Park Plans Threaten Community Garden

Spend a Saturday or Sunday at Two Coves Community Garden for a day of fun-filled activities for all to enjoy run by local Astoria residents. There is live music, a potluck, an instrument-making workshop for indoor composting, soil workshops, recipe sharing, and a chance to plant daffodil bulbs. Two Coves is a 25,000 square-foot triangular lot located where Astoria Blvd, 8^th St. and Main meet. Because there is no supermarket nearby, local residents are able to grow their own fruits and vegetables for a small-suggested donation fee of twenty dollars. “It brings the community together and allows them to grow as a family,” says Lynn Serpe, an active member of the garden’s steering community, while planting tomato seeds.

Since the mid-1900s, the site was left vacant and a fence was installed.  Eventually, it became overgrown with weeds and trash from illegal dumping. And then in late 2006, a grassroots movement turned the neglected lot into a community garden where local gardeners could grow a variety of fruits and vegetables.

“Two Coves provides space for hundreds of people to cultivate their own food, reverse damaging obesity and unhealthy nutritional trends, interact across cultures and generations and harvest a lifelong love of urban gardening all while reducing municipal costs, crime and pollution,” says Stacy Ornstein, gardener and Astoria Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) President, during an online interview. Although Astoria Goodwill Industries in the late 1990s had proposed to turn the lot into a park, their plans fell through. Now, City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) has allocated $450,000 to transform the lot into a city park.  “The Garden has a license from the city for now and has received supplies from the city Parks Department’s Green Thumb program, which provides resource for community gardens,” says Peter Vallone Jr., during an interview at his Astoria office.

Gardening season at Two Coves runs from April 1^st to November 1^st every year, for the past three years. They are officially open Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 5pm.  The gate is usually open whenever people are gardening and throughout the week at random hours to welcome new residents in the area. A few weeks ago on April 18^th, they held their Seedling Swap, a yearly event from 11am to 2pm. But as their 2009 growing season began, the Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. decided to move forward with the Goodwill Industries decade-old design for their garden. “We’re working with the community to develop a plan for the park. We see it as a positive use and the gardeners are very energetic,” says Dorothy Lewandowsk,i during an online interview. Meanwhile gardeners are panicking, “We were just recently notified by the Parks Department of plans to change the nature of the garden. What this community needs is healthy food, grown locally,” says Renee Edwards, a gardener and resident of the nearby Astoria Houses, a few weeks ago while carrying a shovel for her teenage daughter Elizabeth.

Right now, Two Coves is at its peak. It is a successful community garden with over 200 members (and growing) and hundreds of supporters and local organizations. Even more visitors and supporters actively care for and maintain the site as volunteers under a city license. By taking away this gardening space from the hundreds of citizens who actively maintain this current space, many in the neighborhood believe that the City will eliminate one of the most exciting, educational and positive elements in the community: local residents gardening and growing food and flowers together, developing connections and friendships, and providing a natural oasis of calm and beauty in the area.  As Stacey Ornstein points out, “The Councilman and Commissioner are forcing an antiquated idea onto a space that through citizen interaction and self-empowerment have been adapted to fit the needs of the present day.”

And because now Two Coves could be facing its final chapter, the dedicated gardeners are afraid that their unique space will become a city park although there are already two large parks, Astoria and Rainey, within walking distance. Also, the waterfront neighborhood that surrounds the garden has seven parks and recreational areas already. “We want the garden to maintain its ability to allow local residents the opportunity to garden and grow together,” states Vanessa Jones-Hall, a resident of the Astoria Houses, while shoveling some composted soil.

Other gardeners can be overheard discussing that community gardens are known to increase property values, provide access to healthy food and serve youth as an outdoor classroom. “A total of 216 people have their own individual plots at the site and many others take part in its community plot. Neighborhood residents can get their own plot by calling Two Coves and placing a request. We do not charge gardeners for their plots, but suggest a donation,” states Lynn Serpe while planting cucumber seeds. And now that Peter Vallone Jr. has allocated the money to create a city park on 75 percent of the garden’s space, Dorothy Lewandowski said the agency would hold meetings with Astoria residents and Two Coves gardeners this summer to discuss plans for the site. “The city has agreed not to begin any work at the site until after this year’s harvest season,” stated Peter Vallone Jr.