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Landscape and Labor
Posted by Katie Hargrave | July 18th, 2009
Unforeseen circumstances often shift our perception. Landscape is a particularly under-recognized area of thought, as we tend to ignore the fact that lawns (except our own) are in need of maintenance. They just get cut, and our city parks continue to be useful to us, without most ever acknowledging that it is a city worker's job to push that mower.
The city workers of Windsor, Ontario have been on strike since mid-April, fighting for equal retirement benefits for all employees and higher wages. What this strike has meant is that over 2000 city employees in maintenance, waste disposal, and city parks have stopped working. What it means for the landscape of the city is something else, something more akin to re-wilding or prairie restoration.
The Vigorous North points to the public opinion shift that has slowly developed. Imagine your neighbor stops cutting her grass. After a few weeks, you start to wonder, "Is she on vacation?" or "Did she fire the lawn guy?" A few more weeks go by, and maybe you knock on her door and say something. Shortly thereafter, what we might imagine to be an idilic "nature" scene has unfolded. The tall grasses are hosting wildlife, the birds are chirping, crickets are rubbing their wings together, and you forget about knocking on her door.
The Windsor Star's reporter Anne Jarvis reported just that. One letter to the editor wrote of a city park, "Today is the first time that I have ever considered that park to be beautiful." Jarvis also reports that up to 200 acres will remain wild once the strike is over.
An artist-activist team investigating the landscape of Windsor, Broken City Lab, did a nice little project calling attention to the newly "naturalized area." For about $50 a pop, they installed simple markers that almost recall official city signs, reminding the passerby of their new lovely landscape. We're happy to see that the city is taking cue from these artists and keeping some land at least semi-wild. The jarring effect of the strike recalls Friz Haeg's Edible Estates, where suburban front lawns are turned into vegetable gardens in an attempt to push against the American desire for the perfect lawn.
What we really loved is that these moments has brought attention to the fields in the same way that the fields have brought attention to the strike, the garden, the sign. Neither can go unnoticed, and ideally both will benefit.
