By Dr. Marvin Miller, AIB President

Along with two other America in Bloom (AIB) board members, I have just returned from the National League of Cities’ annual Congress of Cities and Exposition. This event regularly draws mayors, city managers, and city councilmen from cities across America, all looking for best practices they might adopt or adapt for their cities. America in Bloom has been attending this event for about a decade trying to encourage more cities to embrace our program and to learn the power of horticulture. Invariably, our booth has been the only exhibit that has shown off any horticulture with the intent of suggesting that flowers, trees, shrubs, turf, and groundcovers have a role to play in the urban environment for environmental, psychological and sociological, and even economic reasons.

While at the event this year, part of our AIB delegation attended a workshop titled “Shifting Expectations for Neighborhoods in Transition.” Moderated by City Councilwoman Lavonta Williams of Wichita, Kansas, panelists included Mr. Scot Spencer, Associate Director for Advocacy and Influence at the Center for Community and Economic Opportunity of the Annie E. Casey Foundation; City Councilman Michael Wojcik from Rochester, Minnesota; and Mr. Ron Sims, former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Spencer spoke of the incredible work his foundation is undertaking in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, in revitalizing a part of East Baltimore where the average annual income is about 25 percent of the average for the state, even though this neighborhood sits in the shadows of the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital medical complex. Mr. Wojcik represents a district that includes the world-famous Mayo Clinic, yet it, too, contains neighborhoods which are in transition and filled with many vacancies – uninhabited homes, empty buildings, and vacant lots. And Secretary Sims spoke not only of his experiences at HUD earlier in the Obama Administration but also his time in the Seattle area serving on the city and county government during which he, too, dealt with many neighborhoods in transition.

Even though panel members spoke about the debt crisis from the recent recession and its lingering effects, about the need for public transportation to be accessible to those in neighborhoods, and about the need for revitalized urban neighborhoods to be attractive to those with multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-socio-economic backgrounds, the one thing all agreed on was the importance for updated landscaping to be part of the improved neighborhoods. Mr. Sims cited studies in proclaiming that green communities yielded 70 percent less crime and called flowers and plants unequivocally the best crime-fighters we can ever have!

Panelists insisted that making neighborhoods walkable was a key to reducing crime and ultimately a key to revitalizing neighborhoods. Mr. Sims noted there were no 90 degree corners in nature and that a neighborhood which can eliminate blind corners, perhaps, by using plants at street corners, will encourage people to walk. He argued that, in the best of all scenarios, a city ideally should have a park within one-quarter mile of every resident but called it essential that parks be within a half mile of all. If parks are farther from residents’ homes, Sims insisted, people will not walk and this leads to inactivity and ultimately obesity. Sims also praised community gardens as being incredibly good, incredibly healthy, and incredibly safe places in the community.

During the question and answer period, the importance of green spaces was reinforced with Mr. Spencer noting that land needed to be set aside during the urban renewal process to incorporate green spaces, even if it meant sacrificing what was once property on the tax rolls. He talked about several new parks being incorporated into the East Baltimore neighborhoods being reinvigorated. Mr. Sims concurred with this assessment. While Mr. Wojcik suggested there could be other ways to incorporate green spaces by using pre-existing right-of-ways along streets and sidewalks, he, too, suggested creating walkable communities as a key to revitalizing our cities.

At AIB, we have testified to plants’ ability to deter crime for many years. In fact, our AIB website (www.americainbloom.org) includes several links to articles that discuss the plant and crime-reduction phenomenon. And our “Discover the Surprising Side of Plants” brochure, downloadable from the AIB website, testifies to this benefit plus many others that plants provide. It is our belief that, just as the panelists at this workshop testified, it is important that people have both an active and a passive connection to plants – people need to be close to plants and people need to have plants close to them.

So, we encourage you to advocate for the importance of having plants in your community. We encourage you to network with others to help spread the word. Lead by example by encouraging your city to add green spaces. And be a champion for green spaces in your community. America in Bloom certainly can help with this journey, and we would welcome your participation in our programs.