Community greens

Community Greens, sometimes referred to as backyard commons, urban commons, or pocket neighborhoods, are shared open green spaces on the inside of city blocks, created either when residents merge backyard space or reclaim underutilized urban land such as vacant lots and alleyways.

[1] Community Greens are multi-functional spaces for gardening, recreation, and leisure which are designed to provide social, economic, and environmental benefits to urban residents.

The creation of backyard commons can lead to an increased interaction with neighbors throughout the planning and implementation process, which may result in a stronger overall sense of community.

Other possible social benefits that are claimed include decreased crime, from having more eyes on the street, and safe places where children can play and adults relax.

Simultaneously, Community Greens also approached the Patterson Park CDC looking for an alley they could use as a pilot project in Baltimore, and these two groups were put into contact.

Interested communities need approval from several Baltimore City Departments, including Solid Waste, Transportation, Fire, and Police to ensure that proposed alley projects meet the necessary infrastructural conditions.

Additionally, residents have moved garbage collection to the front street and convinced utility companies to bury service lines.

Located in the Federal Hill neighborhood of downtown Baltimore and hidden behind eleven narrow rowhouses, Chandler's Yard is a tree-shaded courtyard that was carved out of the backyards of the surrounding homes by developer Bill Struever who wanted to make living on the block more attractive to potential buyers.

Struever convinced some of the property owners in this block to give up part of their backyards for this shared courtyard and pay a small construction fee.

The result is a beautiful shared space for these residents, who enjoy a heightened sense of security and increased property values.

In addition to these courtyards, Village Homes residents share two large parks, two vineyards, and numerous small orchards and community gardens.

For nearly nine decades, the historic neighborhood of Jackson Heights in Queens has maintained its fourteen block-long shared interior courtyards, and is considered to be the first "garden apartments" constructed in the United States.

In 1993, Jackson Heights was officially declared a historic district by the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission, furthering sense of place for this community.

This includes Chicago,[7] Seattle,[8] Los Angeles,[9] Washington, D.C.,[10] and Montréal, Canada, who have started to reclaim their alleys from garbage and crime by greening the service lanes, or back ways, that run behind some houses.