NYC Mayor Eric Adams moves to stop Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani from demolishing Elizabeth Street Garden for affordable housing
New York City Mayor Eric Adams made a move Thursday that could stymie Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's desire to demolish the Elizabeth Street Garden to build affordable housing.
It's the latest development in a years-long back-and-forth over the community garden in Little Italy.
Elizabeth Street Garden dedicated as parkland
The Elizabeth Street Garden was created in 1991 on land leased from the city and opened to the public in 2013, but the city always said the site would eventually need to be returned to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to be used for affordable housing.
The HPD served an eviction notice for the site in 2024, and plans were announced for housing that would include 123 affordable units for seniors, with 40% of the units going to people who have experienced homelessness and are leaving the shelter system.
A temporary order was issued to pause the eviction, and the battle went to court as advocates and community members pleaded with the city to preserve the park.
In June of this year, Adams signed an agreement that would keep the garden open to the public and move the affordable housing to other sites.
Mamdani has said he wanted to undo that deal and demolish the gardens to build the affordable housing, but Adams took another step to protect the land Thursday.
A letter from a city official confirms the space has been permanently dedicated as parkland.
"As we have said for months, we are committed to ensuring Elizabeth Street Garden remains a beloved community park and cannot be alienated in the future," First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said in a statement, in part.
Mamdani slams Adams' actions
Mamdani criticized the move.
"It is no surprise that Mayor Adams is using his final weeks and months to cement a legacy of dysfunction and inconsistency," he said.
So will Adams' successor try to build housing there anyway?
"The actions that the Adams administration has taken now make it nearly impossible to follow through with that," Mamdani said.
The former Queens Assemblyman could ask the men and women he served with in Albany to undo the park status, but he would only say, "My focus will be on working with the Legislature to fulfill the affordability agenda that I've been working on."
Meanwhile, Joseph Reiver, executive director of the Elizabeth Street Garden, tried to appeal to the incoming mayor.
"To Mayor-elect Mamdani, you know, the garden and this whole effort is very much in alignment with what he is saying he envisions for the city, which is an affordable New York," Reiver said, "and he's saying he stands for the people and ... this garden means so much to so many people. And it's a community space run by volunteers, and it's free, it's open to the public, it's nature, it's art."
This move from Adams comes after the mayor said he would try to stop some of Mamdani's initiatives. Adams previously said he would appoint people to the Rent Guidelines Board to stop Mamdani from freezing rents once he becomes mayor, which was one of Mamdani's signature campaign promises.