An Underused POPS

The Monterey Public Garden is a privately-owned public space (POPS) located on the north side of East 96th street alongside its namesake, the Monterey Luxury Apartment complex. POPS found their start after the 1961 Zoning Resolution, which provided certain incentives to real estate developers who provided public space within their developments. POPS are a telltale sign of high-density real estate development, but who is – or isn’t – using these spaces?

The Monterey building is noticeably shiny and new, and stands tall in a neighborhood already inching toward the sky. The Public Garden sits just to the west of the complex, partially in its shadow and recessed a few feet into the ground. It is highly organized, with four square gardens that, in late March, were only sporting some well-kept hedges and just a few green buds poking out of the ground – one would assume the park boasts more attractive plant life in the late spring and summer.

The Garden has ample seating, with several benches comfortably spaced a few yards away from each other along the perimeter and along the west side of the Monterey. It also provides a good mix of sun and shade, from both the nearby tall buildings and the numerous trees planted around the Garden. I was able to spent two periods of 45 minutes at the Garden, and both visits yielded similar results.

My first visit, at 8 AM on a Wednesday morning, was spent completely in solitude. Around thirty to forty people passed by over the course of my stay, presumably on their way to work or school, and some made a brief stop to buy fruit from the cart situated outside the borders of the park on the street, but none entered. Accounting for the fact that most school and work days start in between the hours of 8 and 9 AM, my solitude was not terribly surprising. Instead of people-watching, as I had hoped, I focused instead on the grounds themselves.

The Monterey Public Garden is the neatest public space I have ever entered. There was not a single piece of litter on the ground, all of the benches looked brand-new, and even the trash cans looked clean – these held true for my second visit, as well. This is evidence of a perk of POPS: the site maintenance is usually provided by the private owner, who has more at stake in letting their property deteriorate.

The following day, Thursday, I returned to my park bench to spend a brief lunch break and stayed from 12:45 to 1:30 PM. It was a beautiful day, I was among a handful of people spending their lunch hours taking in the sun. Counting myself as an individual, eleven people visited the park during my stay – two trios, one pair, and three individuals – and all were adults enjoying some kind of meal before taking off.

Notably, none of my fellow diners bought fruit from the nearby stand except me (I can’t resist some fresh green grapes) and people who walked by the park, but didn’t take a seat. I ended up staying longer than all of the other visitors, and I entered and left a completely empty park. Similarly to previous day, the Garden was immaculate throughout my stay, and all of the visitors used the trash cans provided or took their leftovers with them.

The Monterey Public Garden serves its purpose well, but would benefit by being more obviously public and bearing larger signage indicating its purpose. Its ownership by a luxury apartment complex, coupled with its most frequent visitors being almost exclusively businesspeople, might seem a little off-putting to passers-by who may be unsure of whether or not they are welcome. The Garden is pristine, but this may also deter potential visitors who may think the grounds are not open to the public at all.

This POPS, like any other, is a clear indicator of gentrification in East Harlem, but it was difficult for me to paint a complete picture of the Monterey’s role in the evolution of the area or the neighborhood’s opinion of the Garden during the brief time I spent there. In any case, my observations at the Monterey Public Garden indicate that it is underused for the purpose for which it was designed – to be a sitting space open to any and all passers-by, not just Monterey residents or workers.