There was a celebration Saturday at a vacant lot Downtown that long ago should have been used for desperately needed housing. But rather than toasting the continuation of the Elizabeth Street Garden, the revelers were actually cheering the triumph of local parochial politics over the greater public good.
The city-owned parcel, where a public school had been demolished in the 1970s, is one acre on the west side of Elizabeth St. between Prince and Spring Sts., running out to Mott St. In city property records it is known as Block 493, Lot 30 and the owner is the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, meaning it’s been slated for housing.
Starting in 1991, the empty lot was leased on a monthly basis to the late gallery operator Allan Reiver, who used it as a private sculpture yard. From that it grew to become the Elizabeth Street Garden, now run by his son. But it was always slated for housing and a housing deal was settled in 2013 for 123 units for older New Yorkers.
Supporters of the garden sued in 2019, commencing a five-year fight in the state courts, which ended in June 2024 with a 6-1 decision by the highest court in New York State that the housing plan, called Haven Green, could advance.
But last year, the Adams administration did a switch, coming to an agreement with the local anti-development Councilman Chris Marte. The garden, backed by some famous folks along with Marte, would stay and other properties in Marte’s district would instead become housing.
Candidate Zohran Mamdani wanted to proceed with the original project, but on Nov. 6, two days after Mamdani was elected mayor, the Adams administration designated the Elizabeth St. lot as parkland. The developer quickly sued, but it was a lost cause and the case was withdrawn last week and Mamdani consented to leaving the garden alone and pursuing housing on other parcels. In theory there will be more housing than the 123 units, but we will see what actually gets built.
It is not a win-win outcome. There should have been housing on the Elizabeth St. lot. And then there should be housing on the other lots as well.
It’s not right that a local councilman, who voted against the city’s major rezoning plan, can block development in his district.
And once the lot was designated as parkland, there is a mechanism for reversing that, called alienation. But that process needs the approval from the state Legislature, however the local assemblywoman opposed that, so any alienation was stymied.
Mamdani had no choice but to give up. But it’s still awful. No matter how lovely the garden is, the higher purpose for that public land was as homes.
Haven Green followed every rule there was to win approval through an onerous process, ratified by the highest court in the state. But the combination of lawsuits and delays and a defeated mayor willing to declare a housing lot to be parkland (and the Legislature’s refusal to go against the wishes of a single member) meant that the good guys lost this time.
We thought that housing was the No. 1 need in this city, but apparently politics comes in higher than that. That’s the real lesson of the Elizabeth Street Garden.