When most people drive by the corner of Prior and Gilbert in St. Paul, they see a vacant lot with weeds and a broken recliner.
When Jeff Zeitler drove by, he saw Early Girls and Big Boys. He saw mounds of lettuce and rows of zucchini.
So, Zeitler and other neighbors approached the city of St. Paul to see if they could lease the land to develop a community garden. The city said swell.
"St. Paul was great about it," said Zeitler, who is on the Union Park District Counsel. "They were very helpful and enthusiastic."
"So, we crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's," said Zeilter. "We had a leaf [mulch] drop, and it's all staked out and ready to go."
There was only one, teensy little problem: St. Paul doesn't own the land. The state does.
So just as Zeitler and his neighbors were about to start tilling, they received a letter from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) saying that gardens were not allowed on a state right-of-way.
No garden. With little explanation, the state looked like it was going to choose the junkyard filled with weeds over the garden that would feed people healthy food.