Curbside Cooperative

A proposal to build a productive, collaborative, and self-governing community through the development of a city-wide community garden.

i. Abstract

// What is Curbside and why? All in a paragraph or two. See the CDL whitepaper for reference.

Sense of community belonging is low.

As little as 10% of our food is produced on the Island, down from 85% in the 1950s.

I guess you could tell the opposite story though: almost 50% of people reported having a somewhat weak or very weak sense of belonging to local community (includes “no opinion”). 12.7% of people reported feeling always or often lonely in BC in Q4, 2024. Religious affiliation has been steadily decreasing and 35% of men reported religious or spiritual beliefs having little or no importance in their lives (2019). There should be data on how satisfied Canadians are with how they’re spending their time, which could be illuminating.

Sense of belonging to a local community is strong at >50% in 2024. ~70% of people often or always had someone they could count on when in need in 2024.

Then brief name drop of the productivity, environmental, and food system motivations.

Our purpose: to build a local, community-owned, and regenerative food system through innovative infrastructure, collaborative practices, and cooperative governance.

This is a living document; it changes as we change. If you are reading this, you can assume it is a current reflection of our vision.

ii. Contents

This proposal is divided into three main sections. Motivations covers the problems we would like to address. Principles outlines what we believe about how solutions should be approached. Finally, motivated and guided by the first two sections, Curbside details our plans to create a city-wide community garden to serve as the basis for a solution.

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1. Motivations

I propose that we divide the motivations for Curbside into two categories: problem-solving and self-actualizing. They certainly overlap but the distinction is narratively significant. Solving problems is good and has historically been the primary focus of our discourse around Curbside. But it isn’t very inspiring. Digging yourself out of a hole is only so motivating. I propose that we frame this also as an effort to create something new, to work together to shape our shared future in ways that make us even more alive — to discover that future together and how to achieve it. We must do more than just continue to exist.

1.1 Problem-solving

1.1.1 Food security

Our food security concerns have two parts: the distribution side, which concerns the present availability of food among groups whose access may be limited, and the supply side, which concerns the fragility inherent in Vancouver Island’s dependence on external supply chains. Though both sides are commonly discussed under the umbrella of food security, these concerns are quite distinct — solving one doesn’t necessarily solve the other — and in fact, most organizations which list food security among their motivations only address one or the other. A third aspect of the food security picture is the non-regenerative nature of industrial-scale agriculture, but this is covered in its own section.

1.1.1.1 Inequalities in food distribution and access

Dynamics must be carefully addressed so that the right people get food. Consider: food is far cheaper now than it has ever been (on average, over long timescales) but the affordability is not evenly distributed. Many people still pay a relatively high portion of their wage for food. 19% of Canadians reported “moderate” or “severe” food insecurity in 2023, though we really have to get the BC number for that to be meaningful since Nunavut, for example, brings the national averages down.

Access to calories

// Maybe bundle these sections into the concept of “diet quality”

Access to nutrition

//

Dignity

//

To do

  • Add food bank access stats
  • Add BC food insecurity stats
  • Consider the definition of food security with respect to nutrition, the distinction between caloric availability and nutritional availability
  • Basically just read BC food bank’s Hunger Report and use it to fill in this whole section

1.1.1.2 Dependence on external supply chains

//

1.1.2 The industrial food system

Soil loss is real. Avoidable suffering will occur as a results of production drops when symptoms worsen. Curbside’s proposals around reducing pressure on industrial food system, building a degree of self-sufficiency as a food security buffer in anticipation of supply chain shocks, and leading advocacy movements to fund more sustainable practices are reasonable, though details must be considered, e.g., are current ag. practices for the type food that we could realistically replace and in the locations that we get that food from actually the bad ones? If not, the “pressure reduction” loses steam. Also, how much food could we realistically produce here? The vast crop fields appear so much more efficient — is there actually a scenario where urban production could hold a candle to it?

1.1.3 Quality of life

1.1.3.1 Community belonging

1.1.4 Quality of institutions

//

1.1.4.1 Democratic backsliding

//

1.2 Self-actualizing

// We need to shift, here, from simply citing problems to, at the very least, citing features of a future that we think would be good.

To do

Discuss self-actualization, and Freire’s praxis, and the general idea of the possibility of making our lives better in ways we hadn’t thought of before.

1.2.1 The commons

//

1.2.2 Third spaces

//

1.2.3 Mutual aid

//

2. Principles

About

Mostly strategic considerations but may include beliefs, additional research, concepts, and historical information to ground the curbside project; statements of how we think the problems should be approached.

These should be quite grounded in research but not be actual reviews of research on their own; they should always be actively constructing the case for Curbside.

The cooperative model is necessary

//

2.1 Politics Has a Branding Problem

Politics has a branding problem: it’s essentially synonymous with divisiveness and unsavory dinner table discussion. We need a fresh space to practice practice politics that isn’t burdened by the reputations of political parties and traditional political organizations. The space needs to be connected to something approachable — like gardening.

2.2 The Importance of Coordination

Great ideas are actually quite abundant. The barriers seem mostly to lie in organization, coordination, and will. This is true for ideas on housing and other issues of public concern as well. Our ability to understand the solutions far outpaces our ability to implement them. The barriers are essentially political. But politics has a branding problem.

3. Curbside

3.1 Background

// Tiny paragraph on our history and previous work

3.2 Gardens on the roadside

To do

Consider the foundational experience of Curbside which is that of gardening on the boulevards. Touch on the various social relationships, the spontaneity of interactions, and the satisfaction of gardening in general. This section precedes the section on events, which provide a secondary and ever-growing “layer” of value.

3.3 Facilitated events

// The following are merely proposals as to the kinds of events that could be held. Note that some collaboration will be undertaken to refine and build on these.

Building garden beds

// Maybe make this more about the experience of build days rather than about the practical considerations of bed provisioning

Boulevard garden walking tours

//

3.4 Resource provisioning

This section covers the practical considerations of the resources needed for a project like this.

3.4.1 Infrastructure innovations

// Cover a few of the places we’ve innovated to account for the unique constraints of boulevard gardening at scale

Raised garden beds

// Complete the work started in this section in the project plan

Watering systems

//

Netting systems

//

3.4.2 Additional resources

Soil

//

Initial delivery

//

Amendments

//

Compost

//

Biochar

//

3.5 Relationship to local institutions

// Discuss relationship to the city, neighbourhood associations, etc.

3.5.1 The City of Victoria

//

3.5.2 Neighbourhood associations

//

3.5.3 Farmers markets

//

3.6 Additional program proposals

Outlines of some of the projects we’d like to explore with our membership when possible.

3.6.1 Food sharing

//

3.7 Failure mode analysis

3.7.1 Failure to scale

To do

Check actual bed production numbers per year. Create a metric of “productive beds” which include the community necessary to make use of them to produce food. Estimate ability to generate productive beds.

3.7.2 Failure to keep community engaged

In this scenario, we struggle to keep our gardens productive. Many beds go empty, fall apart, and potentially become a liability.

3.8 Aspirations

// Larger scale changes that we hope to facilitate and things that we hope to build

  • Community land trusts
  • Collective investment
  • Collaborative reasoning
  • Political organization
  • Greater local productivity and self-sufficiency
  • More direct and collaborative involvement in resolving local issues, e.g., homelessness
#SourcesSource
1From 2019 to 2024, the number of individuals accessing food banks rose by 32%, with an 81% increase in household visits. This indicates a growing problem with food affordability. (BC)Gemini
2In Q4 of 2024, 53.5% of Canadians reported having a “very strong” or “somewhat strong” sense of belonging to their local community, leaving 46.5% who reported “somewhat weak”, “very weak”, or “no opinion”.Statistics Canada