NYC NOW - The Elizabeth Street Garden Fight Is Over. What Comes Next?

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Photo: Iru Ekpunobi Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail]. The long battle over Elizabeth Street Garden is over. Mamdani touts new housing plan. Family says stray voltage may have contributed to fatal Central Park carriage crash NYC homeless shelters are falling apart. Providers say the city’s fix-it process is broken. Congestion pricing hasn’t changed much about NYC’s air quality, city report finds   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenaille Fierre. It should be more affordable housing, but I don't know if the right answer is just to take the garden away. A long-time debate about the fate of Elizabeth Street Garden has come to an end. On today's show, we visit the garden that will remain untouched on the Lower East Side and discuss the debate of housing versus public space. But first, here are a few headlines we're watching. Remember the tragic story of 18-year-old Romance Mahajan?

He was visiting from India with his family when a horse bolted near the Cherry Hill Fountain in Central Park back in June. The incident killed him. Now Romance's family is suing the city for over $100 million. The filings accused the city and several agencies of failing to address safety hazards involving the carriage industry. According to the lawsuit, the family says stray electrical voltage may have contributed to the horse's balting. The city law department declined to comment. The incident, which circulated on social media, has reignited a debate over the end of carriage rides. Where do you stand on the issue? Should New York City ban horse carriage rides or should the city keep them? Let us know your thoughts and why. Send us an

email at NYC now at WNYC.org. We may use your comments on a future episode. New York City's oldest shelter provider is calling on the Mamdani administration to come up with a plan on how it's going to repair its aging homeless facilities. Volunteers of America operates nearly two dozen shelters citywide. In a new report, the organization detailed the aging conditions of their facilities to show how it can take months or even years to get capital improvements approved. In the meantime, homeless New Yorkers can be left with windows that don't open in summer or sewage smells in the lobby.

City officials say they're committed to improving conditions and outcomes. It's been a year and a half since congestion pricing has taken effect in New York City, and it has had a minor impact on air quality. A recent Health Department report found that air quality within the zone actually improved a little bit. Opponents of congestion pricing had warned that it could worsen air quality along major highways and other boroughs, like the Cross Bronx Expressway. But the Health Department's report finds that hasn't happened yet. In fact, citywide air quality continues a nearly two-decade-long upward change.

trend. That's good news. After a decade of dispute, the fight over Elizabeth Street Garden has ended. For 10 years, Elizabeth Street Garden, that little green space on the lower east side, has been at the center of a very New York City housing debate. Should it remain a garden, or should the city use it to build affordable housing? I headed over to the garden to ask New Yorkers what they thought, and in typical New York City fashion, there was construction going on next door. Excuse to noise. Anyway, that didn't bother Regina Baderot and Ellie Quarty. They live in the area right around the corner.

They were sitting peacefully in the shade. So I asked them. Well, we love it as a garden, but maybe that's selfish. Like, okay, we're praying the rosary and, like, drinking our coffee. And, like, where else would we do this? You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah.

Lots of folks I talk to acknowledge that, yes, affordable housing is definitely. definitely needed. But they love the park too, like Jonathan McCarty. No, I think, I know. I mean, look, it should be more affordable housing, but I don't know if the right answer is just to take a garden away. The city had planned to build 123 affordable apartments for senior citizens right here. Garden advocates fought the proposal in court, and after years of legal battles, the city ultimately canceled the project. Now, the latest proposal would preserve the garden and move the housing project to another city-owned site at 22. Suffolk Street. WNYC housing reporter David Brand has been following this one since the very beginning. Hey, David, welcome to the show. Hey, Jeney. Take us back to the beginning, in fact. How did this little

garden become the center of such a big fight over housing and open space? Yeah, the little lot with the long contentious history. So some backstory here. It's a city-owned parcel of land and very congested part of Manhattan. Back in 1991, an antiques dealer in Gallagher. began leasing it from the city to use to store and display some of his sculptures and other wares. And eventually he kind of turned it into a garden, gave access to people to walk around and maybe sit there as well. And over time, it became pretty unique space. It's filled with sculptures and plants and trees. He and his family and volunteers maintained it. Around 2012, the city identified this city-owned site as a potential location for affordable senior housing.

eventual proposal became what's called Haven Green, it would be a seven-story building with 123 affordable apartments for low-income older New Yorkers, along with a separate publicly accessible open space. The city said the project and others like it are imperative for addressing the housing shortage here. That's hit low-income seniors, especially hard. But that's when the garden supporters really began to mobilize around preserving their unique green space. And so this project became emblematic of a larger debate over development and housing policy citywide. I'm wondering, David, is this just a question of NIMBY versus YIMB? You know, we talk about this all the time.

Yeah. And so for listeners who may not know NIMBY, not in my backyard versus Yimbi, yes, in my backyard, the counter movement, pro development movement that we've seen growing and gaining a lot of momentum in recent years. And so, you know, that is a big part of this. debate and dispute and why it has kind of touched a nerve with so many people beyond lower Manhattan because it really has become emblematic of some of these larger debates. But there is a lot of nuance here. So the garden advocates say, look, this is this precious piece of open space in a densely populated neighborhood. And once you destroy a special garden like this, you can't really

replace it. And on the other hand, the housing advocates are saying, look, New York City desperately needs affordable housing. There's a historic housing shortage. Rents are reaching record highs. Homeless shelters are swelling with tens of thousands of people. It's especially hitting seniors hard. And so this is exactly the kind of site the city needs to follow through with if there's ever going to be a chance to address and end that housing shortage. I mean, you're saying that this is the kind of site, but is it really? I mean, it's a beautiful garden. Well, that really taps into. the heart of the debate here. You know, housing versus public space versus who gets to make those decisions.

You know, this project did go through a lengthy public review process where the city council did approve the housing plan. It has withstood a number of lawsuits. And so supporters of the project say, hey, this is a cool garden, but look, we really need housing and the public has spoken. But the garden supporters say, build the housing elsewhere. We get that we need housing, but we want to preserve this space. After over a decade of debate, we finally know what's happening to Elizabeth Street Garden.

The garden is staying, but the affordable housing planned for the site is moving somewhere else. Coming up, how we got here, and why this compromise isn't a win for everyone. You're listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. After 10 years of fighting, we finally know what's happening to the Elizabeth Street Garden. The Garden is staying, but the affordable housing planned for the site is moving somewhere else. WNYC housing reporter David Brand has been following this fight for years. David, what changed to finally bring this fight to an end?

Well, it's been a series of legal fights dating back almost a decade. So the Garden supporters sued the city over the environmental review process and other aspects of the development plan. They won at one stage, lost on an appeal. Ultimately, the New York Court of Appeals ruled against the United States. Garden in 2024. And so at that point, it looked like the supporters of the Garden had basically exhausted all of their legal options. And back last year, in 2025, the New York City Housing Agency actually issued an eviction notice. Yeah, but then Eric Adams comes in with this whole big change, right? What happened then? Right. And that's when I became even more interested in this saga,

because Adams had been a staunch defender of the project. He had even gone to community town halls and was receiving questions and criticism from members of the community saying to protect the garden. And he said, no, we need housing and that he supported this plan to build housing on the site. But then, as you mentioned, in June 2025, he and his then deputy mayor, Randy Mastro,

announced that they were going to cancel the plan that he had supported and that city officials had backed for a number of years. And then about a month before he left office in November of 2025, he took another step, which was granting the land to the parks department and designating it as parkland. That really made developing the site a lot more complicated because if it's designated as parkland and becomes a legal park, then it's up to state lawmakers to reverse that. Yeah. Actually, David, a woman I spoke to at the park, she talked about this. and I'm sure some listeners may even remember what Randy Mastro did here, but is that what saved the Elizabeth Street Garden?

Well, you know, that's what Mayor Mammany says. I shared with New Yorkers that the actions of former first deputy mayor Randy Mastro made it nearly impossible for any future administration to be able to fulfill a vision of building housing on the Elizabeth Street Garden site. Reporters asked them about that in an unrelated press conference late last week, and he basically said, yep, that's why he had to back off his initial pledge to build the housing. So while we are working to resolve the lawsuit with the developers who were set to build upon that site, we continue to believe in the importance of building more affordable housing.

And that is why we are going to be building more than 180 homes at 22 Suffolk Street and more at 100 gold as well. How did we end up at that solution? On late Thursday, as we first reported, the developers of 50, dropped their lawsuit, meaning the garden will be preserved and that instead they'll be pursuing this housing plan on that site at 22 Suffolk Street. So we have a few more details about that. It's going to be a little more than 180 total units, 120 are going to be reserved for low-income seniors, and then another 60 or so are going to be reserved for other low-income tenants. The city says they're going to begin the land use review process, which takes between

six and nine months for that site starting by mid-20207, so another year from now. The developers have another year and a half or so to put together a financing agreement to actually pay to build the housing there. And then, you know, we'll see when construction actually begins, but it's looking like not before early 2028 and possibly later. So this is the end of a 10-year debate, David, but does this satisfy both sides? Well, it's the end of the debate, I guess, over this specific site and supporters of the garden are really rejoicing at this outcome, saying that this is what they wanted all along. But people who supported building the housing, this is a loss for them.

And they say it's a loss for the city as well because we don't know when the other housing that's supposed to be built instead of this project is actually going to begin, that they say we should have the housing at the Elizabeth Street Garden site and the other site. And that this, to them, this shows that if people complain enough and they have the resources and get the ear of people empowered, that they can overturn a public review process. So some people, the garden supporters, are rejoicing. Others who wanted the housing, this is a loss. And this definitely does not satisfy them. Okay. And David, before I let you go, is 22 Suffolk Street? Is that pretty close to the Elizabeth Street Garden or not?

Yeah, it's not far. Same general area. It's on the Lower East side. It's actually next to another big housing mega development called Essex Crossing that was constructed about a decade ago. Oh, yeah, I know what that is. Yeah, and so this sliver of land here was held for a number of years as the city considered building a school there. They have decided not to build that school, and that's what's making it possible to one day build the housing there. Okay.

That's WNYC's housing reporter, David Brand. Thanks a lot, David. Thanks, Janay. And thank you for listening to NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.