FROM THE GROUND UP A PETITION TO PROTECT NEW YORK CITY’S COMMUNITY GARDENS

The petition argues that New York City's community gardens provide essential public health, environmental, and social benefits, yet remain vulnerable to development due to a lack of legal protections. It requests the designation of forty specific gardens as Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs) and a broader assessment to grant CEA status to all City-owned gardens. The document details how these spaces mitigate urban heat and flooding, improve food security in 'food deserts', and support mental health and social cohesion, particularly in marginalized Black and Latinx communities.

• Community gardens mitigate public health risks by filtering particulate air pollution, which is particularly critical in areas like The West Bronx where vehicular pollution is nearly 300 percent higher than the State average.
• Gardens counteract the 'urban heat island effect' by providing shade and supporting evapotranspiration, offering relief in neighborhoods with high Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) scores.
• Community gardens address food insecurity in 'food deserts' and 'food swamps' by providing fresh produce and educational programming on healthful eating.
• Gardens provide significant mental health benefits and stress relief through access to 'nearby nature' and horticultural therapy, which can help treat depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
• Community gardens contribute to New York City's hydrological resilience by absorbing stormwater runoff, diverting approximately 165 million gallons of water annually, which is 11 percent of the Department of Environmental Protection's 2030 goal.
• The gardens support urban biodiversity by providing essential habitats for pollinators, native plants, and wildlife, such as opossums that help control pests like roaches and rats.
• Community gardens facilitate social integration and rehabilitation, exemplified by the Brook Park Youth Farm’s Alternatives-to-Incarceration Program, which reduces recidivism rates for youth in the criminal justice system.
• Gardens provide economic opportunities through urban agriculture, such as the production of 'The Bronx Hot Sauce', which generates funds for garden programming and stipends for participants.
• Community gardens support the City's Zero Waste initiative through independent composting programs; for example, BK Rot at Know Waste Lands Community Garden diverted seventy tons of food waste in 2018.
• Despite their benefits, community gardens lack strong legal protections; the 2002 Memorandum of Agreement has lapsed, and courts have generally declined to extend the public trust doctrine to these spaces.

APA

Earthjustice (2020). FROM THE GROUND UP A PETITION TO PROTECT NEW YORK CITY’S COMMUNITY GARDENS. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nyc_communitygardens_2020_midres.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. FROM THE GROUND UP A PETITION TO PROTECT NEW YORK CITY’S COMMUNITY GARDENS. 2020. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nyc_communitygardens_2020_midres.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=FROM THE GROUND UP A PETITION TO PROTECT NEW YORK CITY’S COMMUNITY GARDENS |date=November 2020 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nyc_communitygardens_2020_midres.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2020from, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{FROM THE GROUND UP A PETITION TO PROTECT NEW YORK CITY’S COMMUNITY GARDENS}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/nyc_communitygardens_2020_midres.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }