FW: CYBERPARK: new threat to NYC gardens

H* A*

Friends: 

A little poem:

Springtime in NY
The crocuses and tulips are blooming. 
Love is in the air.
Is that the sound of a chickadee I hear?
No 
It's the growl of diesel engine.
 It's bulldozer season!
Springtime for Rudy in NYC!

More dispatches from the front....
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	nosc@treebranch.com [SMTP:nosc@treebranch.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, April 04, 2000 3:24 PM
> To:	cyberpark@treebranch.com
> Subject:	CYBERPARK: new threat to gardens
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> News from CYBERPARK@treebranch.com
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> This is the text of the lead story on this weeks newsletter to be
> broadcast
> tommorrow. Edie asked that I post it early. I was out of contact with the
> list for a couple of days, and needed some time to catch up. 
>  
> -dave lutz 
>  
> MAYOR TARGETS MORE GARDENS 
> Mayor Rudy Giuliani continued his reign of terror on community gardens
> last
> week in the form of a Request for Proposals to develop market rate housing
> on 47 NYC owned properties. In a city with over 11,000 truly vacant lots,
> to
> the best of our knowledge, 47 of the 66 properties chosen from the City's
> vast inventory were on the same sites as active Community Gardens. Over 20
> more gardens would be destroyed by this initiative alone. In the few short
> months since the cliffhanger purchase of more than 100 gardens by the
> philanthropic community, over 100 additional lots with gardens have been
> moving
> through the development process and are on bulldozer watch.  
>  
> Once again, the Mayor has used an administrative loophole to bypass the
> normal city processes, which allow Community Planning Boards to have input
> into
> their futures. Gardeners are denied the same due processes that most land
> with existing uses must go through. The UDAAP shortcut continues to be
> used
> even after HPD Commissioner Richard Roberts promised two-years ago not to
> dispose of land without Board input. Once again, the City, in its press
> release
> resorts to a big lie, saying, "these sites are among the last unimproved,
> derelict, and vacant lots in their communities". Once again, community
> gardens
> will be developed with no public discourse about the wisest use of city
> land, no planning for open space needs, and no requirement that truly
> vacant
> lots be developed first. Once again, community gardeners were not informed
> of
> the impending destruction of their green oases.   
>  
> While the Department of Housing Preservation and Development continues to
> frame the issue as gardens vs. affordable housing, the one to four family
> homes to be built under this RFP will all be "market rate". According to
> HPD
> "There will be no income restrictions for homebuyers and no limitations on
> the
> rents which may be charged by any homebuyer for any rental"  
>  
> NYC has the smallest amount of parkland per thousand people of any
> American
> city. Brooklyn and Manhattan have 1.7 and 1.8 acres per thousand. Boston,
> the least well-served American City outside of New York has over 4 acres
> per
> thousand. Most American cities have over 6 acres of parkland per thousand
> residents 
>  
> 
> 
> 
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