(no subject)

**Donald Loggins d*@aol.com**

City Limits WEEKLY
Week of: May 30, 2006
Number: 537

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DOWN THESE
GREEN STREETS
Book salutes the Lower East Side's community gardens. > T. Adams

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Loisaida: NYC Community Gardens; By Michela Pasquali; Linaria Books; $30
Loisaida, the name bestowed upon the Lower East Side by its large
Puerto Rican population, is the site of more than 60 community
gardens. In this new book, Loisaida--NYC Community Gardens, Michela
Pasquali, an Italian landscape architect, traces the life of these
miniature oases from the first vacant lot seized by young activists
in the 1970s to their precarious future thanks to the neighborhood's
hot new status in the real estate world. Pasquali highlights the
largely improvised design and construction of the gardens and shows
how each functions as a cultural and social hub for the residents
that maintain them. Pasquali spent four years researching the book
and took most of its color photos. Her lens penetrates the myriad
lush hideaways where hollyhocks, prune trees and snapdragons brush up
against stuffed animals, bathtubs and Madonna statues. The book, with
parallel columns of English and Italian text, concludes with concise
profiles of groups like Green Guerillas and New York Restoration
Project, which were integral in sustaining the floral spaces, and
essays by two Italian scholars and community garden enthusiasts.
bThus that garden that peeks out from the rubble between two tall
19th-century tenements represents a small (or even tiny) act of
insubordination,b writes Mario Maffi, a professor at the State
University of Milan. bAgainst landlords, real estate, master plans,
the time work (or unemployment) robs day after day from
life.b [05/30/06]

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Got comments, tips, questions or corrections for City Limits editors?
Contact editor@citylimits.org.

Donald Loggins
dlogg60798@aol.com

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