The City of Fresno is Trying to Evict Hmong Gardeners

Photo by Mike Rhodes

City of Fresno Wants to Destroy Garden to Make Way for Police Station

By Mike Rhodes,
Indybay, Oct 21, 2008

The City of Fresno is attempting to evict a group of Hmong gardeners from plots they have farmed for 13 years. The Hmong Community Garden, which sits on 4 acres of public land, provides food for 300 members of the Hmong community. Spokesperson Mai Summer Vue said that to the gardeners, the garden is “a way of life, a peace of mind, food for their family, exercise, therapy, stress relief, and it eases their mental health issues…caused by the Vietnam War.”

The city is planning to destroy the garden and build a police substation in its place, and city officials have sought to relocate the gardeners to a site one-eighth the size of the current garden. On Friday, Oct. 17, the city claimed that an agreement had been reached to relocate the gardeners. But the gardeners stated that they did not and will not agree to be relocated, and they accused the city of using wrongful translation to mislead and manipulate. Vue said, “As a community, we feel abused by city officials. They took our voice away, violated our civil rights, and disrespected our elders.”

The issue has galvanized the community, and the gardeners and their allies have mobilized to fight the eviction. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, over a dozen people, including a number of gardeners, spoke before the city council in support of the garden during time allocated for unscheduled communications. The issue will be included in the council’s agenda at its Tuesday, Oct. 28 meeting.

See complete article on Indybay here.

Hmong Speak Out About Community Garden – See 11 minute video here.