The Elizabeth Street Garden in New York City’s Little Italy and SoHo neighborhoods is a one-acre public garden founded in 1991 by Allan Reiver, an artist and art dealer, who passed in 2021. The lot on which the garden has grown these many years is owned by the city and managed by the non-profit community group, Elizabeth Street Garden. Joseph Reiver, Allan’s son, is the current director of the group.
Since 2013, Joseph, along with the Garden’s community, have been fighting to preserve and protect this special art and community filled green space - one of few in this section of the city. In 2024, the Garden came under renewed threat of development, this time with increased vigor.
In today’s conversation between guest host Ben Futa and Joseph Reiver, we learn how the inspiring story of how the Garden is fighting back - taking a stand against the powerful interests that seek to erase more than 30 years of community, growth, and beauty. This is something of a David and Goliath story: the modest community garden with surprising strength and agility going up against the many giants of New York City bureaucracy, lobbyists, developers.
And while this is the story of one green space, in one city, it serves as a call to action and cautionary tale for all green spaces in all urban areas, where they desperately needed, incredibly valuable to the quality of life for all, and easy to lose if we’re not paying attention.
The Elizabeth Street Garden was featured in the 2023 book, New York Green by acclaimed writer and photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo, who we interviewed on CP. (link to that interview is HERE.
Joseph and an incredible community of Garden lovers have rallied to preserve this special space for the benefit of current and future generations. Visit HERE to support and volunteer.
From Ben:
As I’ve been reflecting on our conversation, it feels a bit like a David and Goliath story: the modest community garden with surprising strength and agility going up against the many giants of New York City bureaucracy, lobbyists, developers, and other powerful interests that seek to erase this most precious green space that is grounded in beauty and community.
I discovered Elizabeth St Garden in 2024 when a friend from high school (who used to live in New York but now lives just a few blocks away from us here in South Bend, Indiana), shared one of their posts on Instagram. He shared the “quintessential New York story” about how on one visit to the Garden, he “bumped into” Anderson Cooper.
I love this story for a few reasons. First, it demonstrates, yet again, how community gardens can be great levelers and how spaces grounded in plants can create opportunities for all people to interact in a way they otherwise wouldn’t. Especially today, I believe we desperately need places like Elizabeth St Garden for people from different life experiences to connect and exist together. They embody what is – in my opinion – one of the great superpowers of plants: they remind us we’re connected and help us to connect.
Because a friend from high school happened to share a post, I was able to connect with Joseph, and I feel even closer to this Garden planted so deeply in the heart of a city halfway across the country. And now, so do you. As I leave you today, I’m reminded of one of my all-time favorite quotes from The West Wing (cribbed from Margaret Mead :): never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the course of history. Why? Because it’s the only thing that ever has.
Happy gardening, folks. Let’s grow stuff.
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All Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Street Garden. All rights reserved.
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Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, y'all, it's Ben-
It’s already clear that Elizabeth St Garden is a vibrant and active community space. It is of, by, and for the neighborhood and city it calls home. I loved learning about how this space came to be, and that it’s already been more than three decades in the making. Hearing about how Joseph’s father established this space, with the blessing and support of fellow neighbors, demonstrates yet again the power of planting the seeds and ideas we may ourselves not see to fruition.
As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is yesterday, and the next best time is today.
There are many themes in our conversation today, and I hope you’ll listen for this one in particular. If you’re looking for ways to feel connected to your community right now, if you’re seeking solace and peace, purpose or empowerment: start cultivating plants. Create gardens. Invite people in and share what you love most.
I want to return to something Joseph just said, that community gardens are critical city infrastructure, and that beauty in the context of community leads to so much more.
I think this bears repeating, especially in the context of thinking about gardens as hubs of diversity and ecosystems. Community gardens support so much vital infrastructure including the physical/built environment and the emotional/mental/social well-being of the people who interact with these spaces.
I agree with Joseph in that beauty should be for everyone, and that beauty is like a breath through it all – the breath of the seasons, the breath of creativity, the breath of curiosity, conversation, convening, and community.
Beauty has the power to galvanize, inspire, and ground us, and ultimately, inspire hope. Beauty is worth fighting for, and the Elizabeth St Garden community is doing just that.
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