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Town Hall Meeting to Save the Hmong Community Garden 10/15
"Their only hope is that the city of Fresno -- not the government, but the people who live here and make up this city -- say, 'This is something worth saving. If you can't save this kind of network, this kind of support, this kind of love, then pretty soon the only thing left to save is concrete.'"
- Chukou Thao, executive director of the Hmong American Farmer's Association
- Chukou Thao, executive director of the Hmong American Farmer's Association
Hmong American Community Town Hall Meeting
· An invitation to speak for the preservation of the Hmong community garden in its present location
· Everyone is invited
· Fresno City Council Members and the Park and Recreation Department Director have been invited to listen and speak
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
When - Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Where - Faith Community Religious Facility
1495 N. Chestnut Ave. (Between Olive & McKinley)
Fresno, CA 93703
This meeting has been called on short notice by concerned citizens who want to save the Hmong community garden in southeast Fresno on Belmont Ave. west of Clovis Ave. The City of Fresno has told the Hmong gardeners that they must leave November 1, 2008, so immediately action is required.
The purpose of the town hall meeting is to give residents an opportunity to tell city council members and the Director of the Park and Recreation Department why it is important to save the garden in its current location.
“We want everyone to come to the Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday. We are hoping for a good turn out of Hmong and members of the community at large. We are expecting several of the Hmong gardeners to be there to tell their stories and express their wishes. We want the community at large to explain why they support the garden and its gardeners,” said Summer Vue, a Hmong leader and Fresno Unified elementary teacher.
Following Diana Marcum’s October 1 Fresno Bee story (http://www.fresnobe e.com/263/ story/905324.html, video http://www.fblinks.com/pt6) about the Hmong garden, community members addressed the October 7, city council meeting. They asked that one of the council members carry a motion to “reconsider plans to demolish the 13 year old Hmong community garden in SE Fresno .” To date no council member has been willing to put this issue on the agenda for the next meeting.
More than 20 people showed up for a meeting at Cafe Corazon this past weekend about the garden. There were people from many different community organizations, concerned individuals, students from both Fresno City College and Fresno State, and Hmong community activists. The group agreed to support the 13 year old community garden in its present location.
Saturday night Summer Vue and Marina Yang brought the question of saving the Hmong community garden to Hmong listeners of KBIF 900 AM radio. For two hours listeners called non-stop with overwhelming support for the continuation of the garden at its current location.
“The Save the Hmong Community Garden group is calling on the community to contact city council members. Members Mike Dages, Henry T. Perea, and Jerry Duncan have voted against the current plan twice, but they were in the minority. We are asking them to put the item on the agenda again. Council members Blong Xiong, Cynthia Sterling, Brian Calhoun, and Paul Caprioglio have favored the current plan. We are asking them to listen to the community and hope they will change their position,” said Camille Russell, who addressed the city council regarding this issue on October 7.
Save the Hmong Community Garden organizers have plans to involve the community in the effort. Plans include flyering, announcements, contacts with community groups, a petition, and a call for attendance at the city council meeting at 8:30 AM on October 21.
Contact:
Summer Vue sunrisevue@yahoo. com (559) 761-4439
Camille Russell camille.russell@ att.net (559) 862-8763, (559) 276-2592
· An invitation to speak for the preservation of the Hmong community garden in its present location
· Everyone is invited
· Fresno City Council Members and the Park and Recreation Department Director have been invited to listen and speak
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
When - Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Where - Faith Community Religious Facility
1495 N. Chestnut Ave. (Between Olive & McKinley)
Fresno, CA 93703
This meeting has been called on short notice by concerned citizens who want to save the Hmong community garden in southeast Fresno on Belmont Ave. west of Clovis Ave. The City of Fresno has told the Hmong gardeners that they must leave November 1, 2008, so immediately action is required.
The purpose of the town hall meeting is to give residents an opportunity to tell city council members and the Director of the Park and Recreation Department why it is important to save the garden in its current location.
“We want everyone to come to the Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday. We are hoping for a good turn out of Hmong and members of the community at large. We are expecting several of the Hmong gardeners to be there to tell their stories and express their wishes. We want the community at large to explain why they support the garden and its gardeners,” said Summer Vue, a Hmong leader and Fresno Unified elementary teacher.
Following Diana Marcum’s October 1 Fresno Bee story (http://www.fresnobe e.com/263/ story/905324.html, video http://www.fblinks.com/pt6) about the Hmong garden, community members addressed the October 7, city council meeting. They asked that one of the council members carry a motion to “reconsider plans to demolish the 13 year old Hmong community garden in SE Fresno .” To date no council member has been willing to put this issue on the agenda for the next meeting.
More than 20 people showed up for a meeting at Cafe Corazon this past weekend about the garden. There were people from many different community organizations, concerned individuals, students from both Fresno City College and Fresno State, and Hmong community activists. The group agreed to support the 13 year old community garden in its present location.
Saturday night Summer Vue and Marina Yang brought the question of saving the Hmong community garden to Hmong listeners of KBIF 900 AM radio. For two hours listeners called non-stop with overwhelming support for the continuation of the garden at its current location.
“The Save the Hmong Community Garden group is calling on the community to contact city council members. Members Mike Dages, Henry T. Perea, and Jerry Duncan have voted against the current plan twice, but they were in the minority. We are asking them to put the item on the agenda again. Council members Blong Xiong, Cynthia Sterling, Brian Calhoun, and Paul Caprioglio have favored the current plan. We are asking them to listen to the community and hope they will change their position,” said Camille Russell, who addressed the city council regarding this issue on October 7.
Save the Hmong Community Garden organizers have plans to involve the community in the effort. Plans include flyering, announcements, contacts with community groups, a petition, and a call for attendance at the city council meeting at 8:30 AM on October 21.
Contact:
Summer Vue sunrisevue@yahoo. com (559) 761-4439
Camille Russell camille.russell@ att.net (559) 862-8763, (559) 276-2592
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Comments
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this is one more example of how folks with their own agendas utilize minority groups for what ever serves their purpose this week.
where have all of you been during the last few years when the farmers and so called community advocates like summer vue were asked to help these farmers raise funds for an actual gardern.... No Where!
Becuase of the folks involved now are only interested in making headlines not resolving actual problems that require read advocacy and money. The developer Kashian who has paid for dages and perea jr. is laughing his head off becuase you are doing his dirty work and getting him a police station on his site at the expense of tax payers...
you all are advocates for Kashian and purcashed council members not Hmong farmers... what a shame.
where have all of you been during the last few years when the farmers and so called community advocates like summer vue were asked to help these farmers raise funds for an actual gardern.... No Where!
Becuase of the folks involved now are only interested in making headlines not resolving actual problems that require read advocacy and money. The developer Kashian who has paid for dages and perea jr. is laughing his head off becuase you are doing his dirty work and getting him a police station on his site at the expense of tax payers...
you all are advocates for Kashian and purcashed council members not Hmong farmers... what a shame.
I despise Kashian personally and I think that most folks in the group working on this issue do too. If they even know who he is.
None of us are pawns for Dages or Perea either, and its pretty offensive and idiotic that someone would even try to accuse us of that.
Summer Vue was not working on the Hmong Community Garden issue when the Parks Department proposed for folks to raise $4 million to save the garden. As far as common sense goes... How could anyone expect a community that is poor to raise $4 million? It would be difficult for anyone to raise that sort of money in Fresno.
Most of the folks working on this issue currently were not aware of what was happening with the Hmong Garden before the recent Fresno Bee article which brought the issue to many peoples attention. The Fresno City Council seems to have only had one vote on the issue which could be construed to be somewhat public, on June 19th. Most of the decisions seem to have been made in the budget process, specifically in the police part of the budget process this last year.
Beyond that the SE Police Substation that is proposed to be built on Belmont and Dewitt(over the garden), will cost the taxpayers a lot more than the previously proposed substation at Fancher Creek. The city was going to lease that property for $1 dollar a year from what I can understand, and as part of that deal helped the developer receive a $21 million dollar grant from the state. Now that the police and city have decided to build on park land at Belmont and Dewitt, they will have to bond the entire expense for the building of the substation to Fresno taxpayers.
This is not to mention that 300 families that rely on the garden currently for fresh produce will have to find another way to feed their families in an increasingly dire economic situation.
How does any of this make for common sense?
None of us are pawns for Dages or Perea either, and its pretty offensive and idiotic that someone would even try to accuse us of that.
Summer Vue was not working on the Hmong Community Garden issue when the Parks Department proposed for folks to raise $4 million to save the garden. As far as common sense goes... How could anyone expect a community that is poor to raise $4 million? It would be difficult for anyone to raise that sort of money in Fresno.
Most of the folks working on this issue currently were not aware of what was happening with the Hmong Garden before the recent Fresno Bee article which brought the issue to many peoples attention. The Fresno City Council seems to have only had one vote on the issue which could be construed to be somewhat public, on June 19th. Most of the decisions seem to have been made in the budget process, specifically in the police part of the budget process this last year.
Beyond that the SE Police Substation that is proposed to be built on Belmont and Dewitt(over the garden), will cost the taxpayers a lot more than the previously proposed substation at Fancher Creek. The city was going to lease that property for $1 dollar a year from what I can understand, and as part of that deal helped the developer receive a $21 million dollar grant from the state. Now that the police and city have decided to build on park land at Belmont and Dewitt, they will have to bond the entire expense for the building of the substation to Fresno taxpayers.
This is not to mention that 300 families that rely on the garden currently for fresh produce will have to find another way to feed their families in an increasingly dire economic situation.
How does any of this make for common sense?
So I just wanted to correct that. I don't despise Kashian, though I am not too fond of Riverpark. Tutelian I despise though, mainly because of his attempts at developing downtown with only profit in mind.
I don't know as much about Kashian, though I am sure I would not be too fond of either ultimately.
I don't know as much about Kashian, though I am sure I would not be too fond of either ultimately.
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