Curtis Lowe

Start with the money. Money is what makes a thing infrastructure. If you live in a county seat of 9,000 or a city of 40,000, you are already paying for a public library: it sits on the municipal budget as a line item, or rides on a dedicated property tax millage, or lives inside an … Read moreWhy Local Libraries Are Community Infrastructure: The Rooms, Money, and Records Your Block Already Paid For

I’ve watched the same thing happen in three different neighborhoods, and I’m done pretending it’s an accident. An organizer moves away. A tenant association dissolves after a partial win. A mutual aid network loses its core volunteers to exhaustion. And everything they knew walks out the door with them. The meeting minutes. The landlord’s LLC … Read moreWhy Your Neighborhood Needs Its Own Archive, Not Just a Facebook Group: A Documentation Workflow That Survives Founder Burnout

Rent stabilization is not a tenant perk. It is a block-level preservation tool. When a landlord files a rent increase above the local guideline, the first thing that breaks is not a lease. It is the informal network that keeps a building safe: the neighbor who watches the door, the tenant who knows which radiator … Read moreThe Case for Rent Stabilization as Community Preservation

What a Community Garden on Vacant Land Actually Is A community garden on vacant land is a parcel, usually owned by a city land bank, a private absentee owner, a church, or a school district, that neighbors turn into shared growing space. It is not a park. It is not a farm. It is a … Read moreHow to Start a Community Garden on Vacant Land

You are standing on a lot at 4128 W. Flournoy Street in Chicago’s 60624 zip code. It has been empty since 2011. The owner of record is a dissolved LLC with a mailing address in Delaware. The weeds are waist-high. Someone dumped a mattress by the back fence. You want to turn this into a … Read moreHow to Start a Community Garden on Vacant Land Without Losing Your Lease, Your Money, or Your Mind

What This Is Really About When I say “community garden on vacant land,” I don’t mean a couple of raised beds with hand-painted signs. I mean a lot that’s been sitting empty for years—maybe the city owns it, maybe a bank, maybe nobody can figure out who holds the deed—and you turn it into a … Read moreHow to Start a Community Garden on Vacant Land Without Losing It to the City

I’ve stood on cracked asphalt in the middle of July, staring at a lot that used to be a house, thinking: this could feed people. I’ve also spent three hours in a city hall hallway waiting to find out who actually owns that same lot. Both moments are part of the work. If you’re reading … Read moreHow to Turn a Vacant Lot Into a Neighborhood Garden Without Losing It to the City

I’ve sat through enough zoning hearings to know how they go. A developer’s attorney stands up with renderings, traffic studies, and a story about “blight” and “revitalization.” Slides. Data. A consultant who was paid six figures to argue that your neighborhood needs their project more than it needs you. Then a resident stands up. “My … Read moreWhy Your Neighborhood Needs Its Own Archive, Not Just a Facebook Group

Most city programs won’t tell you this straight, so I will. You don’t need a grant, a nonprofit sponsor, or a clean title search to start growing food on an empty lot. What you need are a few neighbors who are sick of waiting, a clear-eyed view of what you’re risking, and a plan that … Read moreHow to Start a Community Garden on Vacant Land Without Waiting for Permission

You know that lot. The one with the busted fence and the couch someone dumped three summers ago. It’s been sitting there, doing nothing, while you’ve been hauling grocery bags from a store three bus rides away. You could grow food there. You could grow a lot of things. But if you don’t do it … Read moreHow to Start a Community Garden on Vacant Land Without Getting Pushed Out