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One focus of our project is Melrose Commons. We chose Melrose Commons because the challenges it has faced are similar to the issues we are currently seeing. One main issue we are seeing with community gardens today is that they are being redeveloped without the consent of the community. Similarly, in the 1980s and 1990s, the city was planning on redeveloping the South Bronx before consulting the community members. After this, in 1991, the Bronx Center Projected started the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan. When this plan was brought to the public, it was met with disapproval. The plan would originally displace thousands of current residents. To counter this, a member of the community, Yolanda Garcia, formed Nos Quedamos to organize the community and keep everyone informed of developments in the planning agenda. They worked along the City Council and resisted large scale urban renewal plans in order to develop a plan that to benefit the existing community and allow for further growth. Since this time, Melrose Commons has been praised by a variety of organizations such as the ADPSR, the National Civic Council, and the LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. This development has continued to be successful, which is why it is a good role model for community garden activists working with the city. Melrose Commons is a wonderful example of how affordable housing and green spaces can and should coexist instead of being in opposition to each other.

Another issue is the lack of political recognition. One issue with out white paper was why we wanted to include the history of NYC’s 1970 fiscal crisis. Community gardens have been developed as a quick fix for people (typically poor people) that lack food. Then these gardens are abandoned once political support dies out. The government liked the idea of community gardens because it beautified run-down areas. However, the opportunity of using this land, as a way to make more money was too good to pass up, to the city opted to redevelop that land. The financial appeal has outweighed the complaints of the communities, which is another problem we hope to address.

Mapping out the organization of the political system regarding community gardens as well as mapping out the possible ways of reform helped us to determine a better way to address these problems in our paper. We were able to clearly map out alternative sources of funding, which was one of the problems brought to our attention during our white paper presentation. Our goal is to now find a clear way to express the problems with community boards and City Council so that people outside of these communities can relate and empathize with them.

We still have not been able to get in contact with Ray Figueroa about connecting to a Melrose Gardens local, but we still hope to do so. Once we can contact a local, we intend to find out what they know of the problems with community gardens, how they feel about such problems, and how community gardens have affected their lives. We also were not able to attend the “Gardens Under Threat Ride,” but we plan on contacting the organizer of the event to possibly use any pictures or videos that were taken on our website. We will be filming a video based on the television show Parks and Recreation in order to make a more relatable source of information for the public. This will be our public interest piece, and will go on the website that we have created.

Reference:

http://www.maparchitects.com/melrose-commons-timeline/
http://www.plannersnetwork.org/magazine-publications/case-studies-and-working-papers/melrose-commons-a-case-study-for-sustainable-community-design/
http://www.grownyc.org/files/GrowNYC_CommunityGardenReport.pdf

In response to our white paper presentation, we were asked why we picked the Melrose Commons for our project. If we look at its history, we can see that it has faced many of the issues that we are seeing today. A core issue with community gardens is that they are being redeveloped without considering the voices of the community. When we looked into the history of the Melrose Commons, we found that when the city was planning for the South Bronx’s redevelopment in the 1980’s and 1990’s, none of the residents of the community were consulted.

In 1991, the Bronx Center Project initiated the start of the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan. This original plan was met with much disapproval from community residents when brought before the public in 1992, as it would displace thousands of current Melrose residents. Community resident, Yolanda Garcia formed the group Nos Quedamos in order to organize the community and keep them informed of planned developments. The group resisted large scale urban renewal plans and worked along with the City Council and consultants in order to shape the plan into something which benefitted the existing community and allowed for further growth. Since then, the Melrose Commons has been awarded praise from the ADPSR, the National Civic Council, and finally the LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The ongoing success of the development is what makes it such a great role model for community gardens activists working with the city to achieve favorable outcomes for all parties involved. The development also shows how affordable housing and green spaces can and should be built together, not in opposition to each other.

This lack of political recognition seen here relates to another issue that was pointed out with our white paper, which was why we chose to include the history of NYC’s 1970 fiscal crisis. Throughout history, community gardens have gone through a cycle of being developed as a quick fix for people – particularly the poor – that are lacking food, and then being abandoned when political support dies. The government liked how people were beautifying blighted neighborhoods, so they let them build gardens. However, as soon as the opportunity for redevelopment – which was more financially beneficial for the city – came, they changed their minds. Essentially, the government sees them as expendable when it comes to the City’s plans for redevelopment. They have chosen to ignore the complaints of the people actually in these communities, in favor of drawing in more money.

In our previous update, we discussed the social benefits of community gardens. However, we can look not only at healthier diets, but also at the independence and sense of self that is gained from participating in them. During our presentation on Friday, someone asked us what would motivate low income residents to take part in community gardens when all they need already comes from food stamps. Again, we see an unquantified aspect of community gardens. Similar to how they provide residents with a sense of togetherness and community, they allow those that work in them a chance to work hard for their own food; a sense of responsibility. More tangible forms of responsibility that have sprouted from community gardens are community groups and organizing.

We also expanded more on what we did in class on Monday. We had started off by discussing where gardens fall into in terms of government. In New York City, most of the community gardens are under the jurisdiction of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. These gardens were generally formed on city or privately owned vacant lots, and were transferred to the Parks Department for administrative purposes. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) are both private land trusts, and collectively own approximately 25% of the city’s community gardens. The distribution of land ownership within survey respondents is different from actual distribution in a number of ways. For example, NYRP gardens constituted 25% of survey respondents, while only 6% of the responding gardens were owned by the Trust for Public Land. The actual distribution is 11% and 14% respectively.

Community gardens in NYC may also choose to affiliate with any number of greening and gardening organizations, institutions, and agencies. These organizations provide everything from resources and a network to fiscal sponsorship and workshops. They are critical to helping gardeners increase membership, learn new skills, and access free materials. GreenThumb is the branch of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation that registers community gardens. In return for registering with the city, gardens are identified as gardens instead of vacant lots, and may be eligible to receive resources such as lumber for raised beds and soil. Green Guerillas, GrowNYC, and Just Food work with gardens individually to help build infrastructure like chicken coops, rainwater harvesting systems, pathways, and sometimes help with building membership or community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Brooklyn GreenBridge and Bronx Green Up are programs of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Gardens respectively. These programs are enormously supportive with horticultural advice and educational resources. More Gardens! focuses mostly on advocacy and political activism around garden preservation. Most of the agencies, institutions, and organizations provide educational workshops that are open to the public.

Although we have not gotten a response from Ray Figueroa about connecting us to a Melrose Gardens local, we hope to gain a more personal account of how community gardens have helped people’s lives through this. We intend to find out how informed locals are about the situation with community gardens, how they feel about these problems, and how community gardens have affected their lives. Through what we gather from this, we can go about informing the public on community gardens. This will be done on a more formal level with the interview that we already recorded with Ray and more personally through everyday people and their thoughts. Hopefully, this will speak to audiences of all demographics. On another note, we have created the wordpress url for our website, although we have yet to finalize what information will actually go on it.

We also hope to attend an event held by 596 Acres and Public Space Party  named “Gardens Under Threat Ride.” The affair will include physically looking at the gardens that are endangered to be torn down by private developers. Starting from Grand Army Plaza, the group plans to travel through Brooklyn and into Manhattan. The gardens that will be seen include Maple Street, Roger That, Eldert Street, Children’s Magical and Siempre Verde Community Gardens. By visiting these gardens, it provides a humanistic and personal account of how the community actually celebrates these spaces. At each garden, gardeners will offer testimony about the importance of their spaces as vital tools for education, green infrastructure, and support for community development. The mission of the event is to gather more support to make the city recognize the community gardens as park spaces.

Reference:

http://www.maparchitects.com/melrose-commons-timeline/
http://www.plannersnetwork.org/magazine-publications/case-studies-and-working-papers/melrose-commons-a-case-study-for-sustainable-community-design/
http://www.grownyc.org/files/GrowNYC_CommunityGardenReport.pdf

by Saranya Radhakrishnan

Group: Kelly Garland, Oneeka Khan, Amandeep Kaur, Lisa Wong, Amanda Bernstein, and Laura Benasaraf

After presenting our proposal and understanding how to strengthen our argument, we decided to conduct more research as to how the gardens are an amenity and as to various strategies that the city can legally recognize community gardens.

Benefits and purpose of community gardens:

Community gardens may have once been vacant lots, but the amount of effort and care that is put into them transforms them into spaces that are far from empty. There are several components to a community garden that contribute to its definition and its purpose in the community. At a community level, these gardens aid in the development of the neighborhood and its members. It gives the whole community a sense of ownership, leadership, and provides members with a place where other community issues and social concerns can be addressed. Many police departments also recognize these spaces as an effective crime prevention method since they increase awareness of occurrences on the streets.

Community gardens also can develop a sense of culture, which can particularly be helpful for new immigrants who want to learn more about their community. This also provides immigrants the opportunity to grow traditional crops and meet others who speak the same language. This development of culture can aid in the education of youth. The participation of the younger generation in this societal affair can provide a foundation that lead to groupings of individuals with combined interests. This will allow for the growth of essential skills in terms of jobs and an investment in their future.

Another huge benefit of the gardens is low cost food production. Keeping in mind that these gardens are situated in low income neighborhoods, the opportunity to locally grow produce alleviates the burden of food expenses for several households. Moreover, families have access to fresh and organic food, which contributes to an overall healthier lifestyle.

Not only do these gardens contribute socially, but also environmentally. These spaces aid in filtering rainwater, which helps to keep lakes, rivers, and groundwater clean. Their plants are essentially reduce carbon dioxide and increase oxygen in the air. The gardens are also a way to recycle organic wastes such as tree trimmings and leaves back into the soil. All of these contributions allow the neighborhood to be conscious of the environment and how it affects us.

http://www.gardendallas.org/benefits.htm

Position of Community Gardens

– Of the community gardens owned by the city, none are permanent nor do they 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.  According to the Community Garden Toolkit, a landowner can make a contract with a legally recognized entity such as a nonprofit organization. The nonprofit organization would then be responsible for supervising the operation of the garden. Individual gardeners sign their own agreement with the organization to follow the rules and waive any right to sue the organization. Community gardens need to get a permit under local zoning codes in order before claiming a vacant lot; the land should be surveyed in order to insure that it is suitable for a garden to thrive. Though this claim is not necessary, it is highly recommended.  There are regulations set forth by the EPA to declare an area safe, however there are no specific rules for a community garden.  According to this toolkit, the land owner has the final say in how long the garden will last for, not the gardeners.

– Some community gardens classify themselves as urban gardens. They produce food for their neighborhood, which helps low income families save some money. About 80% of the community gardens in New York grow their own food (fiveboroughfarm.org).

– One model for a nonprofit urban farm is through garden allotment organizations. These are small plots of land that individuals or groups can rent or use rent-free in order to grow vegetables for their own consumption. These are common in England, Japan, and Seattle, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is trying to turn large areas of urban land into allotment gardens in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since urban farming and allotment gardens may be better protected than community gardens, our goal is to get community gardens classified as urban farms or allotment gardens in order o protect them from development.

http://www.urbanaglaw.org/planning-and-zoning/

– NYC zoning codes are relatively permissive about urban agriculture. Gardens can grow food in residential and commercial zones as long as there is no bad odor or dust created as a result.

– According to the DCP MaPLUTO 2009 database, there are 3,621 acres of public vacant land. However, in reality there is less vacant land available since community gardens are considered vacant land in the survey.  After considering factors such as environment and actual vacancy, there are only 1,663 acres of vacant public land left that could be used for urban farming or more community gardens.

– Community gardens are not always protected under the public trust doctrine. 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.

http://www.ny4p.org/advocacy/alienation/alienation-hey-eng.pdf

– 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.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/parks/oct.02.shtml

– Rezoning requires large amount of resources and effort and community groups need support so that local community members can fully participate in the process. Rezoning can displace current residents and can negatively impact neighborhood affordability. Building more affordable housing in the place of already affordable housing is not a good plan because more residents get displaced than can live in the new affordable buildings.

IOBY is a nonprofit organization that helps fund community gardens, parks, and urban farms. There are also various grants that can help fund community gardens with specific programs such as child-centered programs and food production.  Funding for community gardens mostly comes from loans and grants. These grants can come from the government, or nonprofit organizations. Other modes of funding are through private grants from foundations, businesses, and community fundraising.

https://communitygarden.org/resources/funding-opportunities/

http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/pdfs/Let%27s%20Move%20Community%20Garden%20Guide.pdf

Case Study of the Gardens: Melrose Commons

After looking into benefits of the gardens, we looked into a model community, Melrose Commons, which implemented the gardens into an affordable housing development. Located in the South Bronx, the Commons consists of 30 three-family homes. The area was built with a mission of becoming a “green” neighborhood. With this focus, the Commons has become more energy efficient and promoted methods of sustainability. This outcome is a result of the participation and tremendous support of the community members. The neighborhood had thus created its own identity along with the development of 26 garden plots.

These gardens are protected under land trusts that were formed after a lawsuit in 1999. The court claimed that the city was “violating state environmental laws concerning the sale of open green space.” Even after the declaration of the lawsuit, the community understood that the gardens were still under jeopardy under the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Nos Quedamos and the South Bronx United Gardeners worked together along with the support of green coalitions such as Green Guerillas, GreenThumb, NY Restoration Project, Trust for Public Land and More Gardens made it their mission to preserve and protect the gardens as well as look into the welfare of the housing development.  Through the alliance of these groups and the support of the community members, the gardens have been protected and continue to be preserved.

Cultivating Community, Food, and Empowerment: Urban Gardens in New York City

By Margarita Fernandez

Building Communities: The Importance of Affordable Green Housing

By Erica R. Levin

Future Plan:

After interviewing Ray Figueroa, we work to incorporate his suggestions into our planned proposal for the future of community garden. We also hope to interview a local from Melrose Commons to understand the inner workings of the gardens and the strategies used that lead to the success of their preservation.

We will also create the website that will be used as the means to bring awareness to the importance of community gardens as well as present a solution to the public.

Since our last update, our group has made a great deal of progress in understanding our issue and also with actually engaging with the community and people involved in protecting Community Gardens. On Sunday, Sara, Oneeka, Lisa and Kelly went to visit the Melrose Commons development in the Bronx. We are able to walk around a small area of the neighborhood and in just a few blocks, found 4 different community garden spaces. It was great to be out and see a few of the spaces we have been studying throughout the semester. While in Melrose Commons we were able to meet up with Ray Figueroa again to find out more about the work he does in this particular community. Meeting with him a second time was very helpful, since we all have more information about the issue of protecting the gardens than we did the first time Ray met with us. Ray explained the role of Nos Quedamos (We Stay) in protecting the land the gardens sit on to preserve their role in the community. The garden he showed us was right across from a school, making it a prime target for developers. He also explained how having a garden benefits the children who go to the school, and the community as a whole by running different educational programs.

Ray also told us about the work he does at the Brook Park garden which he affectionately refers to as ‘his garden’. He clearly has put a lot of time and effort into the programs there and has amazing stories about the work he has done. It was interesting to see the two different sides of the issue, the first being the activism and policy work needed to protect the gardens, and the second being the actual amazing work that the gardens bring about in communities. Ray talked about the Youth Community Farm Project he organizes at Brook Park which works with young people coming through the court system and allows them to farm in the garden as an alternative to incarceration. Overall this meeting was very productive and gave us a lot more to think about. We were also able to formally interview Ray and record his answers to use as material for our video project.

As far as research, our group is still looking into the documents Ray has given us regarding possible policies to be implemented. He gave us a transcript of his testimony to city council for the gardens protection where he highlights the key issues we have discussed before. The more we learn about the issue, the more we see how vast and diverse the groups involved are. Green Thumb signs were posted around the gardens we saw in Melrose Commons so we investigated the group a little further.

In April 1974, the New York City’s first community garden was formed after the City Office of Housing Preservation and Development approved a lease for one dollar a month. It was called the “Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden.” The city loved that these vacant lots were being beautified and used by willing community groups. This created useful, open space in poor neighborhoods. This led to the creation of the GreenThumb program in 1978 which provides organization and assistance.

As the GreenThumb program became more established, the one dollar token lease with the city changed into a licensing agreement. Despite the fact that there was no permanent agreement with the city, community gardens remained. They were resilient against pressures to build housing on these ‘vacant lots.’

Today, GreenThumb serves the largest amount of community gardens via materials and organization.

In 1984, they created the Garden Preservation Program and ten-year leases.

On January 8, 1986, the city destroyed Adam Purple’s famous Garden of Eden. This was the first major garden that was destroyed for subsidized housing.

In the mid-1990s, the city started recovering from the fiscal crisis, leading to pressure on community gardens to become development sites. The city moved the GreenThumb program from the Department of General Services to the Parks Department.

Community gardens faced great adversity when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani placed the city’s over 700 gardens up for disposition for private development. The situation was very similar to what we see today with Mayor Bill De Blasio. The change left many residents upset because there were approximately 11,000 empty lots to choose from for development.

Most of the gardens targeted by Giuliani were spared when two not-for-profit land trust groups offered to buy them. At that time, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer got a restraining order, preventing the city from touching a single flower on its remaining 600 gardens. This agreement lifts that restraining order, allowing the city to immediately build affordable housing on 38 gardens while protecting 400 others from future development or so it was believed.

From here, our next steps are to solidify our policy recommendation and make our white paper more concise. We also need to go to a few more garden sites and get more footage for our video which we plan to do in the upcoming weeks. Ray will be setting up a meeting with a gardener in Harlem for us to talk to and interview to get another perspective for our video and research. We are also planning to have a few group members go to the Gardens Under Threat Ride and BBQ and hopefully get video footage from that event as well. Our project seems to be progressing well, we have learned a lot and now we just need to channel that information into a concrete project instead of abstract information.

Research links:

http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/community-gardens/movement

http://www.lizchristygarden.us/

http://nyccgc.org/about/history/

http://www.grownyc.org/files/GrowNYC_CommunityGardenReport.pdf

http://www.wnyc.org/story/85574-city-settles-fate-of-community-gardens/

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.

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.