A Missive from the Bronx

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jkthecat666@aol.com [mailto:Jkthecat666@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 3:18 PM
To: Jkthecat666@aol.com
Subject: More Gardens is in the house! again!

-- Please tell your friends--

Sunday, December 22
9:55 AM
Church of the Immaculate Conception
150th and Melrose, the Bronx
Subway: 2 or 5 to 3rd Ave & 149th  stop ("The Hub").
Church is one block away.

We especially encourage local Bronx residents to come
help.

Attitude: Respectful, friendly and festive: It’s the
holiday season! All flyering and direct outreach will
take place outside the church premises.

What we’ll be doing: Passing out flyers to congregants
and passersby (text to follow) and talking them one on
one about the importance of community gardens. The
Spanish-language mass is at 10:30. Some of us will
attend, and afterwards hand out flyers to people
coming into the 12:10 English-language mass. Then it’s
pizza party across the street!

Why: The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a
member church of South Bronx Churches (SBC), a housing
development corporation based in Westchester. The
local office of SBC is housed by the church. On
November 21, SBC, using their in-house contractor
Foresite Construction, bulldozed the Hostos-Crimmins
Community Garden. Three gardeners were arrested
earlier that morning and charged with criminal
trespass. This was a stealth move by SBC: The
gardeners were engaged in good-faith negotiations with
SBC to find another site.

Goal: To get a site for the Hostos-Crimmins gardeners
to do what they do best: Garden and create community.

Questions? Call More Gardens! at (917) 518-9987 or
e-mail digfreeny@yahoo.com

TEXT OF FLYER, ENGLISH VERSION

Hostos-Crimmins Garden will grow again!

South Bronx Churches (SBC) destroyed our garden to
build $200,000 townhouses.  Churches like yours pay up
to $4000 for membership in SBC. We agree that Mott
Haven needs new affordable housing.  However, there
are hundreds of ugly abandoned lots around here.  Why
destroy our garden?  We already had to move the garden
once before: We are tired of rebuilding.  We built the
garden in our spare time, with our own money and our
own labor. The garden was a sacred and beautiful place
providing many benefits to the community.

o It was a safe, drug-free community gathering space
o It was a source of food and medicine
oIt was an outdoor classroom and research center used
by Hostos Community College.

Please help the community out and call South Bronx
Churches honcho Lee Stuart: (914) 935-0110

Tell her the South Bronx Churches must:

1. Return the garden site to the community, or give us
a bigger one nearby—and make it PERMANENT!
2. Pay us back for what they destroyed or stole
3. Never again build on a community garden anywhere

Also please call Bronx Borough President Adolfo
Carrion: (718) 590-3500

Ask him to do what he can to help the Hostos
gardeners.
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