Urban Farming;
AWESOME TOPIC!
I think it would be beyond cool! And totaly doable. As for who would remain in a city. I would just to do it
In a secured city like in Warsaw and Krakow well, the town is secured. The crops are to suppliment what those towns trade for and grow in the countryside. But as has been stated, it can be too dangerous to work the fields in an area where there is signfigant hostile activity. So, within the walls and buildings of a city you have a more or less controlled area. Remember, folks working the fields are targets. An attacked can hide wherever he wants and has greater freedom of movement. And he can also set the fields afire. If you can't take it, then deny it to everyone so they have one less asset.
If you are in a village, and you are besieged you are now held hostage. You are trapped in your city/village. And you certainly can not get out to tend to your fields. And you surely can't make use of your crops. The marauders/badguys can just sit and wait. If it gets to costly for them, or taking to long they can just burn your fields and now you are without the fields and what they would provide. As well as all of that time and labor is wasted.
Remember, someone sitting on the edge of your fields they can move. They can forage. They can get water, they can remain mobile. But, the folks in the little village, they are stuck. And then we also have the phsycological factor as well. Mobility allows for greater stricking power. The people in the village have limited options for combat unless they leave it to engage in the open. The force besieging them can move and attack from any direction, or cover. They also can infiltrate through the fields if the crops have grown enough it would be a farily easy task to crawl low enough to get within effective rifleshot. Again this would also be very damaging to the defenders psychologicaly. Think of the Winterwar between the Finns and the Russians and how the Finns managed to cut and isolate the Russian forces into what they called "Woodpiles." Where they isolated them and then destroyed them. And this could easily be done with small farming communities who have fields surrounding them as well as the wide open visible target of a cultivated field litteraly RIPE FOR THE PICKING!
Inner city gardening you have control and protection and it can be hidden as well.
A secured city or portion of, well you have the advantages the buildings present. A higher platform to observe things at a greater distance. Cover and concealment. And should an enemy cover into the city well house to house fighting is much more man and material intensive for an aggressor and thus a major asset to the defender, oh yeah and also, it channels the attackor forcing him to go through specific routes anf again limiting his manuverability to areas who know and can prepare for a greater defense.
Now, as for a modern full city. Think about this. They will be ghost towns after a couple of years. Between disease, starvation and general chaos and breakdowns most of the remaining population will die off, wander away from the city with a very small fraction being left who forage and etch out a liviing as best they can, with a few who may have a real industry remaining in the city.
I posted this on the yahoo T2K site a long time agoand I shall repost them again thoughts here.
Cities would be cool to be in after for the following:
Wait until things have settled. And the population has starved, died off, been evacuated or just moved on. <Remember New Orleans? that in my mind is what would happen except it would go on for a much longer period of time, months or even a year or two. With just a few diehard hanging on.>
Now, you hide out until "the crazy ride comes to a complete stop." Thus, there will be less human activity, fewer maruaders and since its a dead city, well, it will no longer be a military objective so no one will have any interest in it.
Move into the rooftops. Or, remove the roof leaving the walls so you now have an open area with tall walls to sheild your activities from prying eyes.
Now you move soil upto the roofs and recently opened floors and you created garden plots. Or you just place it the soil on the ground. Although personaly I would go with planter boxes for real plants, grains sould on the ground method. Maybe in very shallow large plots.
Now, one can remove access to the upper floors by removing all means at the lower floors.
Also, making large planter or window boxes. About a meter wide and running the entire length of the wall with access to water and harves by simply leaning out of the open/missing window. Or, even balconies of apartment buildings, these one could with the use of nets or old fences give a means of them crawling up the side of the building. Imagine a building with one side covered in grape vines or tomatoes or beans or melons.
Also, one could build a chicken coup and pigeon coup atop the buildings as well. Pigs, turkeys as have also been mentioned. But also, with the tanks that are found atop most roofs, pools in some and even flooded parking garages could be converted for use in aquaculture, or even growing algae which is also edible, so you can end up with several decent amounts of food.
Further, one can have several rooftops converted to this purpose again removing access to the lower floors. And maybe having one or two buildings where one can get access. Then using suspension and rope bridges connecting the tall buildings and maybe even some ziplines elevators and lifts and even primative cable cars to move people and goods from rooftop to rooftop you could manage safe, secure community that could be self sustaining.
Water could be a problem, so in a coastal community is where you would have better chances, using the natural moisture from fog, heavy dew and rain. Cisterns to college rain water, and a series of pumps from ground water and maybe channeling water from a river in the area.
As for defenses, well you can do all maner of things, it would be similiar to defending a castle of old. Dropping ruble atop an attacker. Firebombs, firearms, logs with spikes, nets as well as regular weapons. The only downside is, if an enemy had demo then they could take out your buildings, or alot of men with saw, picks and crowbars to attack the foundations of the buildings <this is long and dangerous for the demolition crew not only could the building or parts of it colapse on them, while working the defenders could drop and attack them as they are easy targets.
Think of the above idea similiar to the Ewok Village except instead of living in trees, it is skyscrapers.
All the while the community will not only be tending their crops and animals, they will also be foraging the items within the buildings and the surrounding areas and of course using the raw materials for their own manufacturing projects on the various middle floors.
Those are some of the ideas of how one could survive in a city.
As for getting the soil. Most cities are built atop good land. Simply break the concrete or dig into the basements of some of the other buildings and areas and take it from there, it should have been protected from any contaminants by whatever was built over it.
As for community gardens, yes alot of lots here in the Los Angeles area are turning into community gardens as well. Some legal, others not so legal. About two years ago there was one that was "illegal" and the owners wanted to actualy use it. That caused alot of comotion with the media and the activits. i mean how dare a property owner want to use his own property!
But Grae made a good point, how many people live in a city who would be able to manage and tend to crops and animals as well as manage resources and of course clear, build and defend them.
But, like I said, it would be cool. One just needs to withstand the initial turmoil and have the talent to do it.