Community gardens provide an opportunity for apartment dwellers and others without open space of their own to maintain vegetable and flower gardens on publicly-owned land. Not only does this allow residents to grow healthy food for themselves and their families, but it demonstrates community support for sustainable living and can reduce maintenance costs for municipalities.

Resources:

The American Community Gardening Association supports community gardening by facilitating the formation and expansion of state and regional community gardening networks, developing resources in support of community gardening, encouraging research and conducting educational programs. Their website provides a fact sheet that gives basic information needed to get a garden project started.

Garden Your City (Hardcover)
By Barbara Feldt

This book is a good resource for urban communities wishing to create a community garden.  It includes information about locations, development and maintenance.