Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Green Graffiti

I wonder how many of you have noticed the tremendous contrast in the news we hear nowadays?  Some stories are so bad, it feels like the world is ‘going to hell in a hand basket’ while other stories simply sound ‘too good to be true’.  Perhaps, the contrast is a reflection of the cultural crossroads we have reached?  We are collective poised to choose our future and what we choose is how it will be.

I am firmly planted in the ‘green camp’ where I have deep roots in the possibilities of growing the good and weeding out the bad!  This is personal.  Since I’m tossing around cliches, here’s one of my favorites:  Necessity is the mother of invention.

The story to perfectly illustrate this cliche was one I watched from a TED Talk in Manhattan, all about the transformation of marginalized students in a dying neighborhood in the South Bronx where there was 20% poverty, 40% unemployment, a median income of $20K, malnutrition,  and where decaying buildings marked the landscape and symbolized the lives of the residents.  It was truly the poorest Congressional District in the U.S. until a middle school teacher, Stephen Ritz, had a brilliant ‘green’ inspiration.

The inspiration was to start growing edible plants and flowers from seed.  Ritz hoped to ‘green up’ the bleak neighborhood and brighten the classroom.  It seemed to take everyone by surprise how enthusiastically the students embraced this concept, giving lots of TLC to many seedlings in their classroom.  The sprouting seeds were soon planted in a field near the school, creating a thriving school garden.

In order to get his handicap students equally involved, Ritz asked for help creating a ‘growing wall’ his own students had brainstormed.  This would enable students in wheelchairs to plant, prune, and enjoy the indoor farming experience.  The idea took off, and soon the school was covered - indoors and outdoors - with vertical gardens where graffiti used to be.  

This ‘green graffiti’ became a significant part of the cafeteria lunches - local, heirloom, organic, student grown produce.  Excess was sold through local farmer’s markets, but more amazing was that the students idea of vertical ‘grow walls’ literally took off.  They were asked to create a design on a 21 story building in Boston, where everyone began to take notice of the possibilities to beautify city landscapes with green growing walls.

Soon students were asked to take their South Bronx idea to homes in South Hampton where they started banking money from their fledgling company.  They not only were becoming the ‘future farmers of America‘  but they were experiencing firsthand, a very successful entrepreneurial endeavor, running the youngest nationally certified workforce in America for themselves.  They were licensed, bonded, trained, and excited to be some of the first in their families to open savings accounts.

Media was taking notice of this miracle transformation in the South Bronx.  The school had gone from 40% attendance to 90%.  State senators visited the school, along with the President of the Bronx Burrough.  Everyone wanted to understand and utilize their model for ‘growing their way into a new economy!’

There’s no way to describe Ritz’s passion about what has serendipitously happened in their community.  To really get the whole story with all his amazing photos, take 13 minutes of your time to watch this inspiring video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSL2yN39JM

How would you feel about transforming our city, schools, and neighborhoods with an abundance of locally grown food?  A new economy grown from walls of ‘green graffiti’ sounds like a win / win situation for our children, our city, our community!  The slogan capturing what happened in New York was ‘The Glory and Bounty that is Bronx County!‘  and could easily come to a town near YOU!