Downtown Farms?
In Detroit, there are entire blocks in residential neighborhoods that were abandoned, leveled and turned into "urban farms" within city limits. Making the best of a bad situation.
But what about downtown urban centers with skyscrapers?
While some Chicago developers look to turn vacant office space into affordable apartments, a new partnership envisions a much different conversion for older towers: rows of produce such as basil, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.
A nonprofit venture called Farm Zero is negotiating to lease 70,000 square feet, and possibly much more, in a 22-story office tower across the street from City Hall, company founder and CEO Russell Steinberg told CoStar News.
If a deal is completed with building owner Golub & Co., the Burnham Center will become the first in a series of Farm Zero spaces in Chicago’s Loop business district, potentially producing much of the city’s fresh produce and generating thousands of new jobs. In addition to desks, chairs and conference rooms, buildings could also house grow lights and racks of crops.
Steinberg and his partner, Canadian firm Agriplay Ventures, hope Chicago will become a model for urban high-rise farming as cities throughout the country grapple with what to do with vacant space as layoffs and three years of remote work brought on by COVID-19 have curbed demand.
This article is almost nine months old, but we had never heard of this "solution" to the ever increasing vacant office space downtown. Anyone know how it progressed? We have to wonder about pollination issues first off, but we can almost guarantee no one, demonized or not, is going to be looting these locations for herbs and veggies.
UPDATE: something a reader thought of - structural issues?
- a cubic yard of water weighs 1,700 pounds
- a cubic yard of dirt? 2,100 pounds
- a cubic yard of sand weighs 2,700 pounds
Even given a wide distribution of growing beds, was the floor build to these weight standards?
And what are we supposed to charge our electric cars with with the amount of grow lights running in these buildings?
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:02 AM
46 Comments:
Granola wokeness aside, indoor farming can be especially suitable for growing herbs and lettuce, pollination isn't required. Other non-smokeweed produce can be more challenging, for various reasons.
Well now, could these 'thousands' of new jobs be earmaked for some of our city's uninvited migrating laborers?
Or would there be a mandated set aside for oyr local natives, yearning to work?
And, what, pray tell, does the city building department have to say about this? Depends upon who gets what bribes?
Is this some hydro scheme?
And not dedicated to growing primo bud?
And the weight of all this imported soil? Or massive quanties of water?
And the plumbing?
And drainage?
Down into the city sewers?
Then there is the processing.
The cleaning of the produce.
The packing and moving to loading the vehicles for distribution.
All this in a fucking high rise building?
Downtown, no less?
Someone is pulling my finger
Someone is yanking my chain
Someone is stroking my bippy
Someone is pissing and claiming it's rain
This sounds like another pie-in-the-sky, greenie-weenie bullshit scam.
Do you have any idea much dirt weighs…especially when you add water?
Unless this is in the basement, you run the risk of collapsing the floor if not the whole building.
Second, 70,000 sf of grow lights is going to eat up a LOT of electricity.
What’s Commie Edison charging these days?
I don’t think even the Gold Coast vanity vegans are willing to pay $30/pound for “Organically grown urban produce”.
but we can almost guarantee no one, demonized or not, is going to be looting these locations for herbs and veggies.
POSTED BY SCC AT 12:02 AM 0 COMMENTS
Au contraire. You forgot about the Just Cause Standard.
If given the opportunity, and in the absence of razor wire and armed guards, our demonized youths will loot and destroy "just cause" it is there to be looted and destroyed, not because they want herbs and veggies. They call it fun'n, which is defined as the frustrated outburst response of the urban disadvantaged youth. Also, it is not a one and done occurrence. It is sure to be repeated. It won't be a farmer in the dell, rather a farmer in the hell! Chitroit. Ya gotta love it!
Don’t those grow lights use a ton of energy? You’d think these people would be against all that electricity use
Well it comes as no surprise, you have animals roaming downtown you eventually have vegetation.
Imagine how much WEED you could grow?
They already have that started here for a few years:
https://www.greencitymarket.org/farmer/details/dunn-chicago
This article is almost nine months old, but we had never heard of this "solution" to the ever increasing vacant office space downtown. Anyone know how it progressed? We have to wonder about pollination issues first off, but we can almost guarantee no one, demonized or not, is going to be looting these locations for herbs and veggies.
Classic...
If anyone gives a shit, according to the brainiacs at 60 minutes, the Chinese crossing over with the South and Central Americans are our newest and biggest class of FUCKs (Foreign Usurpers Conning Kamala). When running for President, Potato head told us all he was friends with. Xi JingPing. Maybe President Spuds can work with his buddy to find the “root causes” for this migration. Until that happens, I have two suddestions:
1- add jalapeño, habenero and other peppers to these proposed vertical garden. We would not be very welcoming sanctuary without providing preferred nourishment.
2- find a way to develop vertical rice patties in our skyscrapers for our newly discovered class of FUCKs (see above).
Thank goodness for 60 minutes for eliciting the “truth” for all of us. What would we do without them being the standard bearer of truth to enlighten us!
Grow lights in a building means nothing but weed.
Why would you want to try to grow food in the dirty, grimy air of downtown Chicago, surrounded by polluted land and water?
https://www.revolgreens.com/
Brings a whole new meaning to 'vegging out at work'...
And I'm sure a lot of the space will be taken up by growing 'cash crops' if you know what I mean... wink - wink...
Considering that we are talking about Chicago Illinois?
With all the Bullshit and Horseshit spewed by Democrat Politicians, maybe a Mushroom Farm would be more appropriate? God knows IL Politicians are experts at keeping everything hidden in the dark, and feeding everyone BS.
The only thing they'd be growing is rats and roaches...
just think of all the rats that will invade every floor of those buildings looking for food.
The Governor of New York wants to give government jobs to the illegals, of course people born here wouldn't want a good job.
Immigrant "farm workers" living in downtown buildings harvesting urban produce for Lakefront Progressives. And, they all lived happily ever after.
Typical stupid lib idea. they and democrats live in a fantasy world all the while creating a shitty world for all the normal thinking people
Ghetto savages would trash those fields.
That's all they know. Burn, loot and murder.
Wouldn't a 22 story trap house across the street of city hall be more cultrally appropriate?
Let the building be proudly known as THE CONEHEAD PLANTATION.. How many jobs you suppose the democrats can boast about being created? Strawbosses and whip crackers, etc...
Since the building is a across the street from politiburo HQs there will be mo shortage of fertilizer making electric wheelbarrows for transport unnecessary.
Speaking about culturally appropriate sustainable fresh food I'm n hearing Chicago's Rat-on-a-Stick is expected to be really big at this year's Taste . Please don't.feed the coyotes
Maybe indoor Marijuana grows?
I don't think the roof area will be large enough to install the number of green new deal solar panels to run the grow lights inside is it?
With irrigation provided through the cities lead pipelines those "fresh and sustainable " vegetables should have an unique flavor AND the carrots will serve dual purpose as #2 pencils.
I envision the artist rendering of a 22 story building with flies circling around itsimilar to that maggot filled asylum seekers warehouse on Halsted st where the Plantation workers are currently being hidden by the cities top migrant SugarDaddy mayor.
Does anyone know where the migrant auction block is I know some work permits have been issued for some but where are the auctions being held? Conehead?
Plant anything in most of the empty lots around the city and the only thing that will grow is broken glass.
Excuse me, but weren’t they just looking for a place to put are illegal friends. Asking for Jennifer.
This is insane on the face of it.
Look at the reasons that normal farming is economical:
Vast open spaces, cleared trees, abundant sunlight at no cost
Periodic irrigation via this thing called "rain"
Enormous economies of scale that enable a few dozen men with machines to tend 10,000+ acres
Vast rail transportation network and brokerage services
Now look at your window garden, which is all this harebrained scheme really is:
Vast amounts of energy to provide viable soil--better have it trucked in, brownfields!
Artificial light required to overcome urban shade
Water pumped miles and miles by electric pumps just to fill your watering can
Harvests that don't even provide yield enough for a single family meal
"Tens of thousands" of "jobs" required to produce this paltry haul
It's a pipe dream.
Assuming that the structural issues are worked out and it would be *possible* to grow fruit and veggies indoors in high rise buildings, what possible crop could they grow that would generate enough revenue to pay the rent, electricity, etc. Only one I can think of is pot. And now, with pot being legal in IL, the illegal growers can produce and sell it for far less than the government sanctioned, taxed and regulated growers. I would assume a high rise office building dedicated to growing pot would have to be the regulated kind. What a flipping dumb idea!
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk
And you land in jail
A Post- Retirement Job for The GROOT: She can be a Scare Crow!
A new Job for previous Superintendent “ Dallas Dave” “ Out-of- Town Brown”: Herding the cattle, Texas- style.
With all the illegals that are here I’m sure they know how to work on some farms maybe make them do something all they do is complain about their conditions is all the criminals complaining but then again it is a democratic blue state just like every other one that is a blue state, nothing but shit total garbage Democrats ruined everything
Only a little dirt or water is used and not that many workers, BUT IT NEEDS ENERGY.
Here is a guy making a go(?) of it down in the Back of the Yards for over a decade.
And I wish them well.
Downtown in a light commercial building???
Time will tell.
Small businesses turned an old Chicago meatpacking plant into a living experiment in sustainable food, and they are thriving
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-plant-chicago-closed-loop-urban-food-production-experiment-2023-8#:~:text=At%20The%20Plant%20in%20Chicago,attempting%20a%20%22closed%20loop.%22
This is a 10-year-old or more idea...most of these plants will be grown hydroponically. A small amountiof water is circulated and fertilized accordingly.
How about a dairy farm instead?
Gro-lights are l.e.d now, hydro-ponic is 4” of liquid .We need to find something to do with these buildings because due to Fire regs not all can be turned into condos .And the land won’t be valued high enough to tear down a high rise for decades? Care to see a downtown filled with red X buildings.
Most office buildings were build to accommodate rows and rows of file cabinets. So the weight of the dirt is not going to be an issue. Electricity, however is a big issue. The electrical load for an office is minimal, consisting of overhead lighting and office equipment. There is no way a typical office has the capacity to run grow lights. And the office building water lines are tiny compared to the needs of a grow operation.
Sounds like a northern plantation to me.
Vertical farming has become the in thing to do.
The Burnham Center used to be the HQ of Chicago Title & Trust, so I imagine the floors were designed for an extremely heavy load of paper.
I think the elevators might be a bigger problem. Were they designed for heavy loads?
This is the only way to have plant foods in any other environment than is native to this earth.
A generational space ark traveling to other galaxies?
Settlements on our moon, other suitable yet atmosphere barren planets?
Asteroid space facilities for mining same workers?
Any self contained space, sealed off from our planet's atmosphere?
The Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, comes to mind.
As does the entire two seasons of, The Invaders.
And the possibility of genetically modified produce is also to be considered.
I'll eat carrots from my garden, which I occasionally piss onto, before I trust this hydroponic produce.
At least I know what they fed upon.
Can they grow biscuits.
I voted for kamala is a DICKWEED
Would be hydroponic if anything, No dirt required, but an immense energy hog. Not enough sun, would need grow lights. You can do this with marijuana because its a high demand high dollar plant. Growing lettuce, or tomatoes not so lucrative.
Were they designed for heavy loads?
2/05/2024 04:19:00 PM
Can a Keesing Bandit bait lure be any more obvious?
With the Keesing Bandit it is bait and switch.
I'm a dickweed? Did I pee in your Cheerios again?
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