{"id":38844,"date":"2025-11-13T22:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38844\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:55:10","slug":"eric-adams-and-mamdani-clash-over-nyc-art-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38844\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Adams and Mamdani Clash Over NYC Art Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City\u2019s outgoing Mayor Eric Adams has designated the long-embattled Elizabeth Street Garden as parkland, weeks after Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani vowed to renew the eviction of the plot to create affordable housing. The move could make it more difficult for Mamdani to build housing on the garden, which supporters considered to be in the clear after the city walked away<\/a> from its eviction plans earlier this year.<\/p>\n

In a November 3 letter reviewed by Hyperallergic, Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina said that the city \u201cunequivocally and permanently\u201d dedicated the plot \u201cto public use as parkland.\u201d The letter, sent to Parks and Recreation Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, said the city\u2019s housing authority would transfer management of the property to the parks department upon completion of a licensing agreement.<\/p>\n

The quaint lower Manhattan garden, which houses several Neoclassical sculptures and a notable Gilded Age balustrade, was served an eviction notice last October. As the owner of the plot of land occupied by the garden, the city had planned to construct 123 units of affordable housing for low-income and LGBTQ+ seniors, with construction expected to begin later this year. After several legal challenges delayed the garden\u2019s departure, the Adams administration backed down from its eviction pursuit in June and, instead, vowed to build 620 affordable units at three alternative sites in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The garden\u2019s advocates celebrated the city\u2019s reversal as a win culminating a yearslong debacle. But in a rapid-fire interview with Hell Gate<\/a> last month, then-candidate Mamdani said he would evict the garden within his first year in office. He did not elaborate on his rationale further in the interview. <\/p>\n

Gothamist<\/a> reported yesterday that on November 3, the Adams administration said it had designated the public property for permanent \u201cpublic use as parkland.\u201d <\/p>\n

A city spokesperson told Hyperallergic that bypassing park designation to build housing would be \u201ctechnically possible but in practice, inconceivable.\u201d Mamdani would need the approval of the New York State Legislature, according to the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

In a press conference Thursday morning, Mamdani told reporters<\/a> that Adams\u2019s designation would make it \u201cnearly impossible\u201d for him to build housing on the plot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a \u2018win-win\u2019 situation,\u201d First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic, \u201cpreserving a cherished community garden and creating more than five times as much affordable housing in this neighborhood as had originally been planned.\u201d <\/p>\n

In its final lawsuit<\/a> before the city backed down, the Elizabeth Street Garden had argued that it is a work of Outsider art protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). In a February statement to Hyperallergic, a City spokesperson characterized the lawsuit as \u201ca gross attempt to mislead the public and steal public land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven Green will provide 100 percent deeply affordable senior housing in a neighborhood with limited affordable options,\u201d the spokesperson said at the time.<\/p>\n

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit heritage stewardship organization that claimed to have recommended the VARA defense to the garden, celebrated the reported designation of the space as parkland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elizabeth Street Garden, like the High Line in Manhattan and the Home for Retired Playground Animals in the Bronx, will be a distinct park in the city\u2019s portfolio, a much-needed open space serving area residents, and a destination for international travelers,\u201d Cultural Landscape Foundation President and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum wrote in a statement to Hyperallergic.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s campaign did not respond to Hyperallergic\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City\u2019s outgoing Mayor Eric Adams has designated the long-embattled Elizabeth Street Garden as parkland, weeks after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64,10649],"class_list":{"0":"post-38844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news","13":"tag-parks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38844","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=38844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}