The Shady Lanes Project

All council verge gardening policies include the requirement to leave a clear pathway for pedestrians. So, what do you do when there is only grass? This is one of the early communication hurdles that highlight the different perspectives between councils and residents. The line between being too prescriptive and trusting residents to work out what is appropriate in their location is hard for councils to navigate. And residents too, have to work hard to understand the complexity of the space, and the different considerations of all involved. Do community groups have an important role to play here as mediators/translators/moderators? As always, we move in the direction of our conversations, and getting it right builds trust and relationships. This contested public space provides valuable lessons and practice for cross-sector collaborations. Read more... https://lnkd.in/g8Tx8EAg

To create sustainable solutions, we need to connect with others to form diverse networks and collaborations. Verge gardens bring diverse people together, then we build around that to create networks. See this article on how we are using Substack as the platform to build a loose network of people and organisations who are determined to find solutions to the interlinked problems we are facing. Of course, these aren't the only participants in the network. Like all ecosystems, there are no firm boundaries, you can only focus on one part and take a snapshot at one point in time.

More on the public liability stalemate. Adversarial attitudes and methods are deeply ingrained in our culture. We grow up with stories of good versus evil, heroes beating the villains, and the rebel fighting against bureaucracy. Often, advocacy is framed this way, particularly in the climate space. Of course, we put ourselves in the role of the good guys, the heroes, the ones who know best if only everyone would listen. This might work in the movies and with simple problems. But, when we have complex or wicked problems with many interlinking issues, it doesn’t. We just end up shouting at each other, lots of small battles, perhaps some minor victories, but not the changes, and certainly not the speed of change, that we hope for. We just get stuck in our opposing positions. We make little progress with big complex issues like climate change, equity, and social justice, where we have professionals and organisations in diverse disciplines fighting their corner, and the voting public deciding whose side they will take. We also see this in the microcosm of verge garden disputes. read more and subscribe below ...

Do councils provide public liability insurance for verge gardeners who help to green our streets? Should they? Public liability insurance is one of the sticking points with verge garden policies. Some councils demand that residents get their own insurance. Other councils decide it is too complicated, so they refuse to allow verge gardening altogether. Most policies don’t mention insurance at all. (This is my understanding of the insurance issue. It is not professional or legal advice.) Unless they specifically say so, you shouldn’t assume that your council provides public liability insurance for verge gardens. Not for the verge gardener, nor for people who use the verge. How can they as they have little control or oversight on what people do? Councils also don't provide public liability for damage done by someone with a mower. Do you want your rates money paying insurance for the careless resident who chops their toes off while mowing in thongs, or the one who sends a stone through the neighbour’s window? And what about those ankle-twisting furrows created with the whippersnipper at the edges of paths? The variety of methods used to convert verge gardens makes them a lot less predictable than turf. While I used hand tools only to weed out grass and replace with tubestock, some people bring in bobcats and other heavy equipment. And some put in completely unsuitable plants. Do you want your rates to cover their liability? If any sort of work is being done on the verge by a commercial organisation or social enterprise, they should have their own insurance to cover their work and workers. Community gardens on public land are run by incorporated groups which must have their own public liability insurance. Councils do provide public liability for volunteers (e.g. bush care), but they also insist on those volunteers signing agreements, undertaking OH&S training, and following rules. Council officers manage the volunteer groups which takes considerable council resources. Read more and let me know what you think at: https://lnkd.in/gf6gNFNR

Great to see a positive story about verge gardens / nature strips and the opportunities they offer. Thanks Shannon Molloy https://lnkd.in/g4GdUR7n

Latest newsletter: Conflict or Opportunity? A Brisbane resident has raised a petition to Brisbane City Council (BCC) to allow parking on the verge in narrow streets. Their street is not wide enough for cars to park on both sides of the street and leave room for other vehicles to fit through the gap. On some narrow streets, BCC has addressed this issue by restricting parking to one side of the street, but these residents want the rules changed so they can park both sides by parking on the verge. Their campaign has led to articles, television, and radio interviews in the mainstream media and lively debates on social media. These stories and comments reveal attitudes to councils, public space, pedestrians, competing transport modes, community, and suburban lifestyles. They also show our standard approach to problems. Simple problem, simple solution. The simple problem: I need to park my car(s) and there isn’t enough room on the street. The simple solution: There’s space on the verge, so I could park there. The debate descends very quickly into good guys blaming bad guys. I’m a good guy for making more space for other vehicles to get by (polite parking). The greedy developers didn’t make the roads wide enough. The greedy council approves too many houses in the space to get more rates. The council fines are just revenue-raising - and worse, the fine was more than the state minimum. With this mindset, opposing views must be either wrong or irrelevant. But it’s not just car owners. We are all prone to doing this. Growing food on the verge is putting your passions ahead of other uses of this shared place. Claims of inclusiveness and community building by growing food on the verge ignore those we exclude. Likewise, advocates of rewilding and microforests put the use of common land for their individual passions over the needs of many other users and uses of this space. Every one of these activities, shaped by one viewpoint, lays ground for conflict and a major dispute between residents, councils, and neighbours. Complex problems require collaborations. Collaboration is often thought of as like-minded individuals and organisations working together and pooling their resources. This works well for well-defined projects but is not enough to address complex problems. Complex problems need a much greater diversity of viewpoints and skills. Collaborations between unlike-minds mean that we have to be curious about competing viewpoints. We need to listen, discuss, and come up with a shared purpose that satisfies everyone. It’s not easy and it’s not quick; but it gets easier with practice and quicker as we build trust and relationships. Read more at https://lnkd.in/gT99rBaV

Our councils plant street trees to reduce urban heat and increase biodiversity. We can all help the trees thrive. Read some ways to help, and some things to avoid below. The petition to allow car parking on verges mentioned in this newsletter is in Queensland. It's illegal to park on the verge in all Australian states except WA where council may override the state law. Maybe in WA they need a petition to go in the opposite direction.

The “Where Shade Hits the Pavement” summit held at Brisbane Powerhouse in March 2024 brought together professionals working in forestry, stormwater research, ecology science, product innovation, engineering, planning, green architecture and design. Recordings of the speaker presentations are available online at the City Green Institute https://lnkd.in/gu8dD9vT >>> What’s this got to do with verge gardens? Like the climate scientists, the urban planners, the transport planners, the people who design initiatives like Shaping SEQ 2023, the presenters in this summit have a lot of knowledge and passion. To my mind, they are some of our true environmentalists because they understand better than the rest of us the science behind what is happening with climate change and make it their work to address the challenges. They know what we need to do. If only people would listen. This challenge is often called a communication challenge but that can be misleading. If communication is thought of as simply packaging a message so other people will accept it, or to raise awareness, or protest, or just shout into the ether on social media, we aren’t going to get far. We won’t get the changes we need until the majority of the public demand it and vote accordingly. Change has to be mainstream. We won’t get green streets until we change the culture that means residents don’t care about street trees, shade, or biodiversity. We all have to walk the talk. What we really have is a culture change challenge. It’s not about facts and information, it’s about values and priorities, and interlinking systems. It’s the epitome of a complex or wicked problem. Communication and language is how culture is changed, or reinforced. read more at https://lnkd.in/gtAD8yBx

Is there any better place to learn about diverse collaborations and networks than on the verge?

Yesterday, I met the team from Regen Streets Melbourne, one of the projects of Regen Melbourne. Their goal is to generate “a wave of connected regenerative streets across Melbourne”. "Regenerative" has become a bit of a buzzword and it means different things to different people. So, what does a regenerative street look like? What does it mean to you? Is a regenerative street about growing extra plants, or ecosystems, or community, or economic activity, or something else? Every street is different so there's no one answer. What elements do you think are important in the streets where you live, shop, walk or drive? Read the latest newsletter below (not all are posted here so subscribe if you want to receive them all) https://lnkd.in/egiPKzZa