Protesters Gather at City Hall to Preserve Elizabeth Street Garden
The rally was organized in response to development plans announced last week.
Nearly 100 community members and supporters of the Elizabeth Street Garden gathered on the steps of City Hall on Monday afternoon to protest the city’s move to demolish the garden to build affordable housing. A development plan for the garden was selected Thursday night and residents, including former City Council Candidate Christopher Marte, announced the rally on Twitter the next morning.
Elizabeth Street Garden is one of the few green spaces in the Little Italy neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. It is a privately leased space that operates as a public park and a community meeting place. The garden also was at the center of November’s city council District 1 race, with Christopher Marte in support of preserving the garden and Margaret Chin, the incumbent, in favor of developing housing on the land.
As attendees waited outside the gates of City Hall with their signs, one man walked past the group and said, “Great idea to stop affordable housing! Good work,” before moving on.
Answering similar criticisms, Terri Cude, Chair of Community Board 2 spoke to the crowd. “There’s a win-win outcome here. We have a plan to preserve our green space and provide more affordable housing and that’s what we’re here to fight for.”
Councilwoman Margaret Chin ran on a platform that prioritized affordable housing, but supporters of the garden argue that other larger, undeveloped spaces in the area, such as that on 388 Hudson, will provide more units without sacrificing green space.
“We are in the middle of a crisis,” Emily Hellström, a garden volunteer said in an impassioned speech. “But it’s not just one. We don’t have the luxury of having one crisis at a time. No, we have an affordability crisis and an environmental crisis and how dare [critics] say that one is more important than the other.”
Christopher Marte, a former candidate for City Council District 1, also attended the protest and spoke briefly to NYU Local. “The community mobilized extremely quickly, like they always have,” Marte said outside the gates of City Hall. “I think we already have a pretty good group assembled here today. It’s really incredible.”
Moving forward, supporters of the garden want to direct their focus to outreach. Corin Deacetis, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years, had ideas about how to spread the word. “Seeing that the garden is the next thing to go is really upsetting,” she told Local. “A lot of people are aware of it but I don’t think enough people are to make the change that needs to happen. I think a big push would be to get social media involved, maybe get some bloggers who focus on New York City to cover it and write more about it.”
On Twitter, volunteers and supporters have used the hashtag #SaveESG to make their voices heard.
“We are here on these steps today because Elizabeth Street Garden matters. Because our community matters,” said Hellström. “You’ve heard the numbers and the statistics, the figures and open space ratios, but what you need to know is that those numbers are actually people. They are these people.”
