Mott-Elizabeth Streets RFP:
Addendum 1 RFP issue date: September 14th, 2016
Evan
Easterbrooks-Dick
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
Office of Neighborhood Strategies
100 Gold Street, Room 9X
New York, NY 10038
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
Office of Neighborhood Strategies
100 Gold Street, Room 9X
New York, NY 10038
Name of
Organization: Public Space
Party
Contact Person: Benjamin
Shepard
Telephone No.: 718-260-5135
Email: benshepard@mindspring.com
Elizabeth Street
Garden:
Elizabeth
Street Garden already is a wonderful and unique community park and
green space with sculptures and artifacts located in the Little Italy
neighborhood of Manhattan, on Elizabeth and
Mott Streets between Prince and Spring streets. Currently, Friends of Elizabeth
Street Garden volunteers operate the Garden
year-round and program more than 200 free, public educational, wellness and
arts-related events annually for children, seniors and all who live and work
in the community. The Garden's design, size and configuration make it ideally
suited for movies, music, yoga, community festivals, arts performances,
educational programs, gardening and quiet meditation that are not offered in
any other nearby public community space.
The Project:
Public
Space Party recommends that New York City transfer Elizabeth
Street Garden from the
Department of Citywide Services to the Department of Parks and Recreation
and formally dedicate Elizabeth Street Garden as parkland. Elizabeth Street Garden is a hub for the
community, bringing foot traffic to the neighborhood, increased shopping,
community cohesiveness, and storm water retention necessary to prevent flooding
like experienced with Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
The presence of this park adds social capital and cohesiveness to the
neighborhood. There also
already is a vibrant and active not-for-profit that would be
expected to continue to support the
park. Friends of Elizabeth
Street Garden Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in 2014
with the mission to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden as a unique public green,
open space and NYC Park in perpetuity.
Beneficiaries:
1.
100,000
Annual Park Users: Elizabeth Street Garden serves
an estimated 100,000 visitors annually, including the 23,000
residents of Little Italy and SoHo, the
growing base of employees at neighborhood small
businesses, all residents
and employees of downtown Manhattan, tourists who visit the Garden and support
local small businesses in the surrounding community and all
citizens of New York City.
2.
Improved Health
and Social Rate of Return: The creation of a permanent park
at Elizabeth Street Garden will continue to support community
development for years to come. The social rate of return for a community garden
includes: community capacity building,
reduce asthma, increase fitness,
support social equity, help cool the planet, curb global greenhouse gases, reduce storm water overflow, increase
biodiversity,
provide fresh produce in “food deserts,” etc. The benefits are endless.
3.
Permanent
Solution to Improve Access to Open Space: Elizabeth Street Garden already is
a beautiful park and can be transferred to NYC DPR
providing additional park space in the only downtown Manhattan neighborhood
that DPR defines as “underserved” by open space. In fact, Little Italy
and SoHo have only 3 square feet of open space per person (the size of a subway
seat!) vs. the City planning goal of 109 square feet. And all of the neighborhood’s parks are
paved, except for the planted medians that the City counts as “parks” on
Houston Street.
4.
Demonstration of
“Grass Roots” Initiatives Driving Mayor de Blasio’s Priorities: In a speech marking Mayor de Blasio’s
100 days on the job, he said that the “grass roots” of the city would be
driving his policy agenda.
a. In 2012, Elizabeth Street
Garden was included in a behind-the-scenes side deal tied to the Seward Park
Urban Renewal Area, or SPURA rezoning on the Lower East Side and in Community
Board 3. There was no public review or discussion of this side deal, despite an
extensive process of community involvement in CB 3 that began in 2008, nor was
any attempt made to reach out to Community Board 2, where the Garden is located.
b. But, since learning about this side deal in
2013, Community Board 2 has held four public hearings where the overwhelming
sentiment has been for saving the Garden. More importantly, Community
Board 2 has identified a nearby site on Hudson and Clarkson streets. The
currently city-owned and vacant lot can provide
five times as much housing as the Elizabeth Street Garden site, without
destroying a cherished and needed public amenity. The CB 2 proposed site would
be developed as both housing and public open space, in cooperation with NYC
HPD, DEP and Parks.
c. Elizabeth
Street Garden has a tremendous base of community support. It is a supported by a local
not-for-profit, Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden. The park serves
hundreds of visitors daily and has 7,500
email subscribers, 5,500 letters of support and hundreds of volunteers.
Supporter s include Rep. Jerrold Nadler, State
Sen. Daniel L. Squadron, State Sen. Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Deborah J.
Glick, Assemblymember-elect Yuh-Line Niou, NYC Comptroller Scott M. Stringer,
District Leaders Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar, Community Board 2, former
NYC Parks Comm. Adrian Benepe, The Municipal Arts
Society of New York and 16 parks and community organizations
listed at elizabethstreetgarden.org/supporters.
d. Furthermore,
the compromise already occurred in
1981 when NYC sold 62% of the former school site to Little Italy Restoration
Association for 152 units of affordable housing at 21 Spring St. and designated
the Garden site “exclusively for recreational use.”
Public space is for
the people.
Make Elizabeth
Street Community Garden a park and all New York will benefit!
Thank you Ben! Hope someone out there is listening.
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