Gardens as green lungs
To The Editor:
Re “Code Green! C.B. 2 makes emergency plea to save Eliz. St. Garden” (news article, Oct. 1):
We might want affordable housing. We might want an urban garden. But what we need, and will die without, is oxygen.
The Elizabeth St. Garden — like all New York City parks and gardens — provides beauty and respite. But more importantly, the mature-growth trees and plants provide life-sustaining oxygen to breathe, act like a sponge to soak up toxins in the air, and mitigate climate change.
Protecting and preserving New York City’s green lungs is necessary for public health, environmental health and quality of life.
A.S. Evans
Gardener: Put housing first
To The Editor:
Re “Code Green! C.B. 2 makes emergency plea to save Eliz. St. Garden” (news article, Oct. 1):
A publicly accessible garden — not the private profit-making showcase that has been here — began only after it was known that this was slated for affordable housing.
There are poor people all over this neighborhood — often invisible to those who feel more entitled to be here — despite the gentrification that forced many out.
Then there is the issue of whose “speech” gets heard or amplified. Who asks and gets The New York Times to write an op-ed on their behalf? Who has the wherewithal and agency to lobby for what they want?
I’m a gardener. I garden in three gardens in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. These gardens and the historic Liz Christy Garden are very nearby and many of us who live in the Little Italy district joined these gardens. Though all references the night of the L.M.D.C. hearing were to Soho and Noho, Chinatown and the Lower East Side are here, too, just as close by. The fallacy of the comment worrying about expenses for seniors at 21 Spring St. — anyone trying to save money shops in Chinatown!
K Webster
What would Purple say?
To The Editor:
Re “Adam Purple, gardens godfather, 84, dies biking on Williamsburg Bridge” (news article, Sept.17):
I recall walking through this garden in the 1970s when I lived at 131 Eldridge St. It was a magnificently beautiful spot and a respite from the concrete jungle that is Manhattan. I do recall a big sign posted in the garden that warned people not to vandalize it at the risk of being shot with a shotgun.
This individual, Adam Purple, was obviously a rebel, an iconoclast of sorts — but a constructive rebel. Creating a beautiful garden provided access to nature for people living in city buildings, amid cars, machines, etc.
Here in my Grand St. co-op the management destroyed a beautiful garden — although they left untouched the circumference, which includes many trees and some grass and land. The motive was to build a playground to attract apartment buyers. And now a beautiful garden on Elizabeth St. is being threatened by a plan to build affordable housing there.
There is obviously a strong need for affordable housing but, I can imagine Adam Purple’s response:
“My son, Michael, the destruction of these gardens reflects the dehumanization of your society in general. That is, the loss of humanity in the masses of Americans drives the destruction of these gardens.”
Michael Gottlieb
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