Critical Environmental Area

Two bills have been introduced in the New York State Legislature for a vote – calling for community gardens to be designated as Critical Environmental Areas
Both bills have the same wording and purpose which read in part as follows: 

Requires the community gardens task force [of the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets] to conduct an assessment of all community gardens located on publicly owned land in the state to facilitate each garden’s designation as a critical environmental area. 

A Critical Environmental Area (CEA) is a geographic area with exceptional or unique character with respect to one or more of the following: 

  • a benefit or threat to human health
  • natural setting such as fish and wildlife habitat, forest and vegetation, open space, and areas of important aesthetic or scenic quality; 
  • agricultural, social, cultural, historic, archeological, recreational, or educational values; or 
  • an inherent ecological, geological, or hydrological sensitivity that may be adversely affected by any change. 

On Monday,  the State Senate passed CEA Bill S629A.

Now Assembly Bill A4139A is before the members of the State Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee.

Assembly Bill A4139A calls for a regulatory Process by which community gardens can be officially designated as CEAs.

When passed this will raise the “environmental impact review process” bar in order to help preserve & protect community gardens as CEAs. 

Both bills have the same wording and purpose which read in part as follows: 

Requires the community gardens task force [of the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets] to conduct an assessment of all community gardens located on publicly owned land in the state to facilitate each garden’s designation as a critical environmental area. 

The State Senate bill was sponsored by State Senator Leroy Comrie. He represents the 14th Senatorial District of Queens 

The State Assembly bill (A4139A) is sponsored by State Assemblymember Donna A. Lupardo and co-sponsored by State Assemblymember Steven B. Raga

Assemblymember Lupardo is the Chair of the Agriculture Committee She represents the 123rd Assembly District, which includes  Binghamton,  Vestal, and Union, the villages of Johnson City,  and Endicott 

LupardoD@nyassembly.gov

Assemblymember Raga represents the 30th Assembly District of Woodside, Elmhurst, Maspeth, Jackson Heights, Astoria, and Middle Village. 

ragas@nyassembly.gov

The Assembly bill A4139A is currently in the committee review phase before the very powerful Assembly Ways and Means CommitteeThis is the link where you can see information regarding the status of the Assembly bill: 

Please visit by email, phone or in person, the members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, including the Committee Chair, Helene E. Weinstein, in order to communicate yoursupport for the Critical Environmental Areas Designation of community gardens along  

Albany Office: Legislative Office Building, Room 612, Albany, NY 12247, 

PROTECT COMMUNITY GARDENS 

Contact members of the Ways and Means Committee and tell them why you support this effort to protect the gardens and why the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee should vote in favor of the bill. The members of the Ways and Means Committee can be found HERE
 
 

SPRING AWAKENING 2023

SPRING AWAKENING kicks off with our parade led by BATALA, through the Streets beginning at 11am at El Sol Brillante, 522 E. 12th St between Aves A & B, walking east to Avenue C, south on Avenue C to E. 7th St, west on 7th to Tompkins Square Park, meandering through the Park and ending at Avenue B and 9th St.

Avenue B & 8TH ST

1 PM FREE Pony rides, WITH CHARLIE AND NUGGET

PLEASE sign the pony ride waiver to saddle up

Toy Makers workshop

BRING Your old and broken toys and make them into new.
Sonny & Sara reinvent timeless characters and cherished heroes into new, one-of-a-kind friends and legends. You are invited to get creative and build your own creations out of up-cycled toys!

2pm Hawk Nest Tour with NYC Park Rangers Rob and Grant, meet at 8th St & Ave B

In the GARDENS

DeColores, 313 E.8th St btwn Aves B & C

2pm Poetry 

with Eileen DOSTER and friends 

Music

3pm Victor & Carmine and friends

4pm “FAITH” with Felice Rosser

5pm Kid Java

6B  GARDEN, the corner of Avenue B & 6th St

1 pm Let’s make Art!!

Outside on garden fence Art around the Garden, we provide canvas 

La Plaza Cultural, the corner of Avenue C & 9th St

12-3pm Earth Celebrations Climate Solutions Mural Workshop

Crafts from Campos Garden

GreenThumb bringing us the Goods

Loisaida Center Ecolibrium Project

1 pm Wendy Brawer’s Green Infrastructure Tour

1pm time’s up Bike repair class

2pm time’s up garden tour bike ride

4pm time’s up free sailing school
PLUS in Conjunction with

the Earth Month convergence!!

11th Street Community Garden, 422 E.11th St, Between First Ave & Ave A

3-7pm MUSIC

Gina Healy & James Tilson

Coby Petric

Thursday 9/30/2021 LUNGS X Fest schedule

4:30 pm Kids & Family  Socially distant Tango Tangles class. Dance tango connected via a rope, host DD Maucher. 

De Colores Community Yard & Cultural Center, 8th St (Aves B &

 

 

 

 

 

 6pm Standup Comedy: Joan Reinmuth and Nature Boi Comedy

Green Oasis, 8th St (Aves C & D)

6:30p Music. Family PLAN: Immaculately conceived in 2018 in Brooklyn, Family Plan is an aesthetically diverse three-person extraction. The contemporary jazz trio consists of the Canadian pianist Andrew Boudreau and two Chileans, Vicente Hansen and Simón Willson, on drums and bass, respectively. Family Plan has performed at venues such as Scholes Street Studio (NYC), Dièse Onze (Montreal), and the LilyPad (Cambridge), among others. Descendants in equal parts to the sensibilities of high- and low-brow music, Family Plan is performing this concert to celebrate the release of its eponymously-titled debut album comprised entirely of original compositions on Endectomorph

Festival Schedule for Wednesday 9/29/2021

Outside of Grace Exhibition Space: 182 Avenue C, Between 11/12th streets

4:30 pm  Kids: Run the Obstacle Course Challenge: painted decorated boxes become an obstacle for a children’s race course. Lead by runner & passionate health advocate Harry B. Lichtenstein.  

6:00pm Wellness: Herbal Class with Noreen Kelly, ND Free Medicinal Herbal Class.  We will learn how to identify medicinally viable plants, determine what is a “weed”, examine the traditional uses of these plants, look at some of the current science, and then make a tea.  All are welcome. https://www.naturopathnyc.com/

:30pm Social Protecting Wilderness: Ancient Forests and Our Future Breaths Learn about an ancient wild forest in the Yaak Valley, Montana – “the lungs of this continent” – that is under threat of being cut and sold for profit. – Write your own imaginings of what the forest has to teach us in our current age of fires – Create a silk wildflower that is native to the Yaak Valley that will be part of the body and organs of a 10-foot puppet installed in this forest.  – Integrate embodied artistic practice, political advocacy and community action.

Also Friday, Oct 1 at 182 Ave C & Saturday, Oct 2 at El Jardin Del Paraiso at 4th /5th between C&D

De Colores Community Yard & Cultural Center, 8th St (Aves B & C)

6:30 pm PERFORMANCE: Tim Cusack’s “I Ping the Body Electric” reimagines Walt Whitman’s iconic ode to the human anatomy from the perspective of a 50-something, HIV-positive gay man. This solo dance-theatre piece, co-created with director Patrice Miller, foregrounds Cusack’s queer, aging, “diseased” bodily presence as the focus of the performance, in the process disrupting and challenging normative valuations concerning “masculinity,” “youth,” and “health.” 

La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez (Ave C & 9th St)

FILMS 6pmGARBAGIA” RT: 10 minutes, Or how the trash was one.

6:30 pm Film: Demeter’s Daughter, Site Work version (1997) With intro by Tamar Rogoff RT: 58 minutes https://tamarrogoff.com/

9C Garden, corner of Avenue C & 9th St)

“Art around the Hood” Saturday, June 5

CALLING ALL ARTISTS

LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) is inviting all artists to paint your masterpiece in public on the fences of community gardens in the East village and Lower East Side.

Join us in “Art Around the Hood,” Saturday, June 5, Noon to 5pm.

as part of GreenThumb’s Open Gardens Day. We supply the canvas, you supply the paint and the talent. Make your statement, show your true colors  Sign up at  info@lungsnyc.org

20 Community Gardens are participating in Art around the Hood

LaGuardia Corner Gardens, 511 LaGuardia Place, Houston & Bleecker Sts

Petit Versailles, 247 E. 2nd St, B & C

Peachtree Garden, 221 E. 2rd St, B & C

Jardin Los Amigos, 221 E. 3rd St, B & C

Parque de Tranquilidad, 314 E. 4th St, C & D

El Jardin del Paraiso, 305 E.4th ST, C & D

6 & B Garden, 84 Ave B, 5th & 6th Sts.

6BC Botanical Garden, 624 E.6th St, B & C

Carmens’ Garden, 17 Ave C, 7th & 8th Sts

DeColores, 313 E. 8th St, B & C

Firemen’s, 360 E 8th St, C & D

Green Oasis, 370 E.8th ST, C & D

LaPlaza Cultural, 674 E.9th ST, corner of C

9C Garden, 144 Ave C, corner of 9th St

11BC Serenity Garden, 626 E.11TH ST, B &C

East Side Outside, 415 E 11th St, 1st & A

El Sol Brillante, 522–528 E 12th St, A & B

Campos Garden, 644 E.12th ST, B & C

Vamos Sembrar, 197 Avenue B St, 12th & 13th Sts

Dias y Flores, 520 E. 13th St, A & B

There more events in various community gardens throughout the day, stay tuned to stay up to date.

QR code for LUNGS CSA

Please use with PayPal for the LUNGS CSA, $10 a week. Also send us your name, email address, mobile numbers and the date you would like to pick up your bag. Send to: CSA@lungsnyc.org

LUNGS CSA begins Sunday, July 12

We are starting the CSA this Sunday if you are interested.
It’s still $10 a bag, is open to anyone and the fresh produce comes from the Acevedos Family Farm of Orange county.

Pickup is at DeColores Community Garden, 313 E.8th St between B & C between 1-3pm
If you’d like you can prepay with Paypal: csa@lungsnyc.org

Please let us know if you would like to sign up.
thanks

Gardens closed, no license -no water, Petition to negotiate Greenthumb License

Because of the Corona pandemic, community gardens are closed by order of GreenThumb, effective immediately and until further notice community gardens may remain open or closed to garden members only at the discretion of each garden group, and only for absolutely necessary maintenance and season preparation.

This is in the best interest of everyone, we must protect each other and stay safe. Gardeners know well enough how to give each other space but you never know how interaction with the public may be dangerous given the current crisis.

There is no guidance to what constitutes “absolutely necessary maintenance and season preparation” but it would seem that this would include protecting, nourishing and watering plants.

However, last week it was announced that “Parks was directed by GreenThumb to not turn on internal water at unlicensed gardens.  Internal water access (along with deliveries and supply and plant distributions) is another form of material assistance that is not available to gardens that are unlicensed .“

In the midst of a global health emergency this is of grave concern.

This license impasse began last April. Since September the Parks Department has refused to meet with us to negotiate. We believe these issues can be resolved. We have been acting in good faith. We want to get back to gardening.

On March 13, at the City Council Parks budget hearing Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver was presented with a petition signed by more then 500 folks asking the Department to return to negotiations. Please join us and sign the petition below and share it with your friends and neighbors.

At the hearing, Commissioner Silver agreed to have the Parks Department meet with garden groups to discuss the license. See the video of the hearing HERE.

However, no meeting has yet to take place or be scheduled. Now is it the Parks Department policy to deny water in the midst of a public health emergency?

Surely this is a bureaucratic misunderstanding or oversight. We implore GreenThumb to correct this policy immediately, there is too much at stake

We have watched as GreenThumb’s tactics have devolved into threats, intimidation and reprisals. Now they are turning off the water?

Retribution is not an appropriate public policy. We have legitimate concerns about the GreenThumb license which many find confusing and repressive.

LUNGS and the New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) are asking you to join us and support our efforts to correct the GreenThumb License Agreement. We have been trying to bring the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Mayor’s Office, and the Office of the Corporation Counsel back to the table to negotiate in good faith and resolve the outstanding issues in order to achieve a fair and just GreenThumb community garden License. We have been requesting a meeting since September and gotten no response.

The program has been an extraordinary example of a City agency working hand and hand with 10,000 volunteers. Now these gardeners who steward city property are being denied a voice.

We also urge our elected officials to support the thousands of volunteers who have spent years working for to improve their communities and enhance the health and well being of their people.

[emailpetition id=”1″]