I rode my bike down to the Marigny tonight to see some experimental theater. Those two words together often send shivers up my spine, but I was in the mood to watch creative people doing creative things, so I was game. I showed up early to meet my friend M., so I decided to tool around the neighborhood for a bit. The bike lane on St. Claude is incredibly inviting, smooth, car-free, so I spent some time along that and then turned around and headed to the pre-show bar. On my way I stopped to take a picture of this community garden. Now this is an example of creative people doing creative things. We’ve got land, we’ve got a ridiculously plant-friendly climate, and we’ve got plenty of folks hungry for decent food. Enter the community garden, where people share the labor and share the harvest. I love these places. They are beautiful, they are efficient, they are friendly. I passed one in Mid-City last weekend that was a little different. A homeowner donated his/her lawn to a local grower who was using it to grow kale and chard for area restaurants. This too seems an interesting and creative model, helpfully meeting a whole bunch of needs. That’s what a community should do, it seems to me. As I rode my bike from this creative event to the other I wondered: since when is growing food on collective land some breakthrough creative concept? That’s pretty sad. And yet, after the show, I was still thinking about this garden and wishing I’d spent my evening sitting in it instead of where I’d been.