Elizabeth Street Garden Advocates Bury the Hatchet, Ramp up Opposition to Redevelopment
Advocates for the endangered Elizabeth Street Garden are rallying the troops for another round of battle to ward off certain redevelopment of the Little Italy lot.
But first, a truce between the warring factions of the garden.
The two nonprofit groups committed to saving the namesake green space – Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden and Elizabeth Street Garden – buried the proverbial hatchet this week to focus on coordinating legal efforts to stop an affordable housing project on the open-air parcel.
“As the City moves forward with plans to develop on the only public green space in Little Italy and SoHo, the community will take whatever necessary steps, including litigation, to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden in its entirety, for generations to come,” the joint statement reads.
Photo: Curtis + Ginsberg Architects
Friends has retained the legal services of Michael Gruen, President of the City Club; ESG has retained Norman Siegel of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans, LLP.
The proposed building, as previously reported, will rise seven stories and carry 121 permanently affordable apartments for seniors. And as if to placate aggrieved locals, the plan also calls for the inclusion of 7,600 square-feet of publicly-accessible garden space. Significantly less than what’s there now. Department of Housing Preservation and Development awarded the contract to Penrose Development.
Opposition has long maintained that a site on the west side (388 Hudson Street) is better suited to affordable housing:
The City has plans to destroy the Garden for an affordable housing development, ignoring our community’s need for public green open space, tremendous local support for saving the Garden and an alternative site on a vacant city-owned lot at 388 Hudson St. — where up to five times as much senior housing and a 10,000-square-foot-park can be built without destroying treasured public green open space. ESG and Friends recognize that these two critical city objectives should not be pitted against one another, especially when we can achieve both.
Community Board 2 will host the developer later this month (June 25) in an open forum at 32 Waverly Place.
Photo: Curtis + Ginsberg Architects
Recent Stories
My Time Recording the Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley During his Lower East Side Years
Beloved Buzzcocks frontman Pete Shelley passed away of a suspected heart attack last week (December 6). Ken Lockie, singer-songwriter and sometime collaborator with John (Rotten) Lydon of Public Image Ltd., fondly recalls his time behind the board with Shelley thirty years ago in Williamsburg and on the Lower East Side. Pete Shelley was a charming, likable, […]
Cristin Tierney Gallery Takes Space on the Bowery
The decade-running trend of Chelsea gallery refugees quartering on the Lower East Side continues with news of another. The Cristin Tierney gallery just signed a lease to take over 219 Bowery. It sits one store south of the Camper Lab concept shop, both of which formerly comprised the Chair Up restaurant supplier. Tierney, who had […]
Checking in on the Retail Restoration Project at 59 Bleecker Street
In the year since the dual departure of City Hats and Shapiro’s Hardware from Bleecker Street, the old NoHo corner spot has been under the knife. Shrouded in construction materials, the multimillion-dollar project to restore the century-old structure is now full throttle. Contractors headlong into gutting and chiseling, as evidenced by a recent walkby. The […]
‘Empire Gyro’ Readies 24-Hour Allen Street Eatery for Christmastime Debut
The tradition of 24-hour eateries at the southeast corner of Allen and East Houston continues with Empire Gyro. The new fast food Mediterranean spot, which takes over from the utilitarian Sugar Cafe, has been building out 200 Allen Street since early October. The menu is somewhat predictable, featuring soups, salads, kebabs, and shawarma. Empire Gyro […]
Neighborhood Group Prepares Lawsuit Against City Over Two Bridges Towers
“The City is trying to violate its own law to approve the luxury towers on the Two Bridges waterfront,” announces a flyer from the Lower East Side Organized Neighbors. Mere days after City Council leveled a lawsuit against the City Planning Commission for green-lighting the trio of skyscrapers, more such opposition is in store. The […]
