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The Elizabeth Street Garden will be open at least until February, organizers say
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Nov 3, 2024
Modified Nov 4, 2024
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via Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Nov 3, 2024
Modified Nov 4, 2024
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Although it faced eviction last month, Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden will stay open at least until February, according to the nonprofit organization that runs it.
The garden, near the borders of Little Italy and Soho, is embroiled in a yearslong legal battle with the city, which owns the land and wants to build affordable housing for seniors on the plot.
Last week, a judge delayed its eviction until the appeal is heard; the case is currently scheduled for the February 2025 term.
Tensions reached a fever pitch last month when the garden was served an eviction notice on Oct. 2, giving organizers 14 days to vacate the garden. Those plans were delayed by two weeks on Oct. 16. And last week, a judge granted them the stay.
Joseph Reiver, the garden’s executive director, said supporters are “cautiously optimistic.”
“We expect the city to be ruthless — they've been ruthless up until this point, but it gives the community a lot of hope,” he said in a phone interview Sunday. “So many people have come into the garden and written to us and just been so grateful that they have more time to spend in the garden.”
Critics of the garden, which was established 1991, say that it was not made available to the public until about a decade ago, when the city began making plans to build affordable housing on the site.
A City Hall spokesperson, William Fowler, said the city remained "undeterred and will continue this decades-long fight for what is right and what is needed — housing for some of our most vulnerable neighbors.”
“As over 2,100 seniors sleep in shelters tonight, the well-housed plaintiffs and attorneys behind the Elizabeth Street Garden can rest well tonight knowing they have prevented the city from building affordable housing for seniors and public green space for at least another few months," Fowler said.
Reiver said the stay gives organizers more time to work on alternative proposals they hope to present to the city — he said they have already identified two sites in the same district where housing could be built.
“The Mayor and the 1st Deputy Mayor can still choose to work with us on developing the private site proposal in order to provide the needed affordable housing at no expense to the community whatsoever,” his group said in a Facebook post Friday.
The mayor's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
This story has been updated to include a comment from a City Hall spokesperson, and to clarify the location of the Elizabeth Street Garden.
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