Future of Community Gardens Discussion

Community Gardens have a long and storied history in NYC. According to the Community Garden Coalition, “Community Gardens have for decades been an integral part of the fabric of New York City. These gardens are living symbols of unity built by neighbors who joined together to turn abandoned, trash-strewn lots into vibrant community oases.” http://nyccgc.org/. Recently, however, the city has announced that it will turn over a big batch of active gardens to developers to build “affordable housing.” Two of these are in East Harlem and residents are not happy: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150116/morningside-heights/community-gardens-threatened-by-de-blasios-affordable-housing-plan; http://596acres.org/news/2015/01/21/gardens-on-housing-preservation-and-developments-hpd-list-of-sites-available-for-housing-development/

NYCCLI is trying to figure out how to incorporate these and the other community gardens in their people’s plan for East Harlem, in which truly affordable housing is a top priority and community spaces (including gardens) are a close second. Can you help?

  • Laura Benasaraf, Oneeka Khan, Amandeep Kaur, Amanda Bernstein, Saranya Radhakrishnan, Lisa Wong, Kelly Garland

18 thoughts on “Future of Community Gardens Discussion”

    1. See this letter from Manhattan Borough President, Gale Brewer, to Mayor DeBlasio and HPD Commissioner Vicki Been, regarding the city-owned community gardens. In it she specifically calls out the lack of transparency and community involvement in the city’s process and calls for disposition of city property to the East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust (which is being organized by NYCCLI).

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  6. Ok team, your community contact will be Ray Figueroa, director of the NYC Community Gardens Coalition. You can contact Ray by email at: ray@friendsofbrookpark.org. Please read up on the NYC CGC and their work before meeting with Ray. When you are ready to set up a meeting, be in touch with Ray directly, and copy me on the email. Have fun! And email me directly with any questions.
    Hillary

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  9. Project Update #2

    To raise the question of why community gardens should exist is like asking why art exhibits should exist, or parks, zoos, or any other recreational enclosure. Are they completely necessary for the sustenance and growth of the population? No. But they play a role in the larger scheme of people’s wellbeing by alluding to their need for mental relaxation or stimulation. However, community gardens go a step further by not only becoming an integrated part of a community in a neighborhood, but also reaping economic and health benefits. These gardens are essentially a place where community members can relax, plant, and socialize with neighbors, while at the same time reducing the cost of purchasing produce and providing a healthy source of organic food.
    The issue with community gardens is that they have taken roots in vacant lots – which have remained vacant in the eyes of the city – and therefore has no real governance by the community, even though they may be under the care of a community-based association. There have been numerous instances throughout history of even the most well developed gardens being obliterated in the wake of urban renewal projects. Therefore, rather than solely focusing on alternative solutions to the use of community garden land, our project digs deeper and aims to expose the primary cause of the issue, which is governance. By raising awareness of the significance and the political situation surrounding community gardens, we hope to find a way in which the gardens can gain adequate legal recognition and increase community involvement in the political decisions regarding use of space.
    As a part of our key activities, we had aimed to do more research on the issue of community gardens, focusing on the emergence of the gardens, the legality, the conflicts between affordable housing and the gardens, and potential solutions to raising more awareness of community gardens as well as identifying the gardens as legally used land. Since the last update, the whole team has started more intensive research on a particular aspect of the issue, and we have shared and actively discussed our findings with one another.
    It was found that as early as 1890, gardens sprang up in cities like Detroit. In the U.S., they were leased for short periods because they were meant to temporarily help the poor until they got on their feet. They also formed because people were getting farther away from their food sources as suburbs became more popular and many rural farmers abandoned their farms and moved to cities. This initial movement did not last and did not contribute to the community garden initiative that we see today. Due to growing cities and improving economies, the land that these gardens were on, were reclaimed for development. Although there was talk of making permanent land for community gardens, there was a lack of political support – something the poor had no way of cultivating. By 1898, much of the attention gardens had been receiving died out.
    http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2859&context=etd

    Concerning the legality of community gardens today: 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 before claiming a vacant lot; the land should be surveyed in order to insure that it is suitable for a garden to thrive. While not necessary, it is highly recommended. According to this toolkit, the land owner has the final say in how long the garden will last for, not the gardeners.
    In terms of the conflicts between affordable housing and the gardens: affordable housing and community gardens are compatible. It should not be about an ultimatum on one choice when they can very easily coexist. Bill De Blasio mentioned in his state of the city address, “And as we invest in more affordable housing, we will also work with communities to preserve the fabric of neighborhoods and invest in things that great neighborhoods need…” Therefore, community gardens should not be neglected in this claim. With all of the other available lots in East Harlem, the existing gardens could be protected under a similar plan and affordable housing could be developed in adjacent vacant lots.

    Map for gardens selected for potential housing development: http://596acres.org/media/filer_public/2015/01/27/hpd-rfq-17gardens-by596acres-jan27.pdf

    When it comes to possible solutions:
    The legislation is a first step in recognizing the rights of garden. It requires that community gardens be referred to as such by city officials in land disposition announcements and subsequent hearings, rather than misleadingly as vacant lots or “block and lot” numbers. A document that could become the legislation that creates a set of steps that citizens can take to preserve community gardens or start new ones. The legislation also asks for a ban on developing or disposing of existing community gardens. Once the legislation is in effect, a garden will have to go through a Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) before it can be taken away. ULURP is a comprehensive review involving input from more than one branch of City government. If a garden is to be developed, the proposed legislation mandates that the city find a nearby, alternative site before the garden is cleared. Lastly, this legislation asks the City Council to establish a community garden fund for small grants to community garden groups.

    Meeting with our community contact, Ray Figueroa Reyes, two weeks ago has allowed us to gain insight and focus our project in the right direction. We have been developing our project using Ray’s vision as a guide and have also been trying to set up another meeting with Ray so that we can interview him and possibly other community members who may have experienced the effects of urban planning on community gardens. However, the status on these meet-ups are still pending. We are planning on visiting Nos Quedamos on the 22nd of March to experience the community first-hand and record more footage for the video. We plan to give Ray a call on the 18th if he still has not replied to our emails.
    Looking forward, in addition to the key activities mentioned above, the next steps are to contact our ITF, Aaron, regarding the website we would like to develop to raise awareness about community gardens. We are also looking to attend a forum on public property, which Ray said he would get back to us on. We are aiming to start on the draft of the white paper some time soon as well.
    As for the dynamic of our group, the team is doing very well with splitting up responsibilities and getting things done in the allotted time. We communicate with each other via email to keep each other updated on the project and in the loop and to make sure we know what our upcoming tasks are. We use Google docs to work on tasks together at the same time so that everyone is able to contribute equally, and we decide on a time to meet on Google docs beforehand to use our time most efficiently. The only challenge so far is having 100% attendance when we decide to meet up physically. However, this is due to our large group size and is for the most part inevitable. Yet, every member of the group does their best to make it and is expected to be present for the field site visit to Nos Quedamos.

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    1. Oneeka and All,

      Thank you for the thorough update. It sounds like you are getting ever more engaged with your topic and are making good progress. A few notes:

      – In your very interesting historical overview of the issue (and the first part of your update) it is extremely important that you ground your arguments in the literature- and like we talked about today, distinguishing between general knowledge, the views of particular authors, and your own view. This means not only the use of citations, but also of clearly articulated assumptions and evidence. We’ll talk more about this in class next week.
      -When you say “the legislation” what are you referring to exactly? It is not clear from your update (though sounds like a great thing to be investigating in more detail- who is proposing it? how was it developed? how likely is it to be enacted? if enacted, what will be its potential and its limitations?)
      -On the subject of interviews, which we’ll also talk about in class next week, please be strategic and respectful of people’s time. You might get just one chance to interview Ray and others for that matter, so make sure you’ve given careful thought to your questions! This can be challenging with such a big problem and ambitious project. Same goes for your visit to Nos Quedamos (which sounds great!)- it’s good to have an open eye and ear so you can discover and experience the unexpected- but also to have some specific goals and questions for your visit.
      -I’m really glad that you plan to meet with Aaron to discuss your plans for the community engagement piece and look forward to hearing how that goes.

      Keep up the great work!

      Hillary

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  10. Hi team.

    Please see below for some notes that might be helpful for your white paper. They were written by Paula Segal from 596 Acres for NYCCLI, which is developing a policy platform around various forms of community land. Please review and take into account! ….

    Most neighborhoods have these 3 categories of public land:

    – Public Lots With No Known Use
    – Lots being Used as Open Space Not in Parks Inventory
    – Lots being Used as Community Gardens in Parks Inventory (these have air rights, which makes gardeners nervous)

    For each category, we could be asking for the following dispositions:

    Public Lots With No Known Use: NYCCLI could ask that these be withheld from private disposition and transferred to CLTs as they develop locally.

    Lots being Used as Open Space Not in Parks Inventory: NYCCLI could ask that these be withheld from private disposition and transferred to CLTs. The CLTs would then determine for each property whether the best use is to actually build housing on that lot and displace/replace/put on the roof the garden, or to use the unbuilt FAR of the property to increase the size of another building in the district. Unbuilt FAR can already be transferred to the neighboring parcel if the CLT owns it or if a neighbor wants to buy the airrights from the CLT. A new Special District would need to be created by City Planning to allow transfer of the airrights to another parcel in the District.

    Lots being Used as Community Gardens in Parks Inventory: NYCCLI could ask that the City transfer the rights to the unbuilt FAR above these properties to a CLT. Where a CLT is the owner (or poised to become the owner) of a neighboring property, that property could legally recieve the rights with no need for futher changes. In order for the CLT to be able to transfer the airrights from the City to lots that are not adjascent to these City-owned parcels, a new Special District will need to be created by City Planning that allows such transfers. THE USE OF THESE PARCELS WILL NOT CHANGE. THEY WILL REMAIN GARDENS. THE CITY WILL REMAIN THE OWNER AND PARKS DEPARTMENT WILL RETAIN JURISDICTION. This will also the resolve gardeners’ insecurity about having development rights dangling above their heads on gardens that are in every other way protected.

    Here’s how this breaks down for actual properties in East Harlem (CB11): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mc5sMr3QffJo0EsWVdyIXqasdNYaPOaw_u0sttnk3Ts/

    As we know, no one is making any more land!

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