New garden grows in former crime area

Earlington Hill resident, along with Sustainable Renton, is en route to starting a community garden in response to high criminal activity in the area.

By Leah Abraham • May 6, 2016 2:37 pm

An Earlington Hill resident, with partnership of key community organizations and the city, is taking a step to cultivate a new kind of atmosphere.

Rhoda Green is spearheading the movement to start a community garden in the almost half-acre spot west of City View Church that sits at the foot of Earlington Hill on Southwest Langston Avenue.

The open green space, currently partly owned by the church and by Seattle City Light, has been an area of concern for residents for years as it has attracted criminal activity. Over the years, Green and members of Earlington Hill Neighborhood Association have been working with the city to transform the area by cultivating the bottom half of the hill, installing a gate and erecting a sign.

According to a press release, this has dramatically reduced the illegal activity in the area.

A key partner of project is Sustainable Renton, a local nonprofit that focuses on creating a sustainable community. They are acting as the umbrella nonprofit that will oversee the garden.

“[We’re] privileged to be working with the Earlington Neighborhood to make use of this space,” said a spokesperson from Sustainable Renton. “The outcome will be a stronger, more resilient Renton.”

The opening ceremony for the garden was conducted May 2, and was attended by Mayor Denis Law, Earlington Hill Neighborhood Association members, and other community members.

The ceremony was marked with an introduction by Green, then a blessing bestowed by Cecile Hansen, chairwoman of the Duwamish tribe.

According to Green, the garden will be called “Little Mountain” after the land’s original name when it belonged to the Duwamish tribe.

“We wanted to honor the phone who owned the land who still exist today,” said Green. “That’s why we had Chairwoman Cecile Hansen come and give her blessing. That was important.”

“This is a great project,” said Law at the ceremony. “What I like about this whole project and this whole area is that nobody is looking to government or other entities to solve problems. People are saying that ‘we are a community and we have to come together to make it safer place, a place to raise our kids and a place to enjoy.’”

The garden is still undergoing the process of securing all the necessary permits. Following the ceremony on Monday, volunteers helped install garden beds. The garden is still in its development stages and won’t be completed till 2017.

Green intends to grow native plants at the garden. The garden beds will be available for community use and a food forest to forage from. Remaining food will be used for a farm stand.

The Earlington Hill area has been riddled with criminal activity over the years. Most recently, the house on Earlington Avenue Southwest was raided by SWAT officers and 23 people were removed from the premise. Over the past three years, the house has been visited by the police 27 times and has been a “pervasive source of continual quality-of-life problems” according to Renton Police Commander David Leibman.