Ending a Long Battle, New York Lets Housing and Gardens Grow By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
protracted dispute between New York City and hundreds of community gardeners ended yesterday when the city agreed to preserve some 500 community gardens and use others to build more than 2,000 apartments during the next year, a 20 percent increase over the normal production of city-sponsored housing. Advertisement Under the agreement announced yesterday between Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the New York State attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, community gardens in neighborhoods around the city will be left alone to sprout grass, violets and the random ear of corn, while scores of others will be razed, with new low-income housing units going up in their place. "Our hope is that this satisfies everybody to the extent that they can be satisfied," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday during a news conference at City Hall. Garden advocates, who have battled the city for years to keep community gardens from being turned over to developers, by and large echoed the sentiment. "It is not perfect," said Rose Harvey, the senior vice president at the Trust for Public Land, a conservation organization that purchased some community gardens in 1999, in a telephone interview. "But perfect is usually the enemy of the possible." The compromise marks the end of a quintessential New York drama, pitting the two most common objects of longing for many New Yorkers � housing and unfettered green spaces � against each other, and featuring some of the city's most irascible characters. The key protagonist was former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who wanted to put an end to the hundreds of gardens that dot the city's landscape, arguing that what the city needed was housing on those plots of land. On the other side were the garden supporters, belonging to organizations with names like Green Guerrillas, whose love of plants was so intense that they were willing to descend on City Hall dressed as vegetables or insects to make their point. That group has its own heroes � Mr. Spitzer, who brought his own lawsuit against the city in 1999 to prevent it from auctioning garden land to the highest bidder, and the singer Bette Midler, who stepped in with millions of dollars to save scores of gardens that same year. But the Bloomberg administration, which has made settling the last administration's lawsuits a priority, was more open to a compromise with the green thumb crowd, which helped pave the way for yesterday's agreement, Mr. Spitzer said. "I will say affirmatively that we have had a good working relationship with Mayor Bloomberg and his counsel," Mr. Spitzer said. More than two decades ago community groups were granted permission to transform vacant lots, which over the years had become city property, into garden spaces. Hundreds of gardens sprouted around the city in many forms, ranging from the successful, spectacular stretches of kale-toned respite, to the failures: garbage-strewn, rodent-infested eyesores that attracted unsavory activities. Many gardens provided an oasis in the city's poorest neighborhoods, where there are few city parks. But the agreement between community groups and the city was not permanent, and Mr. Giuliani let it be known that he thought the lots ought to be turned over to the highest bidder, which was unlikely to be a group of urban gardeners. The result was a series of lawsuits, a restraining order against the city that prevented it from auctioning several gardens and Mr. Spitzer's suit, which essentially paralyzed any development the city had planned. The New York Restoration Project � Ms. Midler's group � and the Trust for Public Land purchased more than 100 sites in 1999 for $4.2 million, which will be maintained as community gardens. The settlement yesterday concludes all the current litigation against the city on matters of gardening, city officials said. Under the agreement, roughly 200 city gardens owned and run by city agencies (mostly the Parks Department and the Department of Education) will remain gardens, in addition to those run by the nonprofit groups. Another 200 gardens will be offered to the Parks Department without charge, or to nonprofit groups for what the city described as a "nominal fee." Those groups will be compelled to raise the money needed to maintain the gardens and to complete any capital projects needed. But more than 150 parcels are slated for private development of low-income housing, some of it immediately. The New York City Partnership, for instance, was waiting to develop 546 units at eight sites affected by the lawsuit. All but 83 of those units can now move forward in their partnership with the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. "After a delay of more than three years, we are pleased that 463 units of affordable homes in the Housing Partnership pipeline can move forward as a result of this settlement," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the partnership. Residents near a garden slated for development on East Sixth Street between Avenues C and D were displeased to hear of its fate, and offered their own theories as to why it would soon be replaced with 75 units of housing. Manuel Valentine stared forlornly at a chicken strutting around the Sixth Street garden, where other neighbors were busy cooking dinner. "We're going to find you a new home now," he told the chicken. Godofredo Crespo, 50, for instance, said he suspected that a neighboring garden on Ninth Street might have been spared because of its rare willow trees. Christine Thaleman stood with her 7-week-old baby and 2-year-old in the Ninth Street spot, at Avenue C, and said that it provided a bit of countryside in the middle of the East Village. "I think the garden is the only reason I am in this area," she said of the land, where it costs $25 a year to be a member. Ms. Thaleman grows tomatoes and arugula and asparagus there. Any plots to be developed will go through a public review process, officials said. That Mr. Bloomberg was able to settle a long term street fight in a matter of months is in keeping with the administration's penchant for forming cozy relationships � at least at the outset � with some of Mr. Giuliani's adversaries. Jane Weissman, former director of Green Thumb, the city's community gardening program, said yesterday that the settlement's provision for a review process at least sets the terms for any future fights. "It preserves almost 200 community gardens," she said, "but even more important, it sets out a process that's fair, that's equitable, that is going to provide notification and will give gardeners a chance to find support for their gardens."
