Fwd: Fiends of Bellevue Sobriety Garden - Help Needed!

**A*@aol.com**

From: DHuntin42@aol.com
Full-name: DHuntin42
Message-ID: <31b.59bd9b2.31c890cb@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 19:44:11 EDT
Subject: Fiends of Bellevue Sobriety Garden - Help Needed!
To: Adam36055@aol.com, Kirbyplant@aol.com, ellenkirby@bbg.org,
  CARL160@aol.com, bfeldt@verizon.net, thuxley@bpcparks.org
CC: annatina.miescher@med.nyu.edu, bigpup@mindspring.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

This email is part of the campaign to save Bellevue Hospital's Sobriety 
Garden.  Please circulate this email to your networks.

From: Deborah Huntington
          Friends of the Bellevue Sobriety Garden
         (email: dhuntin42@aol.com)

Hi - I am writing to ask your assistance.  There are TWO IMPORTANT MEETINGS 
this week at which it would be important to have members of the public, 
specifically folks who would identify themselves as a Friend of the Sobriety Garden.  
I  have to leave town on Wednesday morning and am unable to attend either 
meeting.

The most important of the two meetings is on Thursday evening, June 22,  
(6:00 pm -- NYU Medical Center, 530 First Avenue at 32nd St., Lecture Hall "B" -- 
the security guard at the door can direct you).  It's the Subcommittee on 
Human Services of Community Board 6, and the future of the garden is  the big 
agenda item.  The meeting will be attended by the top Bellevue brass plus 
representatives of many local politicians.  It's the place where the hard questions 
will be put directly to Bellevue's decision makers.   We are looking for 1) 
garden supporters to attend; and 2) a volunteer to read a brief (half page) 
statement (which I am happy to write) on behalf of the Friends of the Sobriety 
Garden. Patient-gardeners will be present and will speak, but the staff of the 
recovery programs are not allowed by Bellevue, so a good showing on their behalf 
would be important.  Please contact me if you can read the statement or help in 
some other way! 

Also important is the Wednesday June 21 meeting of the Bellevue Community 
Advisory Board, which will meet at 6:00 pm at Bellevue Hospital (462 First 
Avenue, at 28th Street, in "the Rose Room," 12th floor.)  We are also on the agenda 
here and hope to have supporters in the audience.  There may be a chance to 
speak as well.  

Update
The good news is that we've gotten a lot of support from local politicians, 
including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Community Board 6, Council Member 
Garodnick and others.  There are people on the Bellevue Community Advisory Board 
who support the Garden, and more than 150 people have signed our on-line 
petition.  

The bad news is that the Bellevue administration insists that there is no 
negotiating room, and they are twisting the arms of many administrators to fall 
in line behind the decision.  Staff are still afraid for their jobs and can't 
speak out; Bellevue has put up a firewall on its internet system to prevent 
people from going to our website (www.saveourgarden.org).  They have launched a 
public relations campaign claiming that they the Sobriety Gardeners are 
supporting Bellevue's alternative proposals (see below), which is not the case.

Issues

Bellevue wants to pave over most of our therapeutic garden (leaving us only 
the area on top of the diesel tanks, which we can't plant!) to create up to 64 
parking spots to help compensate for the loss of 250 parking spots due to the 
nearby construction of the East River Science Park (NYC's Economic Development 
Corp.).  

We do not believe that Bellevue has approached the parking issue in a 
systematic way, and urge them to:

* Undertake a census of exactly WHO is parking in the current lot to 
determine whether they are in fact Bellevue employees and whether their job 
necessitates having a car;  
* Publish staff guidelines clarifying who is eligible for subsidized parking, 
and apply these criteria across the board in a consistent fashion, without 
favoritism;
* Explore other parking options, including closing petitioning the city to 
keep the block on East 27th Street between First Avenue closed and the FDR (this 
street has been closed off for several years due to nearly -finished 
construction), and contracting with local parking vendors.

Bellevue has offered our garden alternative space which is not acceptable. 
These include:
* Two non-contiguous strips in the front of the hospital which total 6% of 
our present garden's area, in a landscaped, public venue;
* The area in our current garden which is over the emergency generator diesel 
tanks (unplantable).

Come See the Garden for Yourselves!

The Friends of the Bellevue Sobriety Garden join with the patients in the 
recovery clinics to invite you to a Garden Party on Wednesday, June 28, to come 
see why so many visitors, patients and staff love this garden.  Visit our 
website for details -- www.saveourgarden.org.

And again, thank you for your support.

______________________________________________________
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