Last November 2025 was quite busy in New York City. After the elections, outgoing mayor Eric Adams used his last weeks in office to pull off a decisive strategy. I’m not sure if we’re seeing more of this around the city or if it’s just to annoy his successor, socialist Democratic mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. How did he do it? With a masterstroke: designating Elizabeth Street Garden as a permanent parkland.
This is a completely legal measure, which enshrines this small green oasis in Lower Manhattan and makes it untouchable for future urban development. Hopes for a block of subsidized housing for senior citizens were completely dashed. The fact is that there is always a need for housing in New York, but for those who have it… They would rather have a garden than a block of affordable housing in their neighborhood.
From private showroom to public park
For those unfamiliar with the location we are referring to, Elizabeth Street Garden is an L-shaped lot measuring approximately 20,000 square feet (1 acre) located in the exclusive Nolita/Little Italy neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. It is owned by the City of New York, but in 1991 it was leased to Allan Reiver, owner of the adjacent art gallery. For 20 years, access was limited: it could only be accessed through the art gallery, so it was a private exhibition space for sculptures and artworks.
Years passed, and in 2012, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development acquired the land to build a low-cost housing complex. The project was commendable; it was a seven-story block with 123 affordable housing units created specifically for seniors. This project was known as Haven Green.
But the neighbors were very quiet, and suddenly it seemed like good citizenship to make the park public… That’s why the non-profit organization Elizabeth Street Garden was created, formed to manage the space and fight for its survival. The art gallery owner and neighbors quickly opened the garden to the public in 2013, installing a direct access gate from the street.
They would rather have people wandering around a garden than have neighbors who would lower the status of the entire neighborhood.
Beautiful gardens vs. affordable housing
The maneuver was too blatant to believe it was an act of goodwill on the part of the neighbors. Elizabeth Street Garden was nothing more than a tactical strategy to block construction in a neighborhood that has historically opposed affordable housing. However, advocates for this park argued that the Lower Manhattan neighborhood suffers from a severe shortage of green spaces.
Destroying a park open to the public just for 123 housing units was “short-sighted,” especially when there are other vacant lots nearby, such as the one at 388 Hudson St., which was a viable alternative that the city refused to seriously explore.
One last strike from the former mayor
After years of legal battles that repeatedly delayed demolition, the drama escalated this year when Mayor Adams announced an agreement in June 2025 to save the garden. In exchange, one of the local councilors, Christopher Marte, supported the personification of three alternative sites in Lower Manhattan.
The residents of Elizabeth Street had gotten their way, keeping the park, albeit as a public park, and the new plan—consisting of 620 units of affordable housing—would be built… just not on their street.
The newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is furious. He considers former Mayor Adams’ agreement a betrayal of the urgency of the housing crisis and has promised to reverse the original decision. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to do so, and whether the snobbish residents of Elizabeth Street will come down hard on him. In the meantime, the public housing project is nothing more than a drop in the bucket that is the housing problem in New York and so many other cities across the country.