Abstract

Green spaces in urban environments provide a broader payback to the neighborhoods and communities in which they reside, beyond the obvious. Adapting a framework utilized for open space and parks valuation, this project seeks to characterize many of the ways that community gardening projects provide health and wellness to those that live in the city of Bridgeport, CT. Not only do gardeners grow produce to feed their families and share with neighbors, but gardening provides labor hours in the community, added nutrition and exercise for participants, housing value stabilization if not increase due to safer neighborhoods through latent policing activities, potential reduction in public costs for police services from the same, and a host of cultural and community building exchange opportunities through storytelling, sharing food and recipes and comradery.