{"id":298530,"date":"2025-11-18T05:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T05:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298530\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T05:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T05:58:07","slug":"eric-adams-zohran-mamdani-battle-over-beloved-art-garden-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/298530\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Adams, Zohran Mamdani Battle Over Beloved Art Garden in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tElizabeth Street Garden<\/a> is yet again the center of debate\u2014this time between current New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his successor, Zohran Mamdani<\/a>. Adams, who once sought to level the garden in favor of a housing development, abandoned the project in June.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to that change, the garden\u2019s nonprofit tenant was scheduled to be evicted<\/a> in March to accommodate housing development under Adams. In response, there was record turnout to save the garden<\/a> by the nonprofit, community members, and celebrities like Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and Patti Smith, who rallied on its behalf.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tThe one-acre art garden in Manhattan\u2019s Nolita neighborhood is overseen by executive director Joseph Reiver, who took over the garden\u2019s management in 1991 from his father, an antiques dealer who leased the space from the city when it was an abandoned lot and converted it into an outdoor extension of his business Elizabeth Street Gallery.<\/p>\n

\n\tUntil now, it seemed the garden had been saved from destruction. The Mayor-elect, however, vowed during his campaign to resurrect affordable housing plans for the lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tA November 3 letter to the parks commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa from the commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services Louis Molina saw the plot \u201cunequivocally and permanently\u201d designated \u201cto public use as parkland,\u201d Gothamist<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Mamdani wants to create housing on the land, he will now need the approval of the New York state legislature in light of this new designation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is no surprise that Mayor Adams is using his final weeks and months to cement a legacy of dysfunction and inconsistency,\u201d Mamdani said during a stop at a child-care center in Brooklyn, according to the New York Times<\/a>. \u201cAnd the actions that the Adams administration has taken now make it nearly impossible to follow through with that\u201d on the garden site.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cMy focus will be on working with the Legislature to fulfill the affordability agenda that I\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his campaign, Mamdani said that affordable housing, especially for older people, was a priority. His plans for the project at Elizabeth Street Garden would have fulfilled that promise with affordable housing for older people and roughly 16,000-square-feet of green space.<\/p>\n

\n\t\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 Charles A. Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), said in a statement to\u00a0Hyperallergic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tTCLF, an advocacy center in Washington, D.C., brought attention to the site in 2018, six years after the city first targeted the park for potential demolition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Street Garden is yet again the center of debate\u2014this time between current New York City Mayor Eric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,155571,88,10766],"class_list":{"0":"post-298530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-elizabeth-street-garden","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}