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Monday, April 12, 2010
Community Gardens Bloom in the LES
In 1986, it was a contaminated bus depot. Today, the stretch of land on 11th and 12th Streets between First Avenue and Avenue A is filled with students playing on the playground, running around the basketball courts, and sitting in the grass. The Open Road Park is just one of the Lower East Side’s many community gardens.
Of New York City’s 640 community gardens, over 10 percent are located in the Lower East Side, according to NY1 in June 2008. Walking through the neighborhood, businesses and residential buildings are broken up by fences struggling to contain greenery, giving the urban neighborhood a lively feel.
“I think it’s awesome that we have all this space,” said an East Side Community High School student relaxing in the Open Road Park on a Monday afternoon. “It’s a good hang-out spot for everyone.”
Situated next to East Side Community High School, the Open Road Park’s skate ramps provide a unique option: gym class. According to the New York Times, it is the city’s only skateboarding class offered for school credit.
The Open Road Park, and all other community gardens, are a part of GreenThumb. Established in 1978, GreenThumb is an urban gardening program operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation. Volunteers turn vacant lots into green space, which is then managed by neighborhood residents.
The Lower East Side has community gardens on nearly every block. Some are a tiny sliver between two buildings, like El Sol Brillante Junior on 12th Street between Avenue A and B, while others stretch for a third of the block, like the Open Road Park.
Each garden has a unique personality. Some, like El Sol Brillante (across the street from El Sol Brillante Junior), are private parks with more upscale amenities like playgrounds. Others, like the Relaxation Garden at Avenue B and 13th Street, are filled with quirky mismatching furniture and toys. A billboard standing in the corner of the Relaxation Garden reminds passerbys what the garden could have been.
The gardens are all gated, but that doesn’t mean they’re not welcoming. Hours are usually posted on the fence near the padlock for residents and strangers alike to stop by. All GreenThumb gardens are required to be open for a minimum of ten hours a week.
Movin' On Up.
In 2007, the Kannar family made a big move. 19-year-old Maeve Kannar was raised alongside older brother Will in the small shore town of Spring Lake, New Jersey, until the summer of her Junior year of high-school. Then, their parents decided it was time to go back to the city where they fell in love– but things would be a little different this time around...
"My parents lived in the Village when they were first married and they always wanted to move back," she recalls. Maeve's parents explained to their kids that they had always dreamt of being back in the city, with their friends, and that now they that the kids were old enough it was time. "But they really wanted a brownstone," she said, "and because of the drastic price changes they decided to compromise locations to get the living situation that they wanted."
So, they moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Crown Heights is bordered by Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, Ralph Avenue and Empire Boulevard.The average brownstone currently runs for $875,000. The Kannar family has been residing on Bergen Street since their move. And though they "miss their big kitchen" they say they couldn't be happier.
"It's the polar opposite of Spring Lake," Maeve said, "(which) was really, y'know, monotone."
In Spring Lake, the population is 98.77% White, .73% Hispanic or Latino, .34% African American, and .11% Asian, according to the census of 2000. Spring Lake is billed as "The Irish Riviera" and 39.4 % of residents identified as Irish-American, the highest percentage of any location in the US.
In Crown Heights, the population of students are 76% Black, 13% Latino, and 5% White according to a Community Snapshot of 2008, courtesy of nyc.gov. Crown Heights is "Half Hasidic Jews and half people from the West Indies," Kannar reports.
33% of children under 18 are living below the poverty line in Crown Heights and in Spring Lake there are zero.
"I feel way safer in Crown Heights," Kannar says, "Spring Lake was way too quiet, you could tell there was stuff going on under the surface. I feel like I was way more likely to get killed there."
But Crown Heights has a historically bad rap. In past decades it was known for a tumultuous racial climate and in turn high crime rates. After a Hasidic driver hit two black children, killing one, the Crown Heights Riot of 1991 ensued. The area was then given an endearing nickname... "Crime Heights".
"Originally we thought of it as a compromise of location but we really, really love it here," Kannar said, "It's so mixed culturally. I do miss my things, like my backyard from Spring Lake, but I'm really happy we ended up where we are now."
A Young Immigrant in Elmhurst Queens
Elmhurst, Queens is a quaint neighborhood just south of La Guardia Airport. Known for little more than the famous McDowell's (converted from a Wendy's) for the 80s movie "Coming to America" and the near by Queens Center Mall; its a minute blip on the often overlooked borough of Queens. Htat Lin Htut 18, a recent immigrant from Burma calls it home after migrating to the U.S. 4 years ago. He lives alone with his father an employee of the Staten Island Ferry, a single parent following a fatal accident in which his wife was struck by a speeding vehicle while crossing the street.
Htut is one Asian amongst many in a neighborhood 0f 104,000 with whites in the minority at 34% according to a NYC.gov poll in 2008. The majority often shifts between Asians and Hispanics currently 39% Asian and 43% Hispanic; the census fluctuates yearly and doesn't consider illegal immigrants. Elmhurst is a example of racial integration at work as well as the conflicts in culture that arise in it's wake.
"In my building because its so diverse, they play different music all the time. Spanish people would play loud Spanish salsa music. It would bother non-Spanish neighbors" said Htut speaking of his diverse 6 floor apartment complex at 42 Layton st. opposite the Elmhurst Hospital Center. It houses Dominicans, Mexicans, Filipinos, Chinese and Puerto Ricans among a myriad of other ethnicities. "Sometimes when the Spanish are playing loud music, a Chinese lady will come down stairs and scream at them saying fuck you and they scream fuck you too, I'll just be using my laptop listening."
According to Htut the drowning beat of Spanish music in the building will
go on into the night at times up to 2 am in the morning.
Elmhurst's immigrant communities play out much like they have throughout history with the key difference being the commercial mix-up of restaurants, clothing, and general stores that service the neighborhood creating a diverse choice in international cuisine, style and goods that rivals the neighboring Jackson Heights neighborhood often noted for its diversity along Roosevelt Ave. Socially however contrary government claims harmonious Utopian relationships among the various ethnicities are far from achieved as often residents segregate themselves within the confines of private and public space. Htut recently graduated from Newtown High School in Elmhurst where like most inner city High schools race and status plays a big part. "In the school blacks and hispanics would make fun of Asians, sterotype them" said Htut. Htut now attends Hunter College a CUNY melting pot of students from throughout the 5 boroughs.
"Theirs always something going on in the park in the summer. It's Called Broadway park (Clemont Clarke Moore Homestead Park). Lots of people around there go to that park, especially teenagers. They'll play football (Soccer). The Korean Church will always come by trying to convert people to Christianity" said Htut who gave a full description of the daily goings on of the park, a central point for the neighborhood.
Elmhurst is a unique neighborhood which is a testament to the diversity of New York City as well as a clear earmark of its flaws. For this teenager, who's moved here from the other side of the globe to be met with both hardship and laughs, its simply called home.
Htut is one Asian amongst many in a neighborhood 0f 104,000 with whites in the minority at 34% according to a NYC.gov poll in 2008. The majority often shifts between Asians and Hispanics currently 39% Asian and 43% Hispanic; the census fluctuates yearly and doesn't consider illegal immigrants. Elmhurst is a example of racial integration at work as well as the conflicts in culture that arise in it's wake.
"In my building because its so diverse, they play different music all the time. Spanish people would play loud Spanish salsa music. It would bother non-Spanish neighbors" said Htut speaking of his diverse 6 floor apartment complex at 42 Layton st. opposite the Elmhurst Hospital Center. It houses Dominicans, Mexicans, Filipinos, Chinese and Puerto Ricans among a myriad of other ethnicities. "Sometimes when the Spanish are playing loud music, a Chinese lady will come down stairs and scream at them saying fuck you and they scream fuck you too, I'll just be using my laptop listening."According to Htut the drowning beat of Spanish music in the building will
go on into the night at times up to 2 am in the morning.Elmhurst's immigrant communities play out much like they have throughout history with the key difference being the commercial mix-up of restaurants, clothing, and general stores that service the neighborhood creating a diverse choice in international cuisine, style and goods that rivals the neighboring Jackson Heights neighborhood often noted for its diversity along Roosevelt Ave. Socially however contrary government claims harmonious Utopian relationships among the various ethnicities are far from achieved as often residents segregate themselves within the confines of private and public space. Htut recently graduated from Newtown High School in Elmhurst where like most inner city High schools race and status plays a big part. "In the school blacks and hispanics would make fun of Asians, sterotype them" said Htut. Htut now attends Hunter College a CUNY melting pot of students from throughout the 5 boroughs.
"Theirs always something going on in the park in the summer. It's Called Broadway park (Clemont Clarke Moore Homestead Park). Lots of people around there go to that park, especially teenagers. They'll play football (Soccer). The Korean Church will always come by trying to convert people to Christianity" said Htut who gave a full description of the daily goings on of the park, a central point for the neighborhood.
Elmhurst is a unique neighborhood which is a testament to the diversity of New York City as well as a clear earmark of its flaws. For this teenager, who's moved here from the other side of the globe to be met with both hardship and laughs, its simply called home.
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