The Sustainable Cities Blog

Brought to you by Target

The big box store that tries hard not to be one has done it again. Target has quite successfully branded themselves as the sponsor of free museum hours at cultural centers across the city (and the country). And now here in New York, they are thinking outside the box--and the big box mentality--even further.Courtesy of the New York Times

Just last month, the Target East Harlem Community Garden was opened. On 117th St. just east of 1st Avenue, a new garden is growing with $300,000 of Target money. Much of this is going into an endowment for up keep. The rest was for the creation of the garden which includes a storm water capture system on the roof of the adjacent building, photovoltaic capturing discs (red to remind us of the sponsor), wind turbines, and of course the green garden itself. Focus groups were held within the community (only about a dozen people were spoken to though) before the design concept was drawn up. For the most part though, people seemed to want green space for children to play, seeing as there are already a few other nearby gardens that grow vegetables and produce.

While I haven't seen the space yet, in images, it looks pretty great. But I have the same feeling about corporate sponsorship of gardens as I do about their sponsorship of museums. While accessibility to cultural--and in this case environmental--space is extremely beneficial to society at large and to the host communities in particular, it gives a sense of corporate ownership to these projects. And this in itself might not be so bad if we have a well behaving corporation. Target is generally seen as such. However, it simultaneously sends a message to the state that if they don't support and subsidize certain valuable services, its ok. Someone else will. Thank God for target (pronounced tarjay of course).