Seattle crews remove Black Lives Matter garden in Cal Anderson Park
Since 2020, Seattle's Parks and Recreation Department has often warned that it intended to take down or relocate a Black Lives Matter garden in Cal Anderson Park, despite support for the garden from some community members. On Wednesday, the department finally followed through on that intention and removed the garden.
"In recent months, the temporary garden has created unsafe conditions for all park users, including the vandalism of Cal Anderson public bathrooms, public drug use, unauthorized camping, and a significant rodent problem, along with other issues," the city's Parks Department said in a statement Wednesday.
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The removal is the latest chapter in the garden's three-year story, which has been filled with dueling voices over its place in Seattle's Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police violence.
The department said that the "makeshift garden" was removed due to public health and public safety issues. The statement said that the area required maintenance, such as reseeding and turf restoration.
As part of the removal, Seattle's Unified Care Team also cleared a nearby encampment. Parks officials noted that this is the 76th time the city has "resolved" encampments in Cal Anderson Park in 2023 alone.
While an online petition to keep the garden received more than 5,000 signatures, city parks officials said there was also "significant feedback" from the public favoring moving the garden to another location in the park. The area where it was located, called the "Sun Bowl," is intended for large gatherings in the park. The department said this made the location of the garden inappropriate.
The Parks Department also said it will partner with Black Farmers Collective and leaders in Seattle's Black community to create a new garden at Cal Anderson Park. Among the voices in that partnership is Councilmember-elect Joy Hollingsworth, who is slated to represent District 3 where Cal Anderson Park is located.
“We should continue to maintain all Seattle parks to be safe, clean and welcoming," Hollingsworth said in a statement. "Cal Anderson Park is the living room of Capitol Hill and a focal point of our city. It’s important that we prioritize sanitary conditions within shared public spaces so that our neighborhoods can continue to flourish."
BrownGirlFarmer's Mariay Rose Jones also commented: "As a 20-year-old farmer, navigating the fields of the Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden as the ‘Brown Girl Farmer’ has been a complex journey. Sadly, each attempt to immerse myself in farming activities has been overshadowed by the pervasive drug activity within the space. For someone of color like me, this Memorial Garden seems far from representing the essence of farming and agriculture."
Families of Charleena Lyles and Che’ Taylor, two Black Seattle residents killed by police, also issued statements criticizing the memorial garden, going so far as to accuse it of "hijacking the movement" while having no contact with families affected by police violence. Seattle/King County NAACP called the garden "white co-opting."
Still, over the past three years, the garden has amassed some local support. For example, Birds Connect Seattle issued a statement in 2022, supporting the preservation of the garden.
The garden emerged during 2020's protests against police brutality, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. When CHOP was established around Seattle's Cal Anderson Park, some protesters developed the area as a garden. It has been known as the Black Lives Matter Memorial Garden ever since, and has been maintained by the Black Star Farmers collective. The collective told KNKX in October that the garden was part of a mutual aid effort and provided free food on Wednesdays.
Also in October, Black Star Farmers issued a statement that the garden "symbolizes a deep connection to this city's legacy of occupation protests led by poor and working-class queer people of color," and that since it was founded, the "garden has expanded beyond its symbolic representation of resistance against violent state oppression to become an active community hub for mutual aid networks, food distribution, and political education for serving the needs of the most marginalized in the Capitol Hill neighborhood."
In early December, organizers of the garden told KUOW that it was initially larger, and even had a greenhouse. Its size has dwindled over time through a combination of city sweeps, and people taking things from it or destroying parts of it. They also said that the city's Parks and Recreation Department tried to remove the garden multiple times in the past, but has never attempted to talk with organizers about why the garden is important to them.
In its statement, Parks Department officials said: "SPR has been in frequent communication with community activists since 2020 offering alternative locations for a garden, both within Cal Anderson Park, as well as in other Seattle parks. Unfortunately, Seattle Parks’ good faith conversations have not produced an alternative location acceptable to the organizers of the temporary garden. Seattle Parks and Recreation remains committed to an ongoing dialogue to produce an alternative garden site."
