The Battle to save Elizabeth Street Garden in Little Italy: 'It’s so magical'

NEW YORK CITY - At first glance, it may look like any other green space tightly tucked into the heart of the concrete jungle.

For longtime resident Angel Marinaccio, it’s much more than that.

"It’s so magical. It’s like the secret garden. I love it," she says.

Elizabeth Street Garden is nestled between the cafés and restaurants of Little Italy, and for neighbors, it’s a hidden oasis – a respite from all the hustle and bustle.

"You come in here, and you look around, and you see these magnificent, beautiful statues and plants that they planted. Unbelievable," Marinaccio adds.

In 1991, Joseph Reiver’s late father, Allan, began leasing the small patch of land from the city.

He owned an art gallery next door and transformed the space into an outdoor extension of his work filled with stone sculptures, marble columns and sphinxes.

"The lease was mainly for the storage of sculptures, but he went beyond that and planted the foundation of, like, the trees, the grass area, and really worked on creating this design of what is essentially like its own work of art," Joe Reiver explains.

A non-profit run by Reiver has been managing the garden since 2013, the same year it was dealt a devastating blow: The city announced plans to build affordable housing there.

Advocates have been fighting for more than a decade to save the garden, which is home to movie nights, poetry readings, live performances and even annual Easter egg hunts.

The "High Priestess of Punk," Patti Smith, is one of them.

"Part of it is the sense of community, but also the surroundings that instill, like, it's sort of an innate joy," she says.

Smith, known for her smash hits, "People Have the Power" and "Because the Night" has been working alongside her daughter, Jesse, to salvage the embattled green space.

Both artists have been using their voices to try and sway city officials.

"When we're having a reading or reading poetry and singing, I’m looking out at the people, seeing families, seeing tourists strolling in from all countries of the world, Smith explains.

"I don't want to live in a city that isn't working to protect a place like this, and I certainly don't want to live in a city that takes these things away," Jesse Smith adds.

In May, a Civil Court judge ruled against the garden in a 2021 eviction case.

A month later, the New York State Court of Appeals handed down a six-to-one ruling allowing the city to proceed with its affordable housing project, setting a September 10th eviction date.

"We’ve been fighting very hard not only to preserve the garden, but to find a solution that gets more affordable housing at additional sites in the neighborhood," Reiver says.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development tapped Penrose LLC, Riseboro Community Partnership and Habitat for Humanity to build a 123-unit affordable rental complex for senior citizens set to include nearly 16,000 square feet of publicly accessible green space.

Ahmed Tigani is the department’s first deputy commissioner.

"What we were able to do here is put out a plan that allowed us to have the interim use, then transition into where we needed to go, which is making sure we built a project that was delivering on affordable housing that also now is delivering on open space so we can do both," he explains.

DPH officials say there was a lengthy process behind bringing the plan to fruition which included a public land use review, community engagement, votes from the local community board, Borough President, and City Council.

"We welcome the community to be part of that process and help us think about the programming here," he adds.

The fight to save the garden isn’t over.

The non-profit has appealed the eviction decision, and its legal team is looking into all other options.

The garden also launched a letter-writing campaign pleading the city to save this green space.

The initiative has yielded hundreds of thousands of letters from local schoolchildren, senior citizens, and iconic New Yorkers, including Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.

Marinaccio, in the meantime, is clinging to any last hopes of preserving the place she’s called home for more than three decades.

"If this is taken away, we'll have nothing," she adds.