Council Nixes Bronx Gardens

With kind words about the value of the spaces and the significant contributions that the gardeners have made to life in our city, the City Council land use committee voted to allow 10 gardens in one south Bronx neighborhood to be destroyed.

At a Dec. 14 meeting in City Hall, with Bronx gardeners watching, Councilmembers promised to attempt to find alternate spaces for new gardens, even as they processed the application that would hand the gardens over to developers.

“Achieving Balance,” a new report prepared by Design Trust for Public Space, Bronx Community Board 3 and Trust for Public Land, notes that the South Bronx is not lacking in blighted lots. “It is past time to challenge HPD to do better than package the gardens with other development sites,” said Councilmember Adolfo Carrion, who with two other committee members voted against destruction.

Meanwhile, the gardeners continue to rely on state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to support their efforts. Until the present judicial hold is lifted, the bulldozers cannot destroy a single green oasis. Reprinted with permission from Urban Outdoors. www.tree-branch.com. For more information about the struggle to save the Bronx gardens, contact Bronx United Gardeners at (718) 665-3727or zbellola@hotmail.com.