SX- BLM Garden Host

At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, a garden was built in Seattle's Call Anderson Park as part of an autonomous zone protesting police brutality. The Parks and Recreation Department now wants to remove it, but community members are fighting back. They successfully prevented the removal by the department and argue that the garden is a way to reclaim the land. The department claims they need the space for events and offered to move the garden to another location, but community members see this as against the purpose of the garden. The department still plans to remove the garden with more support from the police department. Back in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, community members built a garden inside Call Anderson Park in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The garden was part of an autonomous zone created in protest of police brutality. Now the city's Parks and Recreation Department wants to get rid of it. But long-time stewards of the garden aren't letting that happen without a fight. Allie Watson, UW News. On Tuesday morning, community members managed to fend off Parks and Recreation employees. The workers had come prepared with a backhoe. That's Marcus Henderson with Blackstar Farmers, a coalition working towards land reclamation and food sovereignty. He helped start the garden three years ago. There's sage and other medicinal plants, and also collards, tomatoes, and potatoes. They give away food weekly. The Parks and Recreation Department says it needs the space to hold events. They say they've offered to help move the garden to another location. One option is putting it in South Seattle. But community members say part of the point of the garden is reclaiming this land. Ivana Inabulele has worked for Parks and Recreation in various roles. Speaking for herself, she argues the department is going against its own values of supporting healthy communities by attempting to tear the garden down. Inabulele also points out the wait for the city's sanctioned gardening program is long. Seattle Parks and Recreation says it still plans to remove the garden at a later date when it has more support from the city's police department.