NYC sells community gardens NEW YORK (AP) - Singer Bette Midler teamed with conservancy groups Wednesday to keep the city from auctioning off 115 city-owned lots that residents had transformed from trash-strewn eyesores into lush gardens. Midler contributed $250,000 of her own money and got others to put up $4 million more to buy all the gardens, said Roberta Greene, a spokeswoman for the New York Restoration Project. The lots had been slated for sale Thursday, before Midler, the New York Restoration Project and the Trust for Public Land stepped in. Midler started the New York Restoration Project in 1994. The community gardens began springing up in New York about 25 years ago, when residents tired of the trash-strewn lots and illegal dumping grounds scattered around the city. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559525622-48c>
