HLINY, a housing estate in the west-northern town of Žilina, has been inspired by New York and will create community gardens. Žilina citizens living on Čajakova and Lichardova Streets will work to beautify the land surrounding their apartments, the SITA newswire reported in September.
The idea of community gardens came from the Pontis Foundation, which drew its inspiration from a similar initiative in New York.
“52 community gardens have already been created, in which people grow fruit and vegetables, neighbours meet at picnics, organise small concerts and flea markets and where they also created space for children,” Norbert Maur from the Pontis Foundation said.
US Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick finds that in the United States or anywhere in the world, when people move to a community, they are often lonely and that “something like a garden that can bring them together is very positive”.
The Žilina-based civic association Papavero, which already has some experience with revitalising public spaces in the city, has organised the citizens, who decided themselves how they wanted the area around their homes to look.
“The aim is to involve as many of them as possible, in order that they arrive with interesting proposals which will contribute to the creation of healthy neighbourhood relations, and which lead to greater interest in what is happening around them,” said Maur, adding that the participation of neighbours in discussions about the revitalisation of their environment has proven to be very important.
