{"id":9282,"date":"2025-06-23T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9282\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T23:49:08","slug":"elizabeth-street-garden-saved-in-deal-with-nyc-after-decade-long-fight-to-preserve-beloved-green-space-basking-in-the-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9282\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Street Garden saved in deal with NYC after decade-long fight to preserve beloved green space: \u2018Basking in the joy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was no garden variety standoff.<\/p>\n

Nolita\u2019s beloved\u00a0Elizabeth Street Garden<\/a>\u00a0was saved in a deal with City Hall announced Monday \u2014 but there\u2019s a catch in the deal to end the 12-year battle to spare the greenspace from the wrecking ball.<\/p>\n

The garden had been scheduled to be paved over for senior housing but the city has agreed to build 600 affordable units at three alternative locations though the deal is contingent on rezoning some of those properties, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a combination of a lot of things,\u201d said Joseph Reiver, executive director of the Elizabeth Street Garden of the effort to spare the spot. \u201cI think there were a million pieces that made this beautiful puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elizabeth Street Garden in Nolita in Lower Manhattan. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n

New Yorkers enjoy the Elizabeth Street Garden. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n

Reiver said the community\u2019s focus, the legal team and City Hall\u2019s willingness to compromise led to the deal finally getting done.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, the private garden must be publicly accessible between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. If the city chooses, the space will be under the purview of the parks department.<\/p>\n

The fight for the 20,000-square-foot garden was spared when a project\u00a0called Haven Green<\/a>\u00a0was announced, which would\u2019ve built 123 units of senior affordable housing as well as retail and office space.<\/p>\n

The new plan \u2013 which follows \u201cmonths\u201d of negotiations between City Council member Christopher Marte, Mayor Eric Adams and First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro \u2013 calls for 123 units of senior affordable housing at a \u201cshovel-ready\u201d lot at 156-166 Bowery, which was once slated for market-rate luxury housing.<\/p>\n

In addition, about 200 more units of affordable housing are planned for city-owned property at 22 Suffolk St. and at least 300 units of affordable housing units at 100 Gold St., officials said. Marte said the compromise actually resulted into more units \u2014 representing the largest influx of new affordable housing in more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers walk through a path of sculptures at the Elizabeth Street Garden on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incredible win-win for our community shows exactly why we should never give up and settle for crumbs,\u201d Marte said in a statement.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one catch though \u2014 if the rezoning of the alternate locations hits a dead end, City Hall can still evict the garden.<\/p>\n

Rezoning is expected to take between six to nine months, a garden rep said.<\/p>\n

The original plan, dubbed Haven Green, called for 123 units of senior affordable housing to replace the 20,000-square-foot Elizabeth Street Garden, as well as retail and office space.<\/p>\n

Further discussions will be held to determine if Elizabeth Street Garden will be paying the back rent it owes to the city, according to Mastro.<\/p>\n

The mayor meanwhile praised the deal as a pro affordable housing move.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement announced today will help us meet that mission by creating more than five times the affordable housing originally planned while preserving a beloved local public space and expanding access to it,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

Longtime Manhattan resident Kim Kalesti told The Post she was \u201cdelighted\u201d by the announcement. Nicole Rosenthal\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Rezoning of the alternate sites is expected to take between six to nine months, a garden rep said. Nicole Rosenthal\/NY Post<\/p>\n

rench tourist Octavie Drevon told The Post she stumbled upon the garden with her friend, Manhattan resident Emily Smith, by chance on Monday. Nicole Rosenthal\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Kim Kalesti, a 40-year Nolita resident, said she was \u201cdelighted\u201d by the news and was \u201cbasking in the joy of winning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like a small win, but it actually gives a lot of people hope,\u201d said Kalesti, a jazz singer and garden regular.<\/p>\n

The deal rankled some housing advocates because of the loss of units at the site but Mastro praised the agreement for bringing \u201cparties together to achieve even better outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our city, we have to provide affordable housing, [but] we also have to provide green space,\u201d Mastro said, \u201cgoing to a quality of life that we can all enjoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was no garden variety standoff. Nolita\u2019s beloved\u00a0Elizabeth Street Garden\u00a0was saved in a deal with City Hall announced…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5289,5249,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,7620,10335,183,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-9282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-eric-adams","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-parks-department","19":"tag-patti-smith","20":"tag-robert-de-niro","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114735360596941784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}