{"id":38629,"date":"2025-11-13T19:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38629\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T19:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:52:19","slug":"mamdani-rips-mayor-adams-for-making-elizabeth-st-garden-housing-project-nearly-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38629\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani rips Mayor Adams for making Elizabeth St. Garden housing project ‘nearly impossible’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, in a departure from his typically optimistic outlook, said Thursday it will be \u201cnearly impossible\u201d for his incoming administration to complete a long-stalled affordable housing project in Manhattan\u2019s Elizabeth St. Garden<\/a> in light of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 latest effort to block it.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, news broke<\/a> that Adams\u2019 administration had taken the unusual step of designating the Nolita garden, which sits on city-owned land, as \u201cparkland.\u201d The move, first reported<\/a> by Gothatmist and independently confirmed by the Daily News, makes it so no construction can take place on the site unless the state Legislature \u201calienates\u201d the parcel.<\/p>\n

The designation seriously hampers a plan \u2014 once championed by Adams \u2014 to build 123 affordable apartments for seniors on the site while preserving parts of the garden. Adams\u2019 administration introduced that plan and for years dismissed concerns from those who argued it\u2019d wreck a beloved green space, but the mayor reversed himself earlier this year<\/a> and embarked on an effort to kill the project, culminating in the parkland maneuver.<\/p>\n

\"Zohran<\/p>\n

Chris Sommerfeldt \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference in Brooklyn on Thursday. (Chris Sommerfeldt \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

At an unrelated press conference Thursday morning, Mamdani, who has pledged to as mayor<\/a> get the Elizabeth St. Garden housing project back on track, said he wasn\u2019t surprised Adams \u201cis using his final weeks and months to cement a legacy of dysfunction and inconsistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani also told reporters the move seriously jeopardizes his hope to restart the housing plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actions that the Adams administration has taken now make it nearly impossible to follow through with that,\u201d said Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Asked if he will ask state lawmakers to \u201calienate\u201d the garden after he\u2019s sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, Mamdani said his focus in Albany will mostly be about enacting his \u201caffordability agenda,\u201d which includes promises to expand subsidized childcare and make the city\u2019s public buses free. His plan to boost taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and corporations requires help on the state level as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am coming to terms with is the lengths that the Adams administration has taken to ensure that they are cementing the position that they held the opposite view on just earlier this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Barry Williams\/New York Daily News<\/p>\n

People gather to celebrate Elizabeth Street Garden on April 1, 2025. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s remarks were uncharacteristically pessimistic. As a mayoral candidate, he has embraced a distinctly optimistic tone while talking about the possibilities of city government, even when challenged over the serious obstacles many of his policy proposals face.<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 decision to abandon the Elizabeth St. Garden development came even though he has made building more housing a major focus of his administration as the city continues to reel from skyrocketing rents and a dearth of vacant apartments.<\/p>\n

The reversal was in large part driven by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, as previously reported<\/a> by The News, and came after a number of high-profile celebrities, like Robert De Niro, Patti Smith and Martin Scorcese, banded together to make a public plea for preserving the garden in its current form. Those who support the garden cheered the mayor\u2019s change of heart earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth<\/p>\n

Barry Williams for New York Daily News<\/p>\n

The Elizabeth Street Garden. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In defending his reversal, Adams and Mastro have pointed out they received a commitment from local Manhattan Councilman Chris Marte to build the housing envisioned for the Elizabeth St. Garden at nearby sites instead. However, the alternative sites will need to go through the city\u2019s land use process, which can take years, whereas shovels can hit the ground immediately in the city-owned garden.<\/p>\n

Asked for a response to Mamdani\u2019s Thursday broadside, Adams told reporters he\u2019s following through on his new \u201cpromise\u201d to preserve the garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about a legacy of dysfunction,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about protecting a legacy and the promises that I made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, in a departure from his typically optimistic outlook, said Thursday it will be \u201cnearly impossible\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[433,302,16197,75,84,83,4048,9,24,63,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-38629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-elizabeth-street-garden","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-mayor-adams","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}