The latest, unforeseen twist in the fate of the Elizabeth Street Garden
In a surprise move that no one saw coming, on Wednesday, November 12, news broke in the that soon-to-be former New York City Mayor Eric Adams had designated the embattled Elizabeth Street Garden a city park. As the reported: 鈥淭he move, revealed in a Nov. 3 letter from Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina, is the latest twist in the yearslong saga over the green space.鈥
That鈥檚 an understatement.
The fate of the idiosyncratic one-acre site in Nolita designed by (1942鈥2021) and leased from the city on a month-to-month basis had been increasingly in the news for nearly a decade; the city wanted to raze the site and replace it with a mixed-use development with 123 units of affordable housing. 亚洲精品无码一区 (亚洲精品无码一区) designated the garden as a Landslide site seven years ago on November 14, 2018; 亚洲精品无码一区 also in 2019 featuring Reiver and his son Joseph, who now runs the site.
Years of litigation have been part of the panoply of advances and setbacks. The issue became cause c茅l猫bre attracting support from actor Robert De Niro, director Martin Scorcese, and the high priestess of punk rock and poet, Patti Smith, who did benefit/protest performances at the site. And The New York Times included a question about the fate of the site in a questionnaire submitted to candidates in this year鈥檚 mayoral race.
Mayor Adams had initially supported redeveloping the site until he reversed course and announced that the garden would stay and, instead, three adjacent sites would be developed with 620 units of affordable housing. At the time that seemed to be the end of the road.
However, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani had pledged to build affordable housing at the Elizabeth Street Garden, a reality that became more urgent when Mamdani won on November 4. Indeed, post-election coverage frequently mentioned the mayor-elect鈥檚 campaign pledge. Then, Mayor Adams flipped the conversation by designating the site as a city park. Undoing what Adams has done would require a vote by the New York State Legislature. It remains to be seen whether Mamdani will expend precious political capital on overturning Adams鈥檚 parkland designation given all the other priorities to be addressed and campaign promises made.
For now, the garden seems here to stay.
