As a neighborhood gentrifies, so do its gardens. The handful of community gardens on the Lower East Side that have attained permanent status through the Parks Department have done so because they have exceptional plantings, as well as highly motivated members capable of writing grants, lobbying politicians, and hosting poetry and jazz performances to prove their worth as community assets. Tilling vegetable plots isn’t enough. What’s being overlooked, of course, are those modest spaces tended by poor people for whom gardening is not a hobby, but an economic necessity. It’s no surprise that the neighborhood’s casita gardens have been among the first to get the ax.

While many will probably have one more growing season, The NYC Housing Partnership, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) have asked developers to come forward to build on 23 gardens sites, as well as other properties, in the Bronx, and Brooklyn. The gardens will be taken using either the ULURP or the accelerated UDAAP process. In ULURP, Community Boards (CB's) and the Department of City Planning have an advisory role before a final decision is made by City Council. UDAAP assumes CB agreement based on information gathered, sometimes years before. UDAAP does require a vote of City Council for land disposition, and Council committees have recently delayed the process for fact finding.

State legislators have cooperated with City Officials to enable the Partnership to obtain government owned building sites with minimal difficulty. A local law crafted in and approved by the State Legislature allows construction of one to four family subsidized owner-occupied housing (the low density, high profit margin townhouse construction typically favored by Partnership developers) to proceed without the approval or public review by Community Boards, the neighborhood advisory boards made up of volunteer citizens which usually review municipal projects. This special exemption of the normal land use review process is granted to projects that have been designated as Urban Development Action Area Projects (UDAAPs). UDAAPs are granted almost exclusively for Partnership financed developments and senior citizen’s housing. (note w/Neiahmiah, numbers of projects carried out by HPD)