The Lower East Side’s community gardens are about to see some welcome improvements thanks to a $2 million resiliency grant. The announcement was made by the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) on its website:
NYCCGC is excited to announce that we are the recipient of Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery funding from the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) to undertake a feasibility study for stormwater capture best practices within the community gardens of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The study – Gardens Rising – will combine community based participation with engineering expertise, to develop a green infrastructure study and Master Plan to increase the permeability and stormwater capture within forty-seven neighborhood/community gardens located in Lower Manhattan… When completed the Plan will identify projects that will implement green infrastructure and stormwater capture systems to better outfit these gardens and neighborhoods. Each garden has its own governance and will be able to propose specific projects inside and adjacent to their lot(s). Flood Zone geography dictates areas that must be given priority.
The study area is roughly bounded by 14th Street on the north, the East River, Delancey Street on the south and Bowery/Fourth Avenue on the west. There will be a press event next week at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden to formally announce the project. We’ll have more following that event.
