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
A Tree Falls on Chrystie Street
A tree falls on Chrystie Street, and plenty of people were there to see it. During the morning deluge yesterday, a tall timber from inside Sara D. Roosevelt Park toppled into the roadway of Chrystie Street, just north of Grand. The fallen tree straddled most of the pavement, but luckily no one was hurt. Only […]
PS 110 Hosts 5th Annual ‘Lower Eats Side Food Festival’ Tomorrow
Tomorrow afternoon, you can eat your way around the globe at the fifth annual “Lower Eats Side Festival.” As in years prior, the PTA at Public School 110 (aka the Florence Nightingale School) on Delancey Street is once again hosting this international food and music festival. First held in 2015 on the 110th anniversary of […]
Skaters Take Division Street
Whenever a pedestrian plaza is created on the Lower East Side, the skateboarders are never too far behind. The longtime free space on Delancey Street near Norfolk is case in point, where groups of skaters are often seen practicing tricks. The same occurs down on Division Street at the confluence of Canal. This, too, has […]
Celebrating 19 Years of Egg Rolls and Egg Creams on Eldridge Street
Mah jongg tiles at the ready! The annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival is hitting the Lower East Side this weekend. The block party, now in its 19th year, is ready to dish out frothy beverages that are neither egg nor cream, alongside a bunch of activities and food celebrating the unique diversity of […]
The ‘New Stand’ Innovation Hub Debuts on the Bowery
Promised for two years, the newfangled “newsstand” at 306 Bowery – dubbed the New Stand – is finally operational. The “content and innovation hub” opened to the public yesterday. Technically, the 6,700 square-foot retail space (formerly occupied by Patricia Field) was christened back in February with a fashion show by Collina Strada, and was supposed […]
