Suite: Julie Blue Eyes

Many moons ago, I sat at a Detroit Tigers game talking with friends.  At some point the conversation strayed from baseball, and Bob informed the group that the government of Sacramento planted fruit trees in public places so that homeless people could graze.  What?!?!?!  Really?!?!?!  This blew my mind; it is equal parts absurd and practical.  Coincidentally, Detroit has a surplus of vacant land and starving people.  Adding trees that produce fruits and nuts to the landscape could beautify the city and provide food for the less fortunate.  I pictured people in tattered clothes lining the streets enjoying sweet oranges, juicy peaches, and crisp apples.  That is certainly less intimidating than the same group begging for cash or sleeping on sewer grates.

As time passed the idea stuck with me.  Several years ago, I attempted to compose an article for this blog.  Fate prevented that.  I scoured the internet looking to confirm Bob's story.  I searched for things like "Sacramento fruit trees", "homeless grazing", and "urban foraging".  The only article remotely related to the subject followed a father and son in the UK as they took food from the branches of neighbors' trees.  [bbc.co.uk]  Disappointed, the idea slipped to the back of my consciousness.

The world has changed a lot since then.  Returning to my blog, I gathered some ideas for new stories.  This topic represented a personal quest for information I failed to attain earlier.  Due to some persistence, a larger offering of online content, and a little luck, I gathered the facts.

Davis, CA lies just West of Sacramento with a population around 65,000 people.  The city's motto is "The Most Bicycle Friendly Town in the World" and the University of California has a campus there.  Stressing a quality lifestyle, the city led the way with concepts like recycling, bike lanes, and anti-smoking laws.  The modern day term for this type of city is "Green".  However, I speculate that in the 20th century it was closer to "Tree-Huggin Hippies".

Julie Partansky graduated from UC Davis in 1970 and never left.  After college, she worked as an artist, masseuse, handy-woman, and painting contractor.  Voters elected her to the City Council in 1992.  Allegedly, she won despite a meager campaign budget by rallying support against an expensive proposal to cut down trees and widen a street.  A member of the Green party, soon after the election she championed a cause to protect frogs from traffic on a new overpass.  Before construction began, frogs hopped from one side of the dirt lot on the site to a pond on the other end.  Julie and other animal activists convinced the town to spend thousands of dollars to bury a six-inch diameter pipe under the road (Toad Tunnel) that leads to the reservoir (Toad Hollow).  She also served as mayor from 1998 to 2000, during which time she spear-headed her most well-known proposal: the Night Sky Ordinance.  Concerned with the fact that residents had to leave the city to see stars, she pushed for an ordinance to limit light pollution.  To do so, outdoor signs must be lit from top-down, and lighting on stores and apartment complexes include hat-like shields to prevent extra light from illuminating the sky.  In addition, officials monitor and enforce rules governing lights at athletic fields, shutting them down after-hours.

At some point prior to becoming mayor, Julie proposed that the city plant more fruit and nut trees to help feed the homeless.  I found accounts online about relatives telling tales of the city planting up the streets and empty lots.  I even found travelogues detailing visits to the town to see the spectacle and plunder the bounty.  In reality, her idea never came to fruition.  Several sources confirm that the community did not receive the suggestion eagerly.  This and several other failed notions brought negative press to the town earning it the title "The Weirdness Center of the World".  As recently as 2010, a columnist in the Davis Enterprise insists, "there are no more fruit and nut trees now than there were back then".  Maybe her vision was just too outlandish...

Or maybe she was just ahead of her time.  In the environmentally-fanatic world of 2012, I found her cause is alive and thriving.  Trends like Urban Foraging and Guerilla Gardening have massive followings.  Urban Foraging involves finding and consuming fruits, vegetables, and other naturally occuring foods found around cities.  Guerilla Gardeners take over public spaces and transform them into nurseries.  Thanks to the technological revolution, foragers have even mapped out all the food sources in the city of Portland!  [urban edibles]  Organizations have sprouted up to collect unharvested food from residential trees and plants to process and provide to less fortunate people.  Amazingly, this year Seattle will be creating the Nation's first food forest on a seven-acre plot in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  The base concept for the forest is permaculture; it will be a perennial, self-sustaining ecosystem.  Anyone and everyone will be encouraged to visit and enjoy the harvest.  Though Julie is no longer with us, her ideas live on.




Mayor Partansky on the Daily Show in 1999 [here] (briefly mentions the homeless "grazing")


Sources: 
Barnett, Erica. "Urban Foraging and Guerilla Gardening"
Worldchanging. 19 October 2007. Web. 6 May 2012.
<http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007438.html>

daviswiki.org

Dunnin, Bob. "It's easy when you break it down logically"
The Davis Enterprise. 19 May 2010. Web. 6 May 2012.
<http://www.davisenterprise.com/Archived-Stories-0/its-easy-when-you-break-it-down-logically/>

Leschin-Hoar, Clare. "It's Not a Fairytale: Seattle to Build Nation's First Food Forest"
TakePart. 21 February 2012. Web. 6 May 2012.
<http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/02/21/its-not-fairytale-seattle-build-nations-first-food-forest>

Pyle, Amy. "Davis' Mayor Urges Law in Quest to See the Stars"
Los Angeles Times. 26 November 1998. Web. 6 May 2012.
<http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/26/news/mn-48066>

Trejo, Helen. "Davis pays homage to former mayor Partansky"
The California Aggie. 21 October 2009. Web. 6 May 2012. 
<http://www.theaggie.org/2009/10/21/davis-pays-homage-to-former-mayor-partansky/>


Pictures: waymarking.com
lynnly.com