A few weeks ago, we told you about the crisis facing Bushwick’s El Garden, one of the 17 community gardens on public land across the city at risk of being leveled to create new housing developments. At the time, El Garden had already started a petition to the Mayor’s office urging him to preserve the garden, and since then they’ve ramped up their efforts to save the year-old community green space.
On Tuesday, they’re joining the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) and the other endangered community gardens for a rally at City Hall to demand that the city remove the gardens from a list of lots slated for development.
The lots are owned by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which last month invited developers to submit proposals to build affordable housing on them under the NIHOP and NCP programs. HPD’s decision to include active community gardens in its list of development sites puts Mayor DeBlasio’s plans to build more affordable housing in conflict with those who want to preserve the community green spaces, a conflict that the gardeners view as needless.
