Last week, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development released a list of nearly 180 city-owned sites that are ripe for potential affordable development, including, to the chagrin of many, 15 community gardens. One of those gardens, El Garden in Bushwick, isn't going to sit around waiting for a developer to sweep in and has already started an online petition to save itself, Bushwick Daily reports. It makes a compelling case that, at the very least, it should not have been specifically targeted as a development site, reading in part:
Each Sunday our garden hosts BK ROT, a local composting service that processes up to 2 tons of food waste into usable compost each month and employs local youth at fair wages carry out this work. Additionally the garden hosted the Green Guerrillas summer urban agriculture program in 2014, hosted an extremely successful NYRP Tree Giveaway (a part of the city's Million Trees Initiative), participated in the World Book Night book giveaway, and was a recipient of a Citizen's Committee Grant. The garden opened just last year.
· Stop El Garden From Being Developed & Keep The Garden Growing! [MoveOn]
· Bushwick's "El Garden" Could Be Razed to Create New Housing. Sign the Petition to Save It [Bushwick Daily]
· Affordable Housing May Replace Dozens of Community Gardens [Curbed]
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