The latest, unforeseen twist in the fate of the Elizabeth Street Garden
In a surprise move that no one saw coming, on Wednesday, November 12, news broke in the Gothamist that soon-to-be former New York City Mayor Eric Adams had designated the embattled Elizabeth Street Garden a city park. As the Gothamist reported: “The move, revealed in a Nov. 3 letter from Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina, is the latest twist in the yearslong saga over the green space.”
That’s an understatement.
The fate of the idiosyncratic one-acre site in Nolita designed by Allan Reiver (1942–2021) and leased from the city on a month-to-month basis had been increasingly in the news for nearly a decade; the city wanted to raze the site and replace it with a mixed-use development with 123 units of affordable housing. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) designated the garden as a Landslide site seven years ago on November 14, 2018; TCLF also produced a video in 2019 featuring Reiver and his son Joseph, who now runs the site.
Years of litigation have been part of the panoply of advances and setbacks. The issue became cause célèbre attracting support from actor Robert De Niro, director Martin Scorcese, and the high priestess of punk rock and poet, Patti Smith, who did benefit/protest performances at the site. And The New York Times included a question about the fate of the site in a questionnaire submitted to candidates in this year’s mayoral race.
Mayor Adams had initially supported redeveloping the site until he reversed course and announced on June 23, 2025 that the garden would stay and, instead, three adjacent sites would be developed with 620 units of affordable housing. At the time that seemed to be the end of the road.
However, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani had pledged to build affordable housing at the Elizabeth Street Garden, a reality that became more urgent when Mamdani won on November 4. Indeed, post-election coverage frequently mentioned the mayor-elect’s campaign pledge. Then, Mayor Adams flipped the conversation by designating the site as a city park. Undoing what Adams has done would require a vote by the New York State Legislature. It remains to be seen whether Mamdani will expend precious political capital on overturning Adams’s parkland designation given all the other priorities to be addressed and campaign promises made.
For now, the garden seems here to stay.
