Lower East Side Gardens Under Siege
by Gregory Heller

The battle cry has been sounded, the flags and embattlements are raised. Fort Chico Mendez (formerly "the Chico Mendez Mural Garden") has announced it is seceding from the United States and is seeking asylum from the Brazilian Embassy. "It may sound crazy, but this is the Lower East Side," announced Jeff Wright, the garden's social director, on Nov. 24. The Mendez Garden (named for Brazilian activist Chico Mendes), on East 11th Street between Avenues A and B, and three other community gardens nearby are threatened with imminent demolition for "middle-income" housing. The gardeners, along with the Lower East Side Collective and the NYC Coalition for The Preservation of Gardens, have sued the city to prevent the demolition. The case is still in court, but there is no restraining order to stop the "Del Este Village" developer, BFC Partners, from moving in. Activists have been on guard 24 hours a day to protect the gardens, and have so far not allowed BFC on the Mendez site.

The planned Del Este Village is a government-subsidized "middle income" condominium project sponsored by the New York City Housing Partnership and Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development, a nonprofit group with strong ties to lame-duck City Councilmember Antonio Pagan. It would consist of 98 duplexes spread out over six sites, which are now four gardens and two vacant lots. The apartments would cost between $103,000 and $159,000—-after a $40,000 federal subsidy-with mortgage and maintenance charges estimated at about $1,200 to $1,800 a month. The units are intended for people making $43,000 to $70,000 a year, but some can be sold to people making more than that if they don't take the subsidy. The median income in the surrounding neighborhood is under $25,000.

The gardens, on city-owned land, were once rat-infested, garbage-strewn vacant lots. They are among almost 800 in the city, more than half of which may be slated for development by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Five gardens on West 122nd Street in Harlem are also in imminent danger.

BFC head Donald Capoccia, who stands to pocket $1 million from the Del Este Village project, was one of scores of developers whose illegal donations to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's re-election campaign were returned for being in excess of the legal limit. According to campaign-finance reports obtained by the Shadow newspaper, BFC gave at least $10,000 to Giuliani, well over the $7,700 limit. It has also been a key Pagan supporter, contributing over $4,000 to his fourth-place run for Manhattan Borough President. So instead of choosing from the 11,000 truly vacant lots scattered around the city, HPD has decided to give away four community gardens and two lots in the densely populated Lower East Side for an estimated cost of $39,000. According to the 1995 Governor's Report on Open Space, the neighborhood has about .7 acres of open space per 1,000 persons, less than half the city-wide ratio of 1.5 acres. The report recommended 2.5 acres per 1,000 people as optimal green space.