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A Queens community garden said its members must be anti-Zionist. Now it's facing eviction.
By
Liam Quigley
Published May 13, 2025
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Sunset Community Garden
By
Liam Quigley
Published May 13, 2025
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The city is moving to uproot the organizers of a Queens community garden who required prospective members to sign a “statement of values” that included a commitment to opposing Zionism, homophobia and transphobic behavior.
Parks department officials wrote in an April 16 letter that the leaders of Sunset Community Garden in Ridgewood violated guidelines by imposing a “litmus test” and “improper requirement” on garden members.
“Our decision to terminate the garden group’s license agreement has nothing to do with anyone’s political beliefs or gender expression,” said Margaret Nelson, a deputy commissioner at the parks department.
“This is about ensuring that our community gardens are responsibly managed and accessible as public spaces. We never want a termination, but the group’s leadership has repeatedly refused to work with us on their outstanding issues.”
The city rarely moves to expel the local groups operating more than 500 community gardens. A parks official said the last terminations came in 2016 and 2022, when organizers were booted for marijuana plants growing in the greenspaces. The fight over Sunset Community Garden, however, touches on activism surrounding Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Nastazia Kielar, a Queens native who’s been involved with the garden for three years, argued the statement of values was in keeping with a long tradition of activism rooted in the city’s community gardens.
“So many community members see Zionism as a form of colonization still that's happening right now in the Middle East,” she said.
Kielar said that the garden was being treated unfairly. After members removed references to “community values” from the garden’s bylaws, she said the parks department seized on an altar to trans activist Cecilia Gentili, who died last year.
The altar to trans activist Ciceclia Gentili.
Sunset Community Garden
Kielar said garden community members created the altar because they sympathized with Gentili’s advocacy for undocumented immigrants. The small display features a drawing of Gentili surrounded by a tile mosaic and candles.
But parks officials wrote the garden did not have a license for the art installation. An agency spokesperson also said the memorial must comply with a standard 20-year waiting period for memorials to deceased individuals on public property – including in public park space.
The garden attracted scrutiny from the New York Post last year. The Post reported that garden members were asked to use people’s preferred gender pronouns and that the group’s now-private Instagram page was full of pro-Palestinian messaging.
Kielar said members faced online harassment following the report, including a threatening comment that bombs would be planted in garden plots.
Kielar said that police showed up at the garden on May 8 saying they were responding to a complaint about a protest, which she found intimidating.
“ We're not sure if the precinct has just been made aware with our termination or with our issues with parks, and as of now is just trying to surveil us and intimidate us. I'm starting to feel less and less safe in this space,” she said.
“ Parks wants to shut us down because of an art piece.”
Parks department officials said that the agency will seek new operators so that the space remains open to the public.
Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez, who represents Queens, said that the garden took years of work to establish and called on the city to work with organizers to keep the space open.
“What we’ve heard from the garden’s stewards are troubling accounts of targeting and harassment. What we’ve heard from everyone is a desire to participate freely in caring for and enjoying this shared space,” she said.
“We need to come together to find a path forward that ensures long-term stewardship, safety and openness for all. I truly hope we can get there.”
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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