NYC mayor bulldozes community gardens
By Deirdre Sinnott
New York
One of the Giuliani administration's last acts
of 1997 was to send bulldozers into several community gardens
in New York's East Village.
Some of the best organized and oldest gardens-including the
10th BC garden and the Mendez Mural garden-were ripped out of
the neighborhood on Dec. 30. Even though organizers are still
fighting in court to stop the demolition, bulldozers razed
trees, small buildings, flowering plants, vegetables, play
areas and much-needed green space.
In recent years the East Village neighborhood, and the
gardens in particular, have become targets of real-estate
developers looking for space for luxury condominiums and
"market-rate" housing. Community gardens in Harlem, the South
Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island have also been targeted. Some
have been destroyed.
Wealthy developers have bought choice lots from the city
through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
They get tax deferments and subsidies to build.
According to Anastasia Pardalis of the New York City
Coalition for the Preservation of Gardens, some of the
developers do not even have building permits for the lots.
Pardalis said: "Over 300 gardens may be bulldozed in 1998.
Gardens that were cleared in Brooklyn have just stood empty for
over a year. The contracts and construction plans have fallen
through, and in some of these lots people have planted
again.
"People took it into their own hands to build and maintain
these gardens and they have not been respected.
"During Mayor Giuliani's inauguration speech he said one of
his priorities is to make New York a more beautiful city. There
are approximately 11,000 truly vacant lots in the city and yet
the gardens are his target. We plan to continue the fight to
keep as many gardens as we can."
Two garden supporters were arrested when they protested
during Giuliani's inauguration Jan. 1. To contact the New York
City Coalition for the Preservation of Gardens, readers can
visit the site at interport.net/~earthcel/ or call (212)
777-7969.
This article is copyright under a Creative
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