A belated re-posting from Black Urban Growers (BUGS):
PRESS RELEASEContact:Karen Washington, BUGs Council MemberFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 10, 2015Black Urban Growers Joins Fight to Save NYC Community GardensBlack Urban Growers (BUGs) joins the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) in urging the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to halt the indiscriminate sale and destruction of seventeen community gardens located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Despite an inventory of over 750 properties, the HPD lists the seventeen community garden lots as available sites for development in its most recent RFQ for the New Infill Home Ownership Opportunities Program (NIHOP) and Neighborhood Construction Program (NCP). While BUGs is one hundred percent supportive of the Mayor’s aggressive commitment to provide 200,000 units of affordable housing within five years, the organization recommends it be done through creative comprehensive planning that values community gardens and the multiple benefits to neighborhoods that they provide.
“Community gardens are at the forefront of the resurgence of urban agriculture and the redemption of these neighborhoods that are now attracting development. Located in mostly low income and working class neighborhoods of color, community gardens have contributed to building vibrant communities. Neighbors came together and took devastation and despair and turned it into resiliency and prosperity,” stated Karen Washington, Urban Farmer, Community Activist and recipient of the 2014 James Beard Leadership Award.
Community gardens contribute to the environmental and social wellbeing in many ways including:1. Crime reduction, through alternatives-to-incarceration programs for formerly-incarcerated youth and youth who are court-adjudicated
2. Economic development, through market programs
3. Increased property values
4. Value-added education resources for local under-resourced schools
5. Heat island mitigation
6. Oxygenation and air filtration
7. Storm water run-off mitigation
8. Carbon sequestration
9. Increasing localized food production
10. Providing sites for active organic waste processing
“We urge HPD and the Mayor de Blasio to recognize the various ways in which community gardens contribute to the sustainability and resiliency of our communities,” said Ray Figueroa, President of the New York City Community Garden Coalition.
BUGs members support the preservation of communities and their community gardens as a way of affirming the human rights and self-determination of all people. Development does not and cannot justify destruction of these valuable community spaces, especially in neighborhoods where they were created as courageous responses to the economic violence of unemployment and poverty. With over 750 properties in its inventory, the HPD has plenty of non-garden properties that can be allocated for affordable housing.
“We join the NYCCGC and our fellow community gardeners in urging HPD and Mayor de Blasio to remove all active community gardens from the HPD development list. We are confident that it is within the city’s means to come up with a plan that properly balances the needs for affordable housing without sacrificing the need for community gardens,” said Karen Washington.
