Garden is getting Transferred to the Parks Department

There's good news in the garden today! The garden is being transferred to Parks Department from Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) so it will be preserved!!! The Mayor is announced this last week, and GreenThumb notified us. They haven't provided us with any details as to what the procedure is yet, and will follow up after the New Year, so Kenny and I will keep you all in the loop as we know more. 

596 Acres, New York City Community Garden Coalition, and gardeners from around New York City worked tirelessly this past year to agitate and guide GreenThumb, Parks, and the mayor to make this happen and support us along with the 17 other threatened gardens. It is the end of year, and non-profits are fundraising to support their next year of work. If you have a few bucks to spare, please consider donating to these groups (it's also a tax write-off) and support their work. 

Press:

• Brooklyn Community Gardeners React to De Blasio Admin. Deal, Brooklyn Deep
• 34 Community Gardens Saved From Demolition After City Makes Them Parks, DNAinfo
• Gonzalez: Bill de Blasio adds affordable housing while preserving NYC’s gardens, Daily News
• City Hall to preserve some community gardens, build housing on others, Capital New York

Spring Update

It's been quite a weird Spring with the weather, and we are just starting to ramp up activity in the garden while continuously working with New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) and 596 Acres to combat the threat of constructing residential units in the lot.

Our first volunteer day this year will be with Green School: An Academy for Environmental Careers where students will help clean and organize the garden on Friday, May 8th. They worked with us last Spring and we're excited to have them back!

On Saturday, May 9th, there will be a volunteer day to finish up any uncompleted tasks that the Green School didn't finish. We will also be building four new garden beds and digging them out for our members! If you have the time or a cordless drill, please come out and help! If you're interested in gardening with us this summer, this would be a perfect opportunity to chat with us about membership.

We will be holding a BBQ fundraiser this spring on June 6th from noon to 4pm. We will be selling pre-sale tickets for $10 each. More details to follow.

Artfully Unforgotten will be holding a workshop on June 27th. Artfully Unforgotten organizes workshops of participatory art projects to explore larger social and environmental issues and build community vitality. More details to follow.

This year, we also plan on finishing the shed (doors and windows) and building out the interior; move and build a better composter with our new member and master composter, Tymberly Canale; and hook up barrels to the shed roof for a rain catchment system. Stay tuned for details on these projects!

Update: Sign our petition and join us at City Hall!

We've started a petition to advocate taking Patchen Community Square off the list of HPD sites to develop. Please sign and share!!

We are joining New York City Community Garden Coalition and gardeners from around the city (including the 17 endangered ones) and other supporters to rally at City Hall on February 10th at 9am in an effort to make our garden permanent. Please join us to support our community gardens.

Help Save the Garden!

Patchen Community Square is in danger of being developed!

deBlasio has created an initiative for the city of building 80,000 affordable units and has asked HPD (Housing, Preservation and Development) to review it's land and make a list of sites to be developed on as a part of this. Unfortunately, Patchen Community Square is on this list. This means that developers can submit qualifications for the design and construction of development projects on these sites. The garden is small, and zoned 6B, so if a developer would build on it, they would create approximately 10 total units. Only 2 of these units would qualify as affordable units, making the remaining units luxury apartments. 

We need your help campaigning for this NOT to happen. Please call our City Council Member to call HPD and request that Patchen Community Square be removed from the list and remain a community garden. If you have any contacts with anyone in the press, please tell them too! The more we publicize this, the better chance we have to remain a garden!

Robert E. Cornegy, City Council Member 
RCornegy@council.nyc.gov 
718-919-0740 
(ask for the Chief of Staff or the Legislative Director)

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Other People to Contact:

Tremaine Wright, Community Board 3 Chairperson
bk03@cb.nyc.gov
718-622-6601

Annette Robinson, State Assembly Member 
RobinsonA@assembly.state.ny.us
District Office: 718-399-7630
Albany Office: 518-455-5474

Eric L. Adam, Brooklyn Borough President  
askeric@brooklynbp.nyc.gov
Office: 718-802-3700

Diana Reyna, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President 
dreyna@brooklynbp.nyc.gov
Office: 718-802-3700