Dear Chicago: Fill empty lots

Dear Chicago: Fill empty lots
Darmika Ford lives on Chicago’s West Side. WBEZ/Shauna Bittle
Dear Chicago: Fill empty lots
Darmika Ford lives on Chicago’s West Side. WBEZ/Shauna Bittle

Dear Chicago: Fill empty lots

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When 23-year-old Darmika Ford looks out her home window, she imagines a community garden brimming with flowers, produce and community cooperation, but what she actually sees is nothing like that vision. Instead, she sees a vacant lot. Ford estimates there are at least 40 such lots in her West Garfield Park neighborhood, but her community is not alone; the City of Chicago website lists over 13,000 city-owned vacant land properties for sale. Ford has created sketches of how some of these places could be transformed into community gardens.