Affordable Housing Developers Take Over Unregistered Community Garden

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5:32 PM

By: Roger Clark

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Supporters of a community garden in the South Bronx say the city is running them off their land, but officials say the gardeners never had the right to be on the property in the first place. NY1′s Roger Clark filed the following report.

It may not look like it now, but a lot slated for construction in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx was once a spot of green called the Morning Glory Community Garden.

“We transformed about half the lot, we built 16 raised beds, two compost systems. We built a large shade structure and tables and seating,” said Morning Glory Community Garden co-founder Elliott Liu.

The locals grew crops, including tomatoes, carrots and onions with the help of local high school students.

A few weeks ago, that came to an end when the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development hired crews to fence off the property and clear out the lot.

The agency said the land is slated for low and moderate income housing and those involved with the garden had unlawfully entered the city-owned site and never registered with the city’s Green Thumb Program.

The Morning Glory gardeners still said they should be able to use the land.

“The community should have this land and we have just been providing for the community by growing foods and vegetables and healthy food,” said garden supporter Marlon Daniels.

Those who worked on the garden claim they were never told HPD was reclaiming the land, but agency officials said there was no clear way to contact them and nobody was around when HPD visited the site.

Garden supporters said they knew things were not looking very good right now, but they had not given up hope.

“Now we are even more angry than before and I think the community is definitely going to show our numbers and our strength over this issue,” said garden supporter Lisa Ortega.

“We think if it’s here, the community should be able to use it and use it to make the community better,” said Liu.

HPD officials said while they recognize the importance of community gardens, the space is going to eventually have 430 units of badly needed affordable housing.

The gardeners said they will try to convince the local community board to talk with the city about allowing them to stay on a portion of the land.

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