BY CODY BROOKS | Costumed marchers paraded through the East Village and Lower East Side on Sat., Oct. 17, holding large vegetable-themed banners and playing music to raise awareness for the community gardens in the area.
The festival, dubbed the “2015 East Village Cavalcade for More Gardens!” began at La Plaza Cultural on E. Ninth St. and Avenue C and was hosted by More Gardens!, a community organization hoping to pressure the city into classifying the neighborhood as a “Garden Community District.”
The area is known for its grassroots gardens and makeshift parks, but these green spaces’ long-term survival has always been at risk. In a hopeful development in January, local garden activists convinced Community Board 3 to support making the area’s 46 gardens permanent by designating them as parkland. Officials are already behind the movement, including state Senator Brad Hoylman and Councilmember Rosie Mendez. Currently, the gardens are zoned as vacant lots and can still technically be purchased by a developer and bulldozed.
Parade leader Jeff of Honk NYC, one of the groups playing at the event, said that events like this are bringing back “the spirit, energy and love” that the East Village and Lower East Side used to have. He remarked that gardens are an important place for the community to connect, offering the festival as an example.
“If this garden wasn’t here, this wouldn’t happen,” he said of La Plaza and the festival itself.
For more information on More Gardens! visit https://www.moregardens.org .
