It’s a crucial moment in the fight to save Elizabeth Street Garden. A hearing for the appeal against a decision to allow the city to evict and close the garden was heard last week, and the jury is literally out. Will the eccentric, much-loved and—most importantly—much-used garden be saved, or will it be lost forever to development? As a former resident who would make detours just to pass this intriguing space, I can say that this isn’t just a knee-jerk “not in my backyard” reaction. The fact is: This is the only park in Little Italy and SoHo that is not paved over. For every one thousand people in this district, there is 0.7 acres of “green” space, or three square feet per person.
When I lived on Mulberry Street, the former school playground wasn’t open to the public, but just gazing at the non-municipal collection of Belle Epoque ephemera (mixed with pieces of covetable wire furniture), lifted my claustrophobia in these mean streets, immortalized on film by Martin Scorsese, a supporter of the garden. And greenery, as we know, is vitally important for keeping people sane.
Here is a quick update.
Photography by Valery Rizzo, for Gardenista.
Above: A ghostly reminder of New York’s more glorious past, much of the statuary and ironwork in the garden was salvaged from Gilded Age mansions, upstate and on Long Island.
The statistic that this part of the Lower East Side has one of the lowest ratios of public open space in the city is a reminder that it scrambled into existence before the planning foresight of Frederick Law Olmsted and others. The street grid that progressed up the island of Manhattan allowed the construction of Central Park, which, I used to know too well, is quite a distance from Little Italy. Downtown, green amenities were almost non-existent; more a case of How the Other Have Lives than chi-chi “NoLita.”
Above: The garden was initially rented from the city by antique dealer Allan Reiver. He cleared out the abandoned lot, planted trees, and distributed his “stock” around the place, in a fairly random fashion.
Sitting on my fire escape above Mulberry and Spring Streets in the early 1990s, I could see the comings and goings of the Spring Lounge across the way but also a little cement park, where some older residents played checkers. There was not much shade and not much else going on besides constant trash collections. For people who didn’t have a weekend escape (most residents at the time), the amenities were somewhat lacking.
Above: A gazebo that Allan Reiver rescued from a dismantled estate overlooking the Hudson. It had been part of a landscape by the Olmsted Brothers.
Since my time in Little Italy, it has gone from being an area of affordable housing to one of the “wealthiest parts of the city,” according to the New York Times. Which is one reason that it is being asked to pull its weight in terms of affordable housing provision now. What goes around comes around.
Above: There is nothing grand about this garden, although some of its pieces started off that way.
Joseph Reiver, executive director of the volunteer-run, non-profit Elizabeth Street Garden, is the son of the garden’s founder. His lawsuit against the city was filed as a challenge under state environmental laws. The land is currently leased from the city; the ambition is to save it into perpetuity by transferring it as a Conservation Land Trust.
Above: The garden’s furnishings are not for sale. It was made easily accessible to the pubic about 12 years ago, after being threatened by the city.
“When I was growing up, Little Italy was more or less a concrete jungle,” wrote Martin Scorsese in a letter to Mayor Adams in the summer. “We used to play in the alleys. There was no shade, no greenery, no respite.”
Above: After being offered to the neighborhood as a park amenity, instead of being an overspill showroom of Allan Reiver’s antique store on Elizabeth Street (with access through the store) the garden has been a huge hit.
“The makeup of Little Italy may be different,” continued Scorsese in his letter to the Mayor. “But the need for a beautiful, refreshing oasis like the Elizabeth Street Garden has not changed. I wish it had been there when I was young.”
Above: Light, space, and in summer, greenery, at Elizabeth Street Garden in lower Manhattan.
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