The Future of Community Gardens in NYC: Recognition of Community Gardens

Community gardens developed in New York City in response to the fiscal crisis in the 1970’s, when large sections of New York City were abandoned by both landlords and city officials. Residents revitalized their neighborhoods, reclaiming them from decay by turning vacant lots into community gardens. The development of more than eight hundred gardens steered neighborhoods away from crime and toward community action, better diets and cleaner environments. The gardens trained a generation of activists and spawned other environmental projects, in New York and overseas. The gardens aided in the urban renewal of the city in a cost effective way, as “a garden can be more than just a place to stop and smell the roses. Its spin-off effects can help to tip a neighborhood and an entire city out of a cycle of squalor.”

However, there is little to no legislation that discusses community gardens. Though community gardens have been previously placed under the umbrella protected by the Public Trust Doctrine—the theory that certain resources are preserved and maintained by the government for public use—little actual governance exists. The 2002 agreement to protect New York City community gardens expired in 2010 and was not renewed. As of now, permanent protection for the gardens does not exist. For all intents and purposes, community gardens do not exist. For example, on the CPC maps of New York City, community gardens appear as empty lots because there are no zoning regulations for the gardens. Additionally, the city councils and committees that control the community gardens do not reflect the wishes of those who utilize the gardens. Meetings are often held at times inconvenient or impossible for working individuals to attend, and often end in decisions that support development by the private sector.

Therefore, our project focuses on the future of community gardens in New York City, specifically focusing on recognition of the gardens by both citizens and elected officials in ways that will ensure their continuity and effectiveness in New York City neighborhoods.

Our team was fortunate enough to be paired with the New York City Community Garden Coalition for our project. The Coalition, founded in 1996, promotes the preservation, creation, and empowerment of community gardens through education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing. The Coalition holds meetings once a month and advocates for community gardens all over the city.

Oneeka, Sara and Amanda met with Ray Figueroa, President—and our community contact —of the New York City Community Garden Coalition last Friday to discuss our project. He has helped to focus our research and gave us some new ideas to think about. Ray primarily works with the City Council and the City Planning Commission. He pointed out that there is a failure to translate the concerns of New York City residents into actions, and also pointed out several flaws in governance concerning community gardens. Additionally, there is not much of an awareness of the benefits of community gardens to a community, nor is their recognition of those benefits.

An interesting thing Ray described was the tensions between the advocates of affordable housing and community gardens. Many people assume that since advocates of the gardens don’t support the creation of affordable housing on garden sites, they don’t support it at all, a feeling that has probably escalated with the release of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to develop affordable housing in current community garden spaces. Ray, however, showed us how community gardens and affordable housing go hand in hand as two effective ways to combat poverty in urban centers. One example of this partnership between housing and gardens is the Melrose Commons neighborhood in the Bronx. Led by the Nos Quedamos Committee, the neighborhood is composed of small blocks with playing fields, children’s centers and community gardens scattered throughout. Sara and Kelly plan to visit this community as part of our research, observing the layout and interviewing locals.

Ray and the Community Garden Coalition were excited about a community awareness project that we could help them with, and wanted to get back to us on the specifics of a helpful media addition to their campaign. He was very interested and excited in our idea for a website that contained multimedia resources for community gardens. Some areas of the site include a video that shows how the gardens are an integral part of the community, an overview of our research, displaying the environmental and economical benefits of having community gardens, and information about how the community members can take action to protect the community gardens. Once our research is complete, Lisa and Amanda can begin to build our website with the assistance of Aaron, our tech fellow.

The next steps for our group mostly involve visiting field sites involved in our project. Oneeka and Kelly hope to interview Ray again within the next two weeks to discover more about his current projects. They also hope to interview some residents from Melrose Commons on a site visit that they and Kelly are planning to have before March 30^th. In addition, we hope to send a few of our team members to a forum being held by the Urban Justice System, a public interest law firm, later this month. The panel is discussing the issue of public property, which is extremely relevant to community gardens (under the Public Trust Doctrine). We also hope to contact the Department of Environmental Protection and the City Planning Commission, two government agencies that have much to do with community gardens. Amanda and Laura hope to gain this contact and to do additional research into the governance involving the gardens. In addition, we would like to have most of the historical and legislative research done by March 20^th, as this will give us time to focus on our project deliverable.

Our team works well together. We have exchanged emails and phone numbers and have no trouble communicating, gathering at least once a week for group sessions on a web forum (like Google docs) accompanied by a group chat. We share literature from meetings and research in Google docs and have sources from Ray. He is very excited to be working with our team, and is eager to see what we can come up with that can help benefit the gardens.