AG settlement is unfair!

I am glad to hear from Ms. Helen about the flaws in the settlement between Spitzer and the City. Someone has to say it. When I saw that there was a settlement, and was overjoyed, but then looked to see that nearly all of the 17 gardens I worked with last summer in the South Bronx, Brownsville and East New York were slated for "immediate development" under the New Foundations Home Ownership Program. The program is creating market rate housing (the homes will cost upwards of $150,000), and this reality has been hidden by the New York Times. These beautiful gardens, including Ms. Mason-Boykin's garden, the Over 50 garden, will now have to make way for expensive houses in neighborhoods with tons of vacant lots (I can think of five or six right by Over 50).

         I'm in Austin, Texas, itching with a feeling of injustice and powerlessness, and hope that grassroots activists will work with these folks, either helping them build new gardens through the relocation process or through any means that they have or can improvise, to ensure that Ms. Helen and others like her get to keep their beautiful gardens. Good luck out there, and remember that every garden destroyed is unacceptable. It may be called unavoidable, but we should always remember that it is unacceptable.

In solidarity,

David Peterson

 


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