It’s a crucial moment in the fight to save Elizabeth Street Garden. A hearing for the appeal against a decision to allow the city to evict and close the garden was heard last week, and the jury is literally out. Will the eccentric, much-loved and—most importantly—much-used garden be saved, or will it be lost forever to development? As a former resident who would make detours just to pass this intriguing space, I can say that this isn’t just a knee-jerk “not in my backyard” reaction. The fact is: This is the only park in Little Italy and SoHo that is not paved over. For every one thousand people in this district, there is 0.7 acres of “green” space, or three square feet per person.
When I lived on Mulberry Street, the former school playground wasn’t open to the public, but just gazing at the non-municipal collection of Belle Epoque ephemera (mixed with pieces of covetable wire furniture), lifted my claustrophobia in these mean streets, immortalized on film by Martin Scorsese, a supporter of the garden. And greenery, as we know, is vitally important for keeping people sane.
Here is a quick update.
Photography by Valery Rizzo, for Gardenista.
The statistic that this part of the Lower East Side has one of the lowest ratios of public open space in the city is a reminder that it scrambled into existence before the planning foresight of Frederick Law Olmsted and others. The street grid that progressed up the island of Manhattan allowed the construction of Central Park, which, I used to know too well, is quite a distance from Little Italy. Downtown, green amenities were almost non-existent; more a case of How the Other Have Lives than chi-chi “NoLita.”
