Cultivating Common Ground? A Case Study of a Community Garden Organization in Northeast Portland, Oregon

Urban Farm DB summary

This case study examines the City Soil Network (CSN), a community garden organization comprising seventeen garden sites in Portland, Oregon, thirteen of them in Northeast Portland — an area with a history of racial and ethnic discrimination. Methods combined content analysis of organizational publications, participant observation at four Northeast Portland garden sites, and interviews with eleven CSN members representing all three levels of involvement in the organization. Recent gentrification in Northeast Portland has disproportionately displaced African Americans and other historically marginalized residents, and the author argues that the CSN has so far failed to engage the residents who stand to benefit most from involvement.