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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 2015)
1B THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2015 8rban IarPerV ¿nd tKat VucceVV can lead to eviction By SCOTT MCFETRIDGE Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. — After four years of growing and selling produce in the heart of Omaha, Ali Clark has be- come expert at yanking out her black raspberry bushes and replanting them at anoth- er site. It’s a prickly chore Clark loathes but one she can’t avoid as her Big Muddy Farm has had to move from one vacant lot to another even though the business was thriving. Urban farms like Clark’s are being evicted from center cities across the nation where they’ve become a much-re- marked-on driver of urban revival in recent years, having brought healthy food, com- merce and eye-pleasing green- ery to dreary neighborhoods. During the recession, down- town landowners and leaders offered up plots for free to get new vitality on empty streets. Now the thriving farms are being routed by another urban phenomenon: the hordes of people moving back down- town to live, which is turning green spaces into prime real estate. Plots where low-in- come residents raised veg- etables, where community groups trained at-risk youth and where small garden busi- nesses took root are being snapped up for construction of new apartments and town- houses. “You have to plant as if you’re going to be there 10 years, even if you know it prob- ably won’t work that way,” said Clark, a co-founder of Big Muddy Farm. She added, “It stinks to put in the time in an investment that doesn’t last.” Sad but inevitable The evictions are sad but inevitable, said Amy Brend- moen, a City Council member in St. Paul, Minnesota, which recently booted an urban farm from city land to make way for housing construction. Even the most robust farms can’t earn enough to compete with a real estate development. “You couldn’t help but smile when you went by,” she said of the ousted Stones Throw farm. “They were working so hard. You could see the harvest. It was incred- ible.” No estimates exist on the number of urban farms, but their popularity soared in the past seven or eight years. Many started as community projects. It’s unclear how many will survive. Big Muddy’s partners are hoping to hold onto their main farm, a series of raised beds and unheated greenhouses on three empty lots between a nonpro¿t the- ater and houses dating to the early 1900s. But in Denver, Lisa Rog- ers last month closed her Feed Denver organization, which promoted urban farming in the booming city. The fact that the farms’ beautifying effect actually helps endanger them is a bitter pill to swallow. “Developers will call and say, ‘We have a piece of land, can you pretty it up for two years?’ Rogers said. “As available land gets squeezed and prices go through the roof, like in Denver, it’s near- ly impossible to ¿nd land and stay there.” Public property Even public property isn’t safe. Recently, a 6,000-square- foot nonpro¿t farm called GreenLeaf was evicted by the Denver Housing Authority so the land could be sold to a private housing developer. At-risk high school students worked at the farm, which is now moving next to a middle school. “We’re going to have to look for new customers, and our old ones are going to have to look for a new produce source,” said Cody Mein- hardt, the nonpro¿t group’s executive director. In many center cities, resi- dents are lamenting the disap- pearance of the farms, or their move to the suburbs. Laura Staugaitis regularly bought produce-¿lled boxes from a local farmer near Den- Nati Harnik/AP Photo Ali Clark displays a Mexican sour gherkin at Big Muddy Farms, an urban farm in northern Omaha, Neb. Urban farms and community gardens have been a celebrated trend for years, but as more people look to live and work in central cities, growers says it’s harder to find and remain on land now sought by developers. ‘You have to plant as if you’re going to be there 10 years, even if you know it probably won’t work that way.’ Ali Clark co-founder of Big Muddy Farm ver, but said she can’t justify the 45-minute trip the pur- chase now requires. “The drive made it a nega- tive experience rather than an enriching experience,” she said. The pressure for urban land is especially intense in the fastest growing cities like Houston. In 200, neighbors in a ¿- nancially and racially mixed area just southwest of down- town signed a $1 a year lease with a property owner to turn an overgrown lot into the Mid- town Community Garden. “My goal was to get people out of their homes and apart- ments so they could relate to each other, and we did that,” said resident Scott Harbers, who helped set it up. But attempts to get local government to acquire the site as a public space failed, and last year it was sold for nearly $1 million to a housing developer. Nati Harnik/AP Photo Big Muddy Farms, an urban farm in northern Omaha, Neb., is seen amongst residential homes. Some urban farm promot- ers are pushing local of¿cials to begin setting aside plots for urban agriculture because of the health and community bene¿ts. In the Seattle area, of¿cials have designated portions of parks and other public land. In Los Angeles, community groups are work- ing to encourage developers to have farming and green space designed into housing projects, including on roof- tops. “The vacant lot story is cool, but it’s also short term,” said Jesse Dubois, a leader in the Los Angeles urban farm- ing effort. Youngest US chess master has to work on his endgame By STEPHEN SINGER Associated Press GREENWICH, Conn. — At age 10, Maximillian Lu is the youngest-ever chess master in the U.S. Even so, he sees room for improvement. The distinction of being a national master belongs to less than 2 percent of U.S. Chess Federation members and is earned by racking up at least 2,200 points in com- petitions. It’s a rarity among children, but Lu shrugs it off, saying he needs to work on his endgame. “It’s all right. I have to im- prove other stuff,” he said in a recent interview. Max, who plays 45 min- utes to an hour a day, and an hour or two on weekends or before major tournaments, started playing chess in an after-school program when he was 6 and has competed in tournaments in Toronto, South Africa and Dubai, and he represented the United States in Greece this month. Climbing the ranks has been dif¿cult, he said. In matches with increasingly tough competition, ambitious rivals are always “coming up behind you,” he said. Max became the young- est-ever chess master in Sep- tember, at 9 years, 11 months and 2 days, according to the U.S. Chess Federation. He toppled the record attained in 2013 by Awonder Liang of Madison, Wisconsin, who be- came the youngest master at 9 years, 11 months and 15 days. Young chess players now are stronger than in the past, due partly to online chess games that allow players to practice alone and to efforts by schools, clubs and others Julie Jacobson/AP Photo Maximillian Lu handles pieces of a chess set during an interview in Armonk, N.Y. The 10-year-old recently became the youngest chess master ever in the United States. to draw more players, said Jean Hoffman, executive di- rector of the U.S. Chess Fed- eration. For Max’s parents, sup- porting their son’s interest is HOLIDAY SAVINGS MEMBERS SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF MEMBER PRICES* December 7 th - 18 th at your local AAA Travel Store CLEARANCE Save an additional 10% on all Maxlite ® 3 luggage by Travelpro ® . 135 S. Highway 101, Warrenton, OR not much different from what soccer moms and dads do, traveling from one competi- tion to the next. “We didn’t plan anything out,” said his father, David Lu. “It just sort of happened.” An adult’s perspective also makes a difference. Lu said he helps his son handle what he calls the “psycho- logical aspects” of chess, or maintaining a balance “between seeming mentally tough between losing a game and coming back to play an- other game.” If approached the wrong way, competitive chess can be a “high-pressure thing,” David Lu said. Ian Harris, manager of the Chess Club of Fair¿eld County in Norwalk, and Bry- an Quick, executive director of the Marshall Chess Club in New York — sites frequent- ed by Lu — say the game has exploded in popularity in the past decade, particularly among youngsters. In addition to ubiquitous after-school chess programs, charter schools are taking up chess in the classroom. Edu- cators say the game teaches logic and critical and analyt- ical thinking skills and the ability lose gracefully. “If kids stick to it long enough, their concentration is improved,” said Ronelle Swagerty, head of school at the New Beginnings Fam- ily Academy, a Bridgeport charter school that offers chess classes to seventh- and eighth-grade students. David Lu said he’s not sure Max is looking to make a career in chess. “As long as it’s fun, we’ll encourage it,” he said. “The higher and higher you go it’s very dif¿cult and if you don’t enjoy it, it’s not really worth it, I think.” For Max, the attraction to chess is simple: “I just want to do it for fun, as a hobby.” EN TIRE S TO CK HALF P RICE Everythin YES! g! Cl o thi n g & Gi fts fo r W o m en , M en & Teen s 3 DA YS O N L Y • F ri d a y, S a tu rd a y & S u n d a y 503.861.3118 *Non-member’s welcome, exclusive prices for AAA members. Offer valid at AAA Oregon/Idaho stores only. While supplies last. 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