A-Infos (en) US, Pittsburgh, Archist journal, Steel City Revolt! #2 - Farm Report: Updates from Landslide Community Farm

Landslide Community Farm is a community-based farming and sustainable living project in 
Pittsburgh's Hill District. The farm's two houses are home to 14 full-time volunteers who 
are working to transform three vacant city acres into a sustainable permaculture farming 
project. In addition to farm work, Landslide volunteers also serve Food Not Bombs! every 
Friday in Market Square and neighborhood brunches every Sunday at the Farmhouse.
---- First Harvest, Starting to Grow ---- Landslide's first full growing season has come 
to a successful conclusion! A little over a year after Landslide was born the first crop 
of vegetables came out of the ground. Most of the produce was grown in several planter 
boxes on Beelen St. and a small plot on the side of the Farmhouse on Allequippa St.

Throughout the summer, farm volunteers have been hard at work building an 80-foot long, 
four-foot high retaining wall out of gravel and old tires. The retaining wall will provide 
a large, stable plot of land for an organic vegetable garden next growing season.

Farmhouse Illegally Evicted

At a little before 9:00 am on Friday, November 7, four police officers and two 
representatives from Pittsburgh Public Works arrived at the Landslide Farmhouse (#3 
Allequippa St.) and told everyone inside to leave—the house was being boarded up.

Police and Public Works officials could produce no documentation other than a work order 
instructing them to board up the house. Apparently someone had phoned in a complaint 
stating that 20 or so “vagrants” had been living in the house. There had been no advance 
notice, no opportunity to fix any purported problems, just an abrupt eviction.

Police demanded to see a written lease. When none could be presented (our lease agreement 
is verbal, as are around 40% of all lease agreements) they told us that they had “no 
choice” but to comply with the order and board up the house. Police made it clear that the 
owner of the house had not requested the eviction and that they had not contacted her 
before moving in to execute the eviction.

Almost immediately, word of the eviction started spreading through Internet message 
boards, e-mail blasts and phone chains. Some supporters came down to the farmhouse to see 
if there was anything that could be done to help, others helped out by calling city 
officials and demanding that the farmhouse be reopened. Several city offices reported 
receiving hundreds of phone calls about the eviction throughout the day.

Later in the afternoon, attorneys from the Pennsylvania ACLU called the Pittsburgh City 
Law Department to threaten a federal lawsuit if the house wasn't reopened by the end of 
the day. Under intense pressure from Landslide supporters and the threat of a lawsuit city 
officials caved in and took the boards off the house early the same evening, just over 
nine hours after the initial eviction.

While the boards are still off the doors and the Farmhouse still open, the fate of the 
house is still a little unstable. We are pursuing several avenues to secure a more stable 
occupation of the house. We will continue to post updates on our progress and the status 
of the Farmhouse as the process moves forward.

___

Landslide is a Hill District-based farm dedicated to providing a free source of healthy 
food to the community. We are committed to sustainability and are working with the 
concepts of permaculture. We hope to be a neighborhood-run project that focuses on 
education as well as mutual aid.

Farm meetings are held at the Farmhouse every Wednesday at 7pm. Formal workdays are 
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays starting at 9am. Neighborhood brunches are at the 
Farmhouse every Sunday at 1pm.

More information on Landslide at www.landslidecommunityfarm.org.


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