Re: Calling Adam! CG'ing in NYC

**A*@aol.com**

Hmmm...

Well, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon - I'm home with the flu and it's 
snowing heavily outside, grateful to have a roof over my head, drinking tea and 
coughing up nasty mung. My fingers seem to be the only part of my body, NOT 
aching, so I may as well type until the dogs have to be walked.  

Finding a Community Garden in NYC:

1)  If you know where you will be living, you can locate local gardens 
through Lenny Librizzi's Oasis community garden locator: 

http://www.oasisnyc.net/gardens/cenycmapsearch.asp

2) If you're going to be in town on March 19th, get thee to the Bronx! This 
is a large networking opportunity, where alas, I won't be this year because I'm 
working. All of the major community gardening/greening groups will be there 
and you can collect phone numbers and e-mails. 

Saturday, Mar 19th, 2005
GreenThumb GrowTogether
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Bronx  
Join a thousand community gardeners form all over New York City for a day of 
learning, networking and greening inspiration at the 21st Annual GreenThumb 
GrowTogether.  There will be a full day of workshops on horticulture, as well as 
arts and crafts.  Check-in begins at 9 AM, and breakfast will be served from 
9 AM to 9:45 AM.

Those who pre-register are guaranteed a free lunch and t-shirt.  If you do 
not pre-register you will not receive a lunch or t-shirt. Please call the 
GreenThumb office by March 2nd at (212) 788-8070 if you would like to register for 
this event. 

 Location:
Hostos Community College - 149th Street & Grand Concourse. Take the 2,4,5 
trains to the 149th Street stop, or the Bx1or Bx19 buses to Grand Concourse

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/upcoming_events/events.php?id=21641

3) Please feel free to visit the Clinton Community Garden, on West 48th 
Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues. There are always volunteers around on  the 
weekends, when we keep the gates open, but whenever you come by, if there is a 
keyholder inside the garden, they are obliged to let you in. The Clinton 
Community Garden's gate protects, but does not exclude. If you are going to live or 
work within our catchment area - 59th -34th, from the West Side of 8th Avenue to 
the Hudson River, you can get a key to the garden. 

Our website :http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/ . 

4) Here is the website of the Green Guerillas - you can try hooking up with 
some local gardens through them: http://www.greenguerillas.org/

5) This is the NY Restoration Project that manages a number of Community 
Gardens: 
http://www.nyrp.org/

6) The Trust for Public Land manages a number of community gardens, 
transferring a large number to a land trust. Please contact Joane Morse at the Trust 
for Public Land for more details: 
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cdl.cfm?content_item_id=12685&folder_id=1805

7) In addition to our community gardens, there are a plethora of volunteer 
gardening opportunities throughout the city, largely because NYC only funds it's 
park system at 3/10ths of one percent of it's total budget. Comparing "apples 
to apples," as it were, Chicago funds it's Park System through Cook County at 
4% of the total budget. New Yorkers for Parks ( formerly the Parks Council) 
is working to organize neighborhood activists to push our city's  elected 
officials to fund our parks at a minimum of 1% of our budget.  The Parks budget 
having been cut to the bone, welfare recipient are put to work doing cleaning, 
raking, and performing rountine park tasks in the place of a vastly depleted 
work force. Understand, this is for a Parks Dept that serves over eight million 
people.  

So - We have a defacto three tier parks system in NYC: 
1) The splendid revival of Central, Bryant and Madison Square Parks has been 
funded in large part by private conservancies, and business improvement 
districts. There are great volunteer gardening opportunities through the Central 
Park Conservancy and you might consider working with them in lieu of community 
gardening. You can find out more about these opportunites through the Central 
Parks Conservancy: http://www.centralparknyc.org/
You'll see a silly piece on the "Gates", the Cristo "art work" on the site - 
go past that to "job and volunteer opportunites. 

2) There are neighborhood parks throughout the Parks system that are 
maintained by neighborhood volunteers who, through political action, get extra funding 
through their local politicians and use the Partnerships for Parks for 
organizing tips: http://www.itsmypark.org/ 

3) Then there are the NYC Parks that haven't been touched, really, since 
Robert Moses' workmen left them 50 years ago. Unfortunately, these parks are in 
some of the most financially depressed areas of the city, where residents are 
more involved in subsistance. If you move into one of these areas, and you have 
the energy and will, setting up a local group to clean up and beautify the 
park will be hard, but very, very rewarding. 

NOTE: This is not the park's dept's fault, but the fact that for our elected 
officials, our parks are not worth supporting to the degree that they should 
be, out of plenary funds. Neighborhood activists get their local City 
Councilpersons to fund the renovation of Parks, but up-keep, staffing and programming 
are problematic, and need to be constantly advocated for. 

Where Credit is Due: Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe does an amazing job, 
marshalling  the resources he has, getting private contributions, getting funds 
from one-shot governmental sources and I sometimes believe, the air to keep 
our system going. And he's been a great supporter of community gardens through 
the Green Thumb program.  

TREE PITS: On the block where you will live, there will be street trees that 
will need help. With the local block association, or property owners, building 
superintendants, neighbors, you can help create gates around the perimeters 
to keep the dogs out, and to plant shade plants, impatiens, in built up pits, 
while making sure that you leave air and space for the crown of the tree roots, 
so the tree doesn't rot. 

OK, my dogs have their legs crossed, so it's out into the snow for me, and 
then back under covers with this bug. Any more questions, please contace me 
off-line. 

Adam Honigman

> Subj: [cg] Calling Adam! 
>  Date: 3/8/05 6:29:32 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: fassman@nova.edu
>  To: community_garden@mallorn.com
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Adam, I am moving to NYC in 3 weeks and am seeking advice about volunteering
> in a community garden there. Would you be able to steer me in the right
> direction?
> 
> 
> 
> Fran F.

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