as proclaimed the last article's headline (SOHO?). 

As it happens, my wife has rented another unit with IC in another building and I, begrudgingly decided to share. We went from 1000 sf to 500, but we pay way more than before (by the sqft). After searching for a year (2009 I went without a studio after leaving Dumbo due to the crazy Two Trees rent increase), it became clear that there is no longer any "affordable" and "useful" (to make physical objects) studio space here. I think artists are sensitive to talking about this because their studio is directly linked to their professional life. No one is eager to talk about not being able to afford a studio, being priced out, not selling enough art to afford the rent or working so much at the day job to pay the studio rent that their practice suffers. 

Sure, there are plenty of people in NYC who are artists and can afford the rent, but the Times needs to ask "who and what are we losing?" I firmly believe we will see the shift to regional cities that have suffered greatly as NYC rockets out of reach.

But enough of that. It's a nice day out there, and it is my birthday. Caio.

For Peat's Sake

I found this opinion piece in the NYTimes well-intentioned, but silly. I'll start with the laughable notion that anybody is really using peat for ground cover. Dry as a bone, it would blow away at the slightest breeze, it is nearly impossible to wet down with a hose, and it acidifies our soil that already leans that way. You might add some to the blueberry patch soil or your new rhodi bed, but it's hardly a common purchase and hardly something you can "fork."

Oh, wait -yes, the way we really use peat is as the major component of potting soil and starter mixes. Yep, but that wasn't mentioned at all.

If it weren't for the convenience, I wouldn't use peat one more time. Maybe I will use compost, without peat, for starting my seeds next year. If I fill any pots, I can do it with compost. It'll work, it'll be fine. We got used to peat because it holds water well after it has been wetted, is light weight in the sack, and it's ubiquitous in the marketplace. But it's time to stop, not because we must, but because we can. Compost is naturally full of humus, which is just as friendly to seed starting as peat-based starter mixes. I mean, we're not professionals, right? We don't demand 100% germination rates. And can't our potted plants survive a lower water-holding capacity soil mix? Sure they can, we've got drip systems attached. As for weight on our rooftops and terraces? How much more weight is a comparable compost mix compared to fully wet, peat-based planter mix? I cannot say, but we should find out.

The Privilege Is All Mine

On our travels of the last 7 days, we met with several good friends, many of whom had brought up the recent NY Times article about people stealing vegetables and fruit from community gardens. I ended up saying the same thing enough times to think it worth me repeating it here, and do so partly because I am surprised at how much the article goads me.

Sometimes I feel the average NYT garden writer is a dim bulb with the proper connection. I say this because I often wonder what they are thinking. Why is this a story? Seriously? This is a story? All the news that's fit to print? Your the New York Times -I want to see stories about people stealing justice, people stealing the security of the masses, but I don't really think that people taking fruit here or there is a story. Unless the writer makes it a story, does some leg work, finds someone who steals fruit to tell the story. Dig into the complex world of community garden haves and haves-not. It is a limited resource. Who gets to garden anyway?

So there is a story, just not what we've seen in print -the set up, the anecdotal evidence, the website with advice, and the shrug. Folks seemed to bring up the article in conversation as if there is a lesson there for gardeners. Maybe they feel it supports their own bias against such communal enterprises. Is the community garden fodder for the touchy debate about private versus public? What of ownership? What of access or agency?

I happen to find that there are those who complain about theft at the community garden and those who don't, or at the least, brush it off. Plant enough for everyone say some. I think you would be less than mammal not to feel the pull of that ever ripe fruit, hanging there, begging to be picked. I feel it. Pick me, it calls, pick me. It's fine, they'll never come and then I'll rot with flies and maggots and wouldn't that be a shame? Pick me.

I've seen the semi-lock down of the Floyd Bennett gardens and the total lock down of countless others. Our garden is generally open. There are those at Tilden who talk of fences and locks, those who have noticed the incredible rise in beach-going visitors this summer. Yet I argue against defense. We are not free when we are fenced in and locked up.

Hmm, but people stole the tomato. They lifted a cucumber. Oh yes, people are bad -at least some other people (right -it's never me, us, but them). So I consider how fortunate I am, that my access to a garden isn't a right, but a privilege in NYC, and no amount of petty pilfering will lead me to give it up. And if the theft became alarmingly wide spread, noticeably wholesale, I would know well to think that something was terribly wrong with the world in which I garden.

Opinions Of The Times

Don't waste one of your free twenty on this NY TIMES opinion, unless you want to be annoyed that the old saw keeps on going. Excuse my lack of editing, as I am ranked.

Maybe the only truth in that article is that the problems with invasive species in North America (or anywhere else) are irreversible. Yet I tire of people anthropomorphising the plants and flipping the topic to anti-immigration fanatics.  This kind of talk reminds me of Republican political tactics; the way they skew a socioeconomic issue towards some religious-cultural one in order to pick up support and redirect people's frustration.

I do not know one person who believes that invasive plants are a problem who also happens to spew anti-immigrant hate. In fact, those I know tend to be hyper-conscientious. So this old saw, first offered by Michael Pollan, is really weak. Sensitive people get it -there are language parallels between anti-immigration and anti-invasive. So what? You are either saying people who support dealing with invasive plants are anti-immigrant or you're saying we're not. Enough of the "just sayin."

We should never confuse human culture or ethnicity with differentiated species. When human beings emigrate to the United States, do they not live amongst human beings? Is the author suggesting that different cultures and ethnicities have different eco-systems? When we deal with alien plant species, we are talking about a plant within a community of hundreds or thousands or more of species in a single biological system. Please do not insult us so much -does the author imagine that the reader is so limited that they cannot see ethnic diversity as a plurality of cultures, not a plurality of species which have very specific inter-relations with each other? Yes, cultures may have specific inter-relations with eachother, but in the end we all eat, sleep, and screw.

I know of no one who requires natives only, with the possible exception of government roadside or trail side contracts. And while we celebrate the nation of immigrants from which most of us descend, let us consider whether those folks who speak of the strength and virtue of said "immigrant" plants, also feel superior to those who were less successful when they found themselves up against our manifest destiny of industry and guile.

If you do not care about invasive plants, just say you don't care. If you cannot part with an invasive species in your garden, just say you're never going to pull out those plants. But please, stop avoiding responsibility and justifying your own indifference by throwing epithets around.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Energy Business

A few days ago I emailed letters filled with my thoughts on the expansion of gas drilling in NYS to all my NYS elected representatives (find links to yours here). So far I have had an email exchange with Assemblyman James Brennan, who sponsored this bill in the NYS legislature. The summary:

"Establishes a moratorium on the issuance of permits for the drilling of wells and prohibits drilling within five miles of the New York city water supply infrastructure."

A good start, hoping that "water supply infrastructure" means the entire watershed and then another 5 mile radius out. This bill has been introduced, but not passed.

I have not heard from Gov. Paterson's office, nor the DEC commissioner, nor from my state senator, Eric Adams. But I suppose I can wait a little longer to hear their positions on this issue.

The New York Times published this article on April 21 (Thanks Marie!) suggesting that the newly adopted New York State DEC regulations (which permit drilling) would not apply within the watershed, suggesting that within the NYC watershed, there will be no drilling. Starting to get confused?

Here's a way to clear it up -NYC has power, money, and influence and we're saying not in our back yard. But, what we should be saying is, not in NYS. Because if the risk of pollution is too high for NYC folks, then it should be the standard for all our citizens. If the risk is too high for one Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, or Brooklyn resident, then it is too high for one resident of Chenango, Broome, Tioga, Allegheny, Delaware or any other of our counties. I'm setting the bar high here folks.

Post Script:

I spoke to a resident of upstate NY who said he was rather in favor of drilling, because he would like the opportunity to make some money on his acreage. Fair enough, its been hard times for many upstaters for decades. Problem is this: once you have your 100K, what will it do for you? New truck, fix the roof, cruise? Can you drink or bathe in it? He says, "well -if the land or water becomes polluted, I will sell and move away." But who will want to buy in? After all, many people looking at acreage do so for farming, animal husbandry, or in some instances, just the beauties of a clean, healthy natural environment.

It's a deal with the devil, this "economic benefit." It has little to no long term benefits. In fact, it might even hurt in the long run. Of course, there are the tax gains for the state and local coffers in the short term, and the niche economic benefits for the operations and support business that revolve around gas extraction and delivery. At least until the wells are all used up. Then what? So, really -how many jobs are we talking about for upstaters? Give me a number and make sure those are not positions to be filled by those coming from other states where these practices and skill sets are more common.

Of course, read Rita McConnell, spokesperson for the industry. She'll tell you a different story. I discovered and suffered her misdirection on one NY Times article comment board. In her post Money, Its a Gas she tells us why NYers and Philadelphians are against Marcellus Shale gas drilling expansion. Incidentally her blog name, "Flowback," is an oilfield term: "The process of allowing fluids to flow from the well following a treatment, either in preparation for a subsequent phase of treatment or in preparation for cleanup and returning the well to production." Dangerously close to "Blowback," which of course means unintended negative consequences.

Here is a highly polished website, called EnergyInDepth, that Ms. McConnell often quotes from in her twittering (yep, twittering about gas). Oy.

And now, in this continual flow of google searches, Times arcticles, and thoughts, I have one more to add: If I were an upstate county landholder and I chose not to sign leases with the gas companies, yet any one or all of my neighbors did, then where would me and my freedom be? Surrounded by gas wells where soil, air, and water care little for our funny geo-political boundaries. Stuck in a gas field, maybe not able to sell or move -slave to the dollar that everyone is capable of being bought with. Including me, so one must be strong and convincing.

Soil Lead Clean-up

For some reason, the NY Times ran this new article on the lead in the Obama veg garden and it has all the qualities of a correction.

Cornell Cranky About Article

I picked up this blog posting about the NYTimes Lead Article at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture blog. It seems they were a little peeved about misquotes or misinformation in the article. They also mentioned my blog -how nice! I quote:

"Murray McBride of CSS and the Cornell Waste Management Institute was quoted. A little alarmist, with some significant misquotes - we are not in fact offering free soil testing, though we have gotten four calls as of yesterday inquiring about such a service… but generally not quite as sensational or inaccurate as we feared, but a bit too much for our taste. We are in the process of writing a letter to the editor with hope that we could turn this into a learning moment."

The Cornell Waste Management Institute has a page regarding soil quality. I will link to this permanently on my resources listing.

Extra Extra, Read All About It....Here

Well to my surprise the Times article came out on line this evening. It'll be out in print tomorrow.

Just a few points before you rush to read it.

• I rent an apartment, not a house in Brooklyn.
• My vegetable patch is barely bountiful, produces vegetable snacks -with exception of the green beans and herbs.
  
• My soil lead in the side yard is at least 50 times N.Y.S. background levels according to the numbers I received from The Environmental Sciences Analytical Center or 90 times the U.S. agricultural soil levels average according to the University of Minnesota Extension.
• My vegetables are all in wooden planter boxes or plastic nursery pots. The soil in them is a mix of bagged potting soil and bagged compost, not "nursery dirt."
  

That covers my corrections. I spoke to Dr. Cheng at Brooklyn College today and he has agreed to put together a short bit about dealing with heavy metal contamination in NYC soils. He told me he is getting plenty of new samples since listing his service on nycgarden. I will also post soon about the simple things you can do to help if your soil has high levels of lead. Start with this one thing -keep your kids from eating the dirt!

Now read it and weep lead!

Then compare to nycgarden post My Farm (where all this started) and Mutterings on the Mutter. Its a shame thy blog did not get a mention. But the Times photographer, Patrick, did a good job despite the toxically bright sun that day.

I'd like to post about how the garden is doing before I split for Weir Farm. So moving on.

**UPDATE**

The online addition corrected the "9 times" to read " 90 times" based on the facts presented later in the story. Alas, the Late Edition print can not say the same.

Guests Are Coming Over

Believe it or not, on Sunday, smack in the middle of my plant giveaway, I will be getting a visit from the NY Times art dept.

Like I said, believe it or not. 

They'll be photographing me and the garden for a story that I think is on soil-testing. Do not know when the story will come out either.

So today I began the cleanup because my parents taught us kids that we must clean house for guests. I pulled the garbage, swept the age-old detritus from the edge of the fencing, tied up some over-reaching perennials. After all, The Times is coming over, an institution is visiting my yard!

While I was out there I met a gardening neighbor. She was very nice and I told her that I learned from her how to keep the asters under control. She came back with a bouquet of convallaria majalis, Lily of the Valley. Sweet.