#community-gardens

#community-gardens

Empty lots became dumping grounds for abandoned cars, tires, drug waste, and heaps of trash. By 1995, the situation was dire. That year, while driving her daughter to school on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Midler noticed the dismal conditions in Fort Tryon Park. Disturbed by the neglect, she got a group of friends together to clean and restore the site. From their hands grew the seed of what would eventually become NYRP.

He set up camp, and as other followed suit, began to build a little community: Toward one corner of the 15,000-square foot lot, Gilbert erected a pickleball net he said he found near Wilshire Boulevard. Behind the net, where people volley from time to time, is a small garden of tomatoes, cannabis and onions that he tends to. There are at least two barbecues, one propane, one charcoal.

This incredible win-win for our community shows exactly why we should never give up, said Marte. Since the beginning of this fight almost a decade ago...