There are over 400 community gardens that exist in New York City today that have been a key aspect to many neighborhoods and communities, in terms of development and agriculture. Despite the critical role that community gardens play for the development of a community, many are termed as vacant lots and the recent concern of most gardeners today is land tenure. Many gardens continue to be threatened and replaced by other land uses such as housing usually through private development. The focus of our project is to bring about recognition of community gardens as a place that shapes the development of a community. We will be focusing on the political aspect and legality that surrounds community gardens to provide better understanding for the recognition of community gardens. In order to address these ideas, we are furthering our research that deals with the historical emergence of community gardens, the legality of the gardens, issue of affordable housing and the gardens under the Bill de Blasio’s housing plan, and to seek solutions that would bring awareness and recognition of community gardens.

The history of these gardens can be traced back to the fiscal crisis in the 1970s, in which many buildings were abandoned and there were many vacant lots due to urban neglect. During World War I, “the government promoted community gardens to supplement and expand the domestic food supply.” The federal government made further efforts of incorporating agricultural education and food production in the public school curriculum. However, during the Great Depression community gardens provided a means for a cheaper alternative food source for the unemployed. This eased the financial burdens that most were going through at the time and also provided healthy and nutritious food. During that time, millions of households participated in gardening programs and grew produce that had a total value of $36 billion. World War II had taken a toll on all the gardening programs at that time, and so community gardens decreased in number. However, the few gardening programs that were left were enough to spur a revival of community gardens by 1970. This revival was largely due to urban abandonment, rising inflation, environmental issues, and the social aspect of the need to build a sense of community. These gardens did indeed serve the purpose of food production, recreation, education, and aesthetics, but what was most important for the community at that time was to build social connections that was most easily facilitated through gardens.

In order to find ways in which community gardens can obtain legal recognition, the legality behind the issue of gardens should be addressed. Of the community gardens owned by the city, none are permanent or receive budgets to address infrastructure needs.  That is the reason people want community gardens to be mapped out and designated as parkland. If they were considered as parks, then it would take the state legislature to decide that the garden should be used for a different purpose.Community gardens are not always protected under the public trust doctrine- “the principle of common law that directs who owns and manages natural resources.” In order for them to be protected, the community garden must have been declared parkland by the government. If the community garden is on land protected by the Department of Parks and Recreation is more likely to be protected than a garden on any other public or private land. Due to the Public Trust Doctrine, state courts have repeatedly ruled that if a land has been dedicated as a park, or has been recognized as a public space it cannot be taken for non-park use without approval of the State Legislature. The Public Trust Doctrine has also been used by the state Court of Appeals, forcing the city to get approval from the New York State Legislature before tampering with the parkland.

Further research regarding different policies will be talked about in the white paper after talking to Ray and taking his suggestions into account about placing community as farms and the benefit and impact of urban agriculture and the legality behind this. We will, also, be using Ray’s outline on specific issues that serve to inform the project scope for the conflict between affordable housing and community gardens. He discusses two plans that address housing development and in relation to the Mayor’s plan for development of 200K units of affordable and low income housing. He discusses how we need to specifically identify the geographic distribution of vacant lots for the potential development of housing as well as vacant lots for the preservation and/or development of community gardens. He also proposes that there are demographic assumptions/population projections informing the income-related distribution of development of 200K housing units using standard AMI criteria.

Also, as Ray suggested, we will be focusing on the Melrose Commons neighborhood in South Bronx and observing the success that it has in creating harmony between public housing and community gardens. This would provide an example to understanding the tension between these conflicts. We are planning on visiting the neighborhood this Sunday with Ray or a representative as a guide. We plan on interviewing Ray and people from this neighborhood, asking their views about community gardens and the issues that surround it. We plan on asking specific questions, that will be laid out by the end of this week, for the interviews to make it more organized and efficient. We, also, plan on filming the interviews and the neighborhood for our video, which would provide a perspective of the locals on the community gardens issue. After recording the interviews, Oneeka, Kelly, and Sara will edit the video. Then, Lisa and Amanda will ask for the ITF Aaron’s help for designing and creating the website.

The next steps for our project include attending forums and Nos Quedamos as mentioned before. We will, also, be continuing our research and finishing it before the end of this month to incorporate it in our White Paper drafts. We will be incorporating the article written by Paula Segal from 596 Acres for NYCCLl, which discusses the three categories of public land in our white paper as well in discussing the issue of public land.

We work well together as a team. We incorporate each others suggestions and collectively approach any problems or questions that need to be addressed. We usually use Google Docs as a medium to discuss about any ideas, resources, and for meetups. Sometimes, this is not the most efficient way to discuss problems and project ideas and thus, more time needs to be allotted during class sessions because of the varying time schedules each member has. Overall, we work as an organized and efficient team.