NYC's Elizabeth Street Garden community celebrates end of years-long fight to stop demolition

The Elizabeth Street Garden in Lower Manhattan isn't going anywhere, and the community that fought to keep it is now celebrating.

In 2024, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development served an eviction notice for the garden and announced plans to build housing on the site, including affordable units for seniors.

It sparked a long, bitter fight over the beloved city-owned garden. The situation escalated when then-Mayor Eric Adams had the space permanently dedicated as parkland in November, essentially preventing Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration from moving forward with the housing plans once he took office.

Developers filed a lawsuit against the city at the time, but this week, a settlement was reached, officially ending the fight.

As part of the settlement, the Mamdani administration has given developers the green light to focus construction at another site along Suffolk Street on the Lower East Side. The plot of land was initially held for a possible school. The timeline for development at the site remains unclear.

Advocates and neighbors gathered at the garden Saturday for a victory lap.

"Very few times in New York City where everyone wins, and everyone did win," New York City Council Member Christopher Marte said.

"You never give up. You don't give up. You don't give in," attorney Norman Siegel said. "You keep coming back because when you know your position is right, you don't concede."

"With this garden and with the issue of housing, we proved that you never have to lose something to gain it," one person said.

"We never lost sight with what we were doing," another visitor said.