I feel my last post needs a bit of clarification.

I was not and never have been arguing that the landowner has a just cause while the gardeners demands are unjust. I don’t think those distinctions are particularly meaningful or helpful. There are only better and worse choices nothing else.

Admittedly I do get pretty frustrated by the hypocrisy of the people demanding to use other people’s land to garden. As if they wouldn’t cry bloody murder if someone broke into their house and took their shit to give to people in the third world. Even if it was only their old LPs that they never ever play anymore. Short of bums and monks everyone in this country buys into the notion of private property and should at least understand why people feel upset when others take their shit without asking. If these people are willing to take the same attitude about what it’s fair for people in the third world to demand of (relatively) rich people like them as they do of even richer people I will eat my laptop. Even in berkeley and SF everyone I meet seems to believe that American’s come first.

The real point of my post was twofold:

First to point out that if your goal is more community gardens then the approach the people in both of these incidents have taken is extremely irrational. Whatever you thought of Horowitz’s behavior down in LA the best way to make sure other property owners would be likely to allow people to plant gardens on their property would have been to leave with the minimum of fuss and bother. This would make future property owners think they too could let people use their vacant land without fear that it will cost them.

In fact what would be best is for the community garden movement to create a set of standards about always trying to ask for permission first, always leaving without a fuss and so forth to reassure landowners. Just like the standards that govern camping (leave the place cleaner than you found it) and other groups who want to use other people’s land it is in your interest to reassure them that you won’t become a pest.

Secondly to argue once again that demanding particular things other people have that you want and using political or PR pressure to get them is not a good way to achieve public good in the long term. The reason so much of the modern world respects private property is because it leads to efficient economic development. Knowing that you own a particular piece of land and that shifts in public opinion won’t take it from you encourages you to develop that property. Allowing communities to just gain control of pieces of property arbitrarily and capriciously because they decide they want it (especially if it ends up costing the owner money) ultimately harms everyone in the long run.

Ultimately we do take from people to serve the public good. It’s called taxes. However, by being predictable and fairly distributed taxes allow us to take people’s money without as large a harmful effect to economic development or as much resentment. I think we ought to be doing a lot more for the public good so we ought to raise taxes. If you think more public gardens are worth the cost (whether to temporarily rent empty lots or to buy lots) then you should be lobbying for higher taxes and city programs to do just that.

If you aren’t willing (in general) to lobby and fight for higher taxes so we can buy these gardens with public money it seems you are tacitly admitting that the benefit from these gardens is not generally worth what they would cost. In other words they are only worth it when you make someone else pay the cost.

So whether or not the property owners were acting as perfect saints I am criticizing the behavior of many of the gardeners and their supporters for acting against their supposed long term interest. I am also rejecting the underlying idea that it’s reasonable to demand specific people or companies give charity for the public good. Instead we should ask what general policies are good and take from people in a fair uniform manner in order to support those policies.