ELIZABETH STREET GARDEN

The Real Crime is Homelessness

By Alec Pruchnicki, MD

ENTRANCE TO M’FINDA KALUNGA COMMUNITY GARDEN inside Sara Roosevelt Park, a few blocks from the Elizabeth Street Garden. Photo by Alec Pruchnicki.

The NIMBY opponents of housing on Elizabeth Street recently won another court victory and the eviction of the Elizabeth Street Garden (ESG) was set for October 31. Perhaps the touching letter writing campaign of children and the advocacy of celebrities helped preserve the garden, but they didn’t do anything to help the homeless people who could be living there, if housing ever gets built.

Recently, lots of new arguments have been made to preserve the garden. Here are a few.

The ESG is essential for the well being of neighborhood children. They just can’t live without it. Not only are there at least five playgrounds within walking distance of Elizabeth Street but these playgrounds were almost always packed with children while none were at the garden. Kids like playgrounds, not sitting on the grass gazing at antique statuary. For example, one garden supporter said that children from PS 130 on Baxter need the garden for recreation and it’s closing would somehow irreparably damage them. Apparently, they can walk seven blocks to the garden but not two or three more blocks to the Liz Christy Garden or M’finda Kalunga Garden or three blocks to the playground in Columbus Park. I’ve also documented 400,000 square feet of open space, of one type or another, near the garden, compared to its 20,000.

Metaphorically speaking, the loss of this space has been designated a “crime.” (“Is It a Crime to Destroy Recreational Space?” Village View, September 2024.) The land was originally donated to the city in 1853 with deed restrictions requiring it be used for recreation, with various restriction updates over the years. Things have changed a lot since 1853 when deed restrictions contained racial and religious clauses, not to mention the needs of the city changing dramatically. But over the years numerous courts have held that the original restrictions can be overturned for both the land that the adjacent LIRA housing sits on and the ESG itself. Whether it is a loophole in the original deed restrictions, zoning changes, city needs, etc., courts have held that the original restrictions can be overturned. So, this is not a literal crime.

Is it a metaphorical crime to eliminate open space? Maybe so, everything else being equal. But everything else is not equal when at least 130,000 people are living in shelters and others on our streets, subways, prisons, and hospitals (coalitionforthehomeless.org). And remember, it wasn’t always like this. Before the 1980s and the Reagan administration, there was much less homelessness, according to reputable organizations like the Coalition for the Homeless and others. That we have been unable or unwilling to solve this problem over 40 years is the real crime.

Christopher Marte, the city council person for Little Italy, has always been an advocate for the garden by being opposed to housing. He, and others, have always talked about alternative sites for housing. But these are either designated for other housing, unavailable, or inadequate (388 Hudson, Federal Garage on Howard Street, 371 Bowery, respectively). He recently said that he was in touch with private developers who would be willing to build similar housing on their property, but no details are available. Are these real proposals or just a “concept” of a proposal? And, of course, starting new projects from zero would take years or decades compared to the housing that can start on Elizabeth Street immediately.

Speaking of alternatives, garden supporters advocate for alternative housing sites, but never alternative sites for the garden. The time, hard work, and money spent on the ESG could be used at the gardens mentioned above. But no, every pebble at ESG must remain exactly intact with no change whatsoever.

There is one alternative to the ESG that its supporters never address, and that is the ESG itself. According to the Haven Green projections (havengreencommunity.nyc), after construction there will be 16,000 square feet of space, maintenance of the garden by the Haven Green staff, and an expansion of hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the six warmest months, and sunrise to dusk all other months.

I have proposed an additional expansion of the new and improved post-Haven Green ESG by putting a patio on the roof and making arrangements for some public access. I asked an architect friend if it was feasible and he directed me to Roof Explorers Guide, 101 New York City Rooftops by Leslie Adatto 2014, which described a wide variety of rooftops across New York City. I spoke to several contractors and they also said it was feasible. A rooftop patio would give ESG more open space than it has now and it would be seven stories up and away from street noise and dirt.

Incidentally, the architect who recommended that book was Brian Pape, who wrote the “Is It a Crime…” article which I have been criticizing. He and many other ESG supporters know that changing the ESG is not the same as “destroying” it, a word they love to use. We can have a new, and possibly improved ESG and housing together but only if we build housing on Elizabeth Street—and do it right away.