- 注册
- 2002-05-19
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- 9,998
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- 5
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- 148
In the fall of 1998, New York City announced a plan to auction off to the highest bidders 114 of the city's more than 700 community gardens. These green oases on city land would have become whatever their buyers desired―apartment houses, stores, parking lots―or, as is most often the case, they would have been ignored and become wastelands.
The Trust for Public Land, other conservation groups, open space and garden coalitions, and individual gardeners all banded together to oppose the garden auction and to increase awareness of these precious, yet tenuous, community resources. Foundations and other donors helped put together a deal to purchase the gardens at auction at a fraction of fair market value. Lawsuits, public opposition, media pressure, and a viable alternative brought the city to the negotiating table as the auction neared.
The day before the auction, the Mayor's Office agreed to sell 63 gardens to TPL and the remainder to the nonprofit New York Restoration Project. In the end, all 114 gardens were spared.
But this last-minute reprieve left unprotected hundreds of gardens on city-owned land. Their caretakers may any moment find them diverted for sale or development. Despite the fact that these gardens have become more and more important to their neighborhoods over time, and in spite of the growing recognition of their value by community development organizations, many spaces remain at risk. No deliberative system governs the fate of the city-owned lots transformed into gardens; no comprehensive plan determines the disposition of the land; no guidelines protect the value these gardens bring to their neighborhoods.
For their many contributions to New York, gardens in all five boroughs deserve preservation. New York City's government needs to acknowledge successful community gardens as an essential part of local infrastructure, and to affirmatively incorporate them into city planning as a proven, cost-effective way to improve the quality of daily life.
The Trust for Public Land, other conservation groups, open space and garden coalitions, and individual gardeners all banded together to oppose the garden auction and to increase awareness of these precious, yet tenuous, community resources. Foundations and other donors helped put together a deal to purchase the gardens at auction at a fraction of fair market value. Lawsuits, public opposition, media pressure, and a viable alternative brought the city to the negotiating table as the auction neared.
The day before the auction, the Mayor's Office agreed to sell 63 gardens to TPL and the remainder to the nonprofit New York Restoration Project. In the end, all 114 gardens were spared.
But this last-minute reprieve left unprotected hundreds of gardens on city-owned land. Their caretakers may any moment find them diverted for sale or development. Despite the fact that these gardens have become more and more important to their neighborhoods over time, and in spite of the growing recognition of their value by community development organizations, many spaces remain at risk. No deliberative system governs the fate of the city-owned lots transformed into gardens; no comprehensive plan determines the disposition of the land; no guidelines protect the value these gardens bring to their neighborhoods.
For their many contributions to New York, gardens in all five boroughs deserve preservation. New York City's government needs to acknowledge successful community gardens as an essential part of local infrastructure, and to affirmatively incorporate them into city planning as a proven, cost-effective way to improve the quality of daily life.
