Facing eviction, the Elizabeth Street Garden in Little Italy is making a last-ditch effort. New York City celebrities Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Patti Smith wrote letters to Mayor Eric Adams this week, asking him not to build an affordable senior housing development on the community garden’s city-owned site. That plan was approved in 2019 but has been delayed by legal challenges. The A-listers join thousands of residents who are resisting replacing the unique green space with apartments despite the city’s current housing crisis. Demolition of the garden could begin next month after the nonprofit that runs the garden lost two separate court cases.

Elizabeth Street Garden is a 4,000-square-metre community garden that was transformed from wasteland into a unique park by Allan Reiver, who had leased the area from the city since 1991. Reiver, who died in 2021, filled the garden with items he found at estate sales, such as a gazebo, a 20th-century balustrade and lion sculptures.

The garden was not officially opened to the public until 2013, when plans emerged to build affordable housing there. “The only thing you could do was open it to the public,” Reiver said in a 2019 interview with 6sqft. “Let the public defend it. Let the public fall in love with it.”

The new project, called Haven Green, approved by the City Council in 2019, calls for 100 percent affordable housing for low-income seniors, including some formerly homeless New Yorkers, as well as space for Habitat for Humanity and a public garden.

“When I was growing up, Little Italy was more or less a concrete jungle. We played in the alleys,” Scorsese said. “There was no shade, no greenery, no quiet – something every neighborhood needs. The makeup of Little Italy may be different, but the need for a beautiful, refreshing oasis like the Elizabeth Street Garden has not changed.”

The Goodfellas director added: “The space is relatively small and I’m sure there are many other places in the city that would accommodate more space and a larger number of units. The destruction of this garden would be a sad development for the neighborhood and the city.”

In 2019, the nonprofit Elizabeth Street Garden (ESG) filed suit against Haven Green, claiming the city failed to properly assess the environmental impact of destroying the garden. While a state Supreme Court judge agreed and halted the project in 2022, an appeals court last year overturned the ruling and allowed development to proceed.

According to The Real Deal, the group also appealed the city’s eviction notice, but a judge ruled in the city’s favor. The Garden received an eviction stay until September, but must pay about $100,000 in back rent.

De Niro pleaded with the mayor to save the garden. “I support increasing the supply of affordable housing… but I also care about preserving the character of our neighborhoods.”

“Mayor, you lead a great city. And you know that resources like the Elizabeth Street Garden serve the people who make our city great. Removing the Elizabeth Street Garden means erasing part of our city’s unique cultural history and heritage.”

Singer-songwriter Smith echoed similar sentiments: “The Elizabeth Street Garden is a completely unique public sanctuary where art, nature, literature and activism coexist peacefully. Flowering fig trees, flowers and ivy frame historic sculptures and enchant all who visit.”

Smith added, “Affordable housing and green space are essential assets and should not be pitted against each other. The community had presented several options to build nearby without destroying the garden. Our great city is in danger of becoming an uncontrolled developer’s paradise, and we rely on your help to set a lasting precedent for how New York City will protect public art and green space for the future.”

The city does not seem to be swayed by the letters. HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. told the New York Times: “It really doesn’t matter who sends a letter. I’m sure the letter writers they have recruited in some cases do not know the full context of the history of the place, let alone understand the crisis we are facing.”

The crisis is a vacancy rate of 1.4 percent, the lowest rate ever recorded. Officials consider a vacancy rate of less than 5 percent a “housing emergency.”

The Adams administration is addressing the shortage with a goal of building 500,000 new homes over the next decade. The mayor signed an executive order on Wednesday that directs each city department to assess whether housing can be built on its property.

“If there is a piece of land under city control that has even the slightest potential for creating affordable housing, our administration will take action,” Adams said.

“To solve the generational affordable housing crisis, we must bring new innovative ideas to the table and engage all city agencies to help New Yorkers create housing, whether they are directly involved in housing creation or not.”

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