Assurances from city agencies that de facto tenancies would be honored were as hollow as most municipal promises. What's curious about the recent wholesale ransacking, however, is how the issue has been falsely framed. While it's true that the roughly 200 acres of community gardens in the city occupy more space than the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and true also that housing always comes first, it helps to know that there are 14,000 vacant city-owned lots. Community gardens occupy a mere 10 percent of the available land. You don't need impact studies to understand the beneficial environmental effects a garden's quiet and light and air have on the city.
Gardens are the embodiment of that.
We've made our case.