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Years, ago, a visiting friend looked out over the view from the top of
the Empire State Building. "It really is a concrete jungle, isn't
it, Marion? How do you stand it?"
I was speechless. How could she say that about my beautiful city? The New York I know is full of green spaces.
Central Park (a vast garden in the middle of Manhattan) and the even
bigger Prospect Park in
Brooklyn, the
Botanical Gardens in
Brooklyn and the Bronx,
Inwood Park (the only true natural forest in New York City), and the wonderful community gardens all over the
city, sometimes in the middle of the most urban areas, between the
restaurant supply stores and the delis.
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What’s he doing here?
One day Steve and I were killing a half-hour sitting talking
in one of the community gardens on the Lower East Side,
surrounded by flowers, children playing, and bees humming.
Into
the garden came a man who looked about as threatening as anyone
could – dressed in black, with a Mohawk, studs and chains
everywhere, spikes, rings, boots, you name it. We kept a wary
eye on him as he crossed to the other side of the garden and
stopped. Then he stood for a moment, held up something in his
hand - and took a photograph. We watched as he wandered around
the garden, carefully taking closeup photos of plants and
flowers, and got into a conversation with one of the
volunteer gardeners, apparently about the best way to photograph flowers.
What’s that old saying about not judging a book by its cover?
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Community gardens are a hot topic in New York politics. When the city
owned empty blocks in bad neighborhoods, it would essentially abandon
them. People started to create gardens - flowers, vegetables - and
decorate them. Then, as the neighborhood began to improve, the city
tried to take back the blocks to build on them, and that's when the
trouble started.
For the most part, the residents won. Some of these gardens are
just spectacular, and they also create an outdoor, enclosed space where
children can play in natural surroundings. I snapped some photos
of my favorites. Here they are.
This site was last updated
02/22/07
Number of people who have accessed this page since
Feb. 22, 2007
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Click a thumbnail to see a larger version.
To see or download full-size size versions of these photos,
click here.
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This restful spot is in ... the Bronx. The Bronx Zoo, to be specific.
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A garden in the most urban area of the city - "Alphabet City" - Avenue C.
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Another section of the same garden in Alphabet City.
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In another garden in Alphabet City, residents built this unusual sculpture.
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Another view of the sculpture.
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Flowers in the Avenue C garden.
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Irises in the Avenue B garden.
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A peaceful setting.
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