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Community gardens should be a permanent part of city planning because they improve food access, strengthen neighborhood relationships, and make dense neighborhoods more resilient. A garden is not a substitute for a grocery store or a solution to poverty. It is, however, a practical public space that can address several small problems at once. First, gardens give residents a modest but meaningful source of fresh produce close to home. In the Eastview pilot, volunteers distributed tomatoes, greens, and herbs to forty-two households during one summer. That amount did not feed a neighborhood, yet it reduced the distance some older residents traveled for ingredients they used every week. Cities should value this local supplement rather than dismiss it because it is not a complete food system. Second, gardening creates repeated, low-pressure contact among neighbors who might otherwise remain strangers. The Eastview volunteers planned watering schedules, repaired beds, and shared harvest days. Those tasks required cooperation, and cooperation built relationships that continued when the garden was closed for winter. Critics correctly note that a garden cannot manufacture trust on command. Still, a maintained shared project gives trust opportunities to grow. Gardens also make neighborhoods more resilient during disruptions. When a storm delayed deliveries to several stores last year, the Eastview garden could not replace lost shipments, but it did provide a nearby gathering point and a small supply of food. Its greater value was organizational: people already knew who could coordinate tools, distribute information, and check on older neighbors. This mechanism explains why resilience is more than the number of vegetables harvested. Opponents argue that scarce city land should be reserved for housing or commercial development. That concern matters, especially in neighborhoods with high rents. Cities should therefore prioritize vacant lots, rooftops, and parcels unsuitable for large construction rather than treating every garden proposal as equal. A carefully chosen garden does not compete with urgently needed housing; it can improve an overlooked parcel while the city pursues housing elsewhere. Another objection is that volunteer projects fade once their first organizers leave. Temporary enthusiasm is a real risk, which is why gardens need durable stewardship rather than ceremonial ribbon cuttings. Renewable three-year leases would give neighborhood groups enough certainty to plan, while annual public reports would show whether plots remain active and accessible. If a group repeatedly fails to maintain a site, the city could transfer stewardship without abandoning the garden policy itself. Good administration answers the continuity problem more effectively than refusing to begin. The educational benefit also deserves attention. A garden lets young residents observe soil, insects, water use, and seasonal change directly instead of treating ecology as an abstract textbook topic. Eastview volunteers hosted four weekend workshops in which children measured rainfall and compared shaded beds with sunny ones. These lessons were small and informal, but they connected environmental knowledge to a place the participants walked past every day. That familiarity makes public investment visible and understandable. For these reasons, city planning departments should establish long-term garden leases, small maintenance grants, and clear rules for community stewardship. These policies would not solve every urban problem. They would preserve a useful civic resource whose benefits come from food, relationships, and the ability to organize when ordinary systems fail.