Dear Gardeners,
Join us tomorrow on the steps of City Hall! Please arrive early – it will take time to get everyone through security

Tuesday, 2/10, 9AM
New York City Hall
4,5,6 to Brooklyn Bridge City Hall
J, Z to Chambers St.
N, R to City Hall
2, 3 to Park Place
A, C to Chambers St.
(map)

On Tuesday, February 10th, at 9 A.M. the NYCCGC, community members, partnering housing organizations, and various elected representatives will be rallying on the steps of city hall to protest the lack of transparency and community involvement in issuing an RFQ to developers to build affordable housing on “vacant” lots throughout the 5 boroughs.

A large number of sites listed in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s most recent RFQ for the New Infill Home Ownership Opportunities Program (NIHOP) and Neighborhood Construction Program (NCP) are disproportionally thriving, active community gardens.

Make no mistake, we are all in favor of affordable housing. Many of us would have a direct benefit from this proposal. Affordable housing and community gardens are compatible. We advocate for more gardens and more housing. We do not understand how the selection process came about and why 17 active community gardens were selected as lots to be developed.

These community gardens were a direct result of sweat equity that neighbors used to improve their neighborhoods. And it seems undeniably wrong to destroy the very asset that makes neighborhoods livable and a place where developers subsequently seek to build.

We ask Mayor de Blasio to give all community members a place at the table to make NYC livable. In a speech this past January, he said: “We have a duty to protect and preserve the culture and character of our neighborhoods, and we will do so.”

We ask the Mayor to honor his sentiment and words.

Click here for our full press release.