In the face of adversity, Lower East Siders have risen again to fight against what some call the “cultural genocide� caused by gentrification. The recent development of broad-based activist coalitions almost parallels that of a decade earlier. The activist population is somewhat of an anomaly. Today’s community activists, ironically, are representative of some of the earlier waves of gentrification. They are overwhelmingly white, educated young people, and artists.
Local activists have moved a little closer to electoral politics since 1997. On the LES, many anti-gentrification groups and individuals united to back City Council candidate Margarita Lopez. Lopez had a long history in the activist community advocating for low-income housing and minority rights. She was one of the original members of the JPC and was instrumental in getting minority representation on Community Board 3. The summer of 1997 galvanized political support for community garden preservation. Many candidates for Council, Borough President and Mayor held rallies in community gardens around the city. Those who were elected, or re-elected, Council Member Thomas K. Duane (for State Assembly), Council Member Lopez, and Borough President C. Virginia Fields, have all advocated for garden preservation. Although battles have been lost such as those over Del Este Village and the Suffolk Street Project, there has been mounting support to stop the sale and transfer of community gardens. The New York City Housing Partnership abandoned future development plans for the LES in 1998 citing community resistance as the cause. A few gardens such as Green Oasis (8th St. between Avenues C and D), 6BC Botanical (6th St. between Avenues B and C), and 6B (6th St. at Avenue B) have even been transferred back to the Parks Department as permanent sites. The Community Board and Parks Department have recommended other gardens for permanent status. In many cases, the Giuliani administration has not yet honored these recommendations and is continuing its plans to sell off many of the sites (PC Perin, PC Wright).
Opposition to the disposition of gardens has taken many forms. At a November 1998 land auction held by the Department of citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), protestors from a group calling itself “Jimminy Cricket� released 10,000 live crickets. The action garnered news coverage in all mediums. In addition, Council members and state representatives have been hard at work drafting legislation to prevent further sale of community gardens. Brooklyn borough president Howard Golden released a report showing that auctioned city-owned land often remains fallow for many years. In the case of auctioned gardens, they revert to the trash-strewn lots gardeners worked so hard to transform. In February 1999, the More Gardens! Coalition staged a walk out of a DCAS hearing for a May auction. After leaving the hearing room, the protesters occupied the City Hall rotunda and sang pro-garden songs. Some of these demonstrators, many of who worn bug and plant costumes, were arrested.
On April 11th 1999, Reclaim the Streets, a group that contests the privatization of public space, took over a section of Avenue A, transforming it into a garden with potted plants, see-saws, music, and dance for several hours before being dispersed by the police. A day earlier, pro-garden groups from around the country staged a rally in Bryant Park as part of a weekend conference under the title “Standing our Ground�. A critical mass of support has developed in the last two years for public space and gardens. In April of 1999 the Giuliani administration rejected a $2 million offer from the Trust for Public Land to buy 135 community gardens (including 115 slated for May auction) but later reached a deal with the New York Restoration Project. At a time when the city has a multi-billion dollar budget surplus, the argument that these properties must be returned to private hands and the tax rolls cannot justify the sale of precious open spaces rather than their preservation. The administration also argues that the need for housing is too great to permit the use of these properties for anything but housing. Some of the properties intended for sale are too small to be built on under today’s zoning regulations (4,000 square feet), and as the Golden Report showed, many auctioned properties are not developed for housing after they are sold. Future city actions around this explosive issue are unpredictable, and there is a sense in the garden community today that anything can happen. Garden supporters have vowed to fight any threats to community gardens, and their numbers are growing inside and outside city government. Instead of breaking up the social movement, gardeners and open space activists have become “united by a common deprivation or threat of deprivation to the neighborhood� (Cloward and Piven, p. 19). Once again the real estate interest-serving politicians and planners in government underestimated residents’ attachment and commitment to their neighborhoods