Seattle closes down Black Lives Matter garden citing homelessness, vandalism

Posted on by thegrio.com

Park workers helped remove the Black Lives Memorial Garden on Wednesday, Seattle listing drug use and restrooms vandalism among its reasons why.

A community garden originally planted in Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park as part of 2020’s

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The organization and other opponents of the removal caused Seattle Parks to postpone its original action date in October. More than 5,000 people signed an online petition against the destruction of the unsanctioned garden, which they described as honoring Black and Indigenous people killed by police and bringing joy and healing to neighborhood residents without much access to green space. 

Schulkin said the city would partner with Black community leaders and the Seattle-based Black Farmers Collective to “conceptualize a new commemorative garden” elsewhere at Cal Anderson Park.

However, Black Farmers Collective member Yeawa Asabi stated that the organization did not support Wednesday’s removal and does not intend to collaborate with Seattle officials on a replacement.

The city “has claimed that they were removing the garden because of public health and safety, but the garden did not create the conditions for the unhoused crisis and drug epidemic,” contended Black Star Farmers. “Removing the garden is a theatrical and reactionary response to systemic issues, designed to placate the landlords, bosses, and politicians intent on extracting labor from poor and working-class people.”

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The post Seattle closes down Black Lives Matter garden citing homelessness, vandalism appeared first on TheGrio.

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