NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE ALLIANCE
Standing Our Ground
WE WON!
Thanks to everyone
who worked so hard and gave so much.
Our contact with nature in this urban chaos is being taken away bit by bit.
The touch and scent of earth will be strange to our children.
Join Us
Standing Our Ground;
Saving Our Gardens
Statement of Leslie Lowe,
Executive Director,
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance re:
Garden Auction Cancellation and Pending Lawsuit
May 12, 1999
"This afternoon, it was announced
that the City had agreed to sell to the Trust for Public Land and the New York Restoration
Project all of the City gardens that were to be placed at auction tomorrow.We feel
that the pressure exerted by our coalition and others forced the City into taking
that action.
"Of course, we’re pleased that the immediate threat to those gardens has been
removed and we fully expect that the new owners will be fine landlords, but there
remain 685 gardens that are still at risk of being sold or developed.
"Therefore, the federal Title VI discrimination lawsuit brought by our organization,
the New York City Community Gardens Coalition and the More Gardens! Coalition will
proceed.
"For us, it was never a question of only saving a few gardens. The issue is
the City’s lack of policy on open space equity. Poor and working class communities
of color throughout this City have fewer acres of neighborhood parks and green space,
in general. Almost all the gardens that were to be auctioned were in neighborhoods
of color. At the same time, however, the City has been acquiring parkland, mostly
in Staten Island and in Queens for majority white neighborhoods. The statistics bear
this out. From 1996 to 1998, the City acquired 799 acres of new parkland. Staten
Island, whose population is 80% white, got 522 of those acres — that’s more than
65%.
"It’s not that we think Staten Islanders don’t deserve more parkland. We do
think, however, that the City’s current policy on open space does not address the
equitable distribution of green space and parkland.
"We will continue to fight until the City has a policy in place that ensures,
well into the future, the fair acquisition and distribution of all City green spaces.
If that happens, no New Yorker will ever have to face the specter of a garden auction
again."
Take a Moment to Send a
Message
to
Mr. Vallone
Mention:
"every flower
is a vote"