Gothamist

‘In the very, very beginning, it was about 3 feet of garbage’

We all know that property in New York City is valuable and space is at premium. How is the garden still here 50 years later?

We fought for it. Any time a developer came and wanted to do something here, we mobilized and said, you know, this is ridiculous … we got so much community support.

Talk to me a little bit more about how this space was utilized, even when it was trash-strewn, because people did come in here, right?

Not only did people come in here, two homeless people died here. One winter, they froze to death. There was a lot of drug dealing here.”