Facing Eviction, Marte Pushes Last Minute Proposal to Spare Elizabeth St. Garden

A new proposal by city council member Christopher Marte could save Elizabeth Street Garden, the serene sculpture garden in Little Italy, and also save an adjacent courtyard, which has fallen victim to the development planned for the site.

On October 2, the city handed Elizabeth Street Garden an eviction notice to vacate its plot by Thursday, Oct. 17 and make room for a new development called Haven Green.

But so far the Adam’s Administration has not changed course. New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which owned the prime one-acre real estate with an estimated market valuation of over $40 million sold it to three developers–Pennrose and the nonprofit organizations, RiseBoro Community Partnership and Habitat for Humanityy–for $1, in return for their pledged to build a 123-unit affordable rental apartment complex for senior citizens and a public park.

Tens of thousands of letters have been sent to Mayor Adams, who had the power to veto the eviction, imploring him to save the garden. Its many boosters point that in addition to be a relaxing piece of greenery, it was also the scene of nearly 200 free programs per year, including poetry readings, live music, and movie screenings..

New York icons including actor Robert DeNiro, director Martin Scorsese and poet Patti Smith joined the public outcry to preserve the artistic green space. “Our great city is in danger of becoming a developer’s unchecked haven,” Smith wrote while De Niro reminded the mayor that supporting “affordable housing” is as important as “preserving the character of our neighborhoods.”

At his press availability on September 10, Mayor Adams emphasized to Straus News, “We have a housing crisis in the city,” and Haven Green will provide housing for seniors, who “need housing.”

But city council member Christopher Marte, who represents the first district, which includes Little Italy, wrote in an email newsletter on October 4 that “the City isn’t actually interested in building affordable housing.”

In his letter, Marte said he put a “triple win solution... on the table” that would move the affordable housing funds to other sites which are currently slated for “100% luxury” apartment developments.

Elizabeth Street Garden executive director, Joseph Reiver, who is working with Marte, told Hyperallergic that “much of the media coverage” makes it seem like “we’re against housing.” Reiver said, “I’ve been working day in and day out to get affordable housing in this neighborhood, just not at the expense of this [garden].”

Regarding the green space the garden offers city residents, Mayor Adams assured Straus News, “there’s going to be park green space in the new project.”

The mayor failed to mention, however, that the creation of this new “park green space” requires taking away a large portion of a private courtyard that belongs to low-income seniors, who live next to the garden at 21 Spring Street in an apartment building known as LIRA, or Little Italy Restoration Apartments.

The 152 rental homes were originally built in 1981 to provide low-income housing for local residents of Little Italy. Under Section 8, eligible tenants pay a maximum of 30 percent of their adjusted gross income toward their rents. The private courtyard borders the garden and is currently separated from it by trees and an 80-foot long fence.

The lot, which is currently inhabited by Elizabeth Street Garden, measures about 20,241 sq. Haven Green needs about 13,541 sq for their apartment building and the space they intend to rent to luxury retail stores to cross-finance the affordable housing, leaving only a small 6,700 sq. ft. for the public park of the project.

It was former council member Margaret S. Chin who brokered a deal that would allow the developers to use a chunk of the private courtyard next door for their public space. The only problem is, many LIRA residents don’t want a public park in what is now considered a private courtyard.

“I live in the back,” Valerie Martinez, 61, told Straus News on Labor Day. Martinez’s windows face the courtyard. “I am on the third floor,” she said, “and you can hear everything. And that’s just people talking, children playing. Now imagine people from the outside making all kinds of noise at all kinds of hours. Having this open to the public is a major mistake.”

Another LIRA resident, Debra Aquilino, told Straus News that the “courtyard was designated for this building. When they put up this building it was stated that we would have a private park... I mean, I am here 44 years, I raised my kids here, in this yard they grew up. It’s not a public park.”

Jennifer Romine, another LIRA tenant, told Straus News that many residents are scared to speak out against the new development, because they are under the impression that the affordability of their own homes is contingent on giving up their courtyard.

This is because Chin’s deal connected the extension of the LIRA affordability property to the Haven Green development. “The preservation of LIRA also entails a plan to provide additional public green space in cooperation with the abutting Haven Green development,” a press release from Chin’s office from September 23, 2021 reads.

In an email to Straus News on September 4, chief strategy officer and EVP at Habitat NYC, Matthew Dunbar, wrote, referring to the LIRA homes, “We are proud of the innovative deal... that also preserved the affordability of the more than 150 neighboring homes, which was scheduled to expire.”

HPD’s communications director, Ilana Maier, agreed in her email to Straus News on the same day, “Also very important to note, the affordability of the Lira was expiring and HPD negotiated 60 more years of affordability for the residents as well as improved garden space combined with the next door lot.”

But the affordability was not actually expiring. It had already been extended in 2020 for twenty years, Kelly Magee, the media contact LIRA’s current landlord, LIHC Investment Group, wrote Straus News in an email on September 9. “The extension in 2020 was unrelated to Haven Green. It was the result of a refinancing by LIHC.”

The next extension, which came in 2021, made under article XI, a tax abatement, added another 40 years to the affordability, and was connected to Haven Green project by Chin, but, as Magee explained to Straus News on the phone, the affordability is “not contingent” on the new development.

LIHC Investment Group, which was founded 25 years ago and was described as “one of the nation’s largest real estate firms committed to the preservation of affordable housing” by the Rockport Mortgage Corporation, owns dozens of affordable housing units and, thus, does not depend on a development like Haven Green to finance its affordability extensions.

“To me it’s pretty clear,” Jennifer Romine told Straus News on October 14. “They don’t want tenants to speak up about their legal right to privacy and quiet enjoyment of their homes. They are counting on tenants being scared of losing their affordable homes and linking the courtyard and the extension of the affordability is a way to further exploit tenants’ vulnerability and fears.”

On its website, Haven Green, promises that the “expanded green space” will undergo an “open public participatory design process to ensure 21 Spring Street residents have a say in the expanded plan.”

HPD’s press spokeswoman, Ilana Maier, told Straus News in her email, that “a portion of the courtyard will be merged with the Haven lot” and that it would “feature many improvements over the courtyard (which is mostly cement and underused by the residents since it is not as nice as the section 8 residents deserve!).”

But the LIRA tenants Straus News spoke to like the courtyard the way it is. Sarah Spinosa said, “I like this being private. I use this courtyard every day. We read, we talk, we socialize. My mother lived here. I’ve lived here in this neighborhood 93 years. If I come down, all my friends are here. We love it here.”

Romine finds it offensive “that this deal which is being sold as being in service for low income seniors screws so many low income seniors in the process. The hypocrisy of claiming to be providing 123 affordable units to low income seniors meanwhile screwing over 400 low income tenants next door is stunning.”

The eviction notice to Elizabeth Street Garden expires on Thursday, October 17. As we were heading to press, it was unclear if the city planned to send a marshal to padlock the garden.