By Lisa Kava
On West 87th Street between Columbus and Central Park West sits the West 87th Street Park and Garden, a small, natural sanctuary in the middle of a city block. Containing paths, plantings, benches, and a play area for children, it is open to the public seven days a week.
Now that open-door policy is being reconsidered, and a variety of other options are being discussed, after the garden was vandalized repeatedly in recent weeks.
On the night of May 26th, the words “End of Year” were spray painted on the garden’s white brick wall. The next morning, a volunteer painted over it, but on the evening of June 12th, graffiti appeared again. It has not been painted over since. Picnic tables and umbrella cords have also been damaged with burn marks, and trash has been found lying around.
“I take it personally,” Greg Stevens, a volunteer at the garden for three years, told the Rag on a phone call. “I spend a lot of time in the garden and care about it.” He is not alone. “I always meet people who are there for coffee, lunch, or with children,” he added. “People say thank you for making this beautiful place.”
It is one of the reasons there is some conflict among garden members over whether to file a police report, Stevens said. Some believe this is important, while others are hesitant, and do not want the garden to be viewed as a dangerous place.
But has it become one? According to Stevens, earlier this spring, the volunteers noticed a group of teenagers who began visiting the garden — at lunchtime, after school hours, and into the evening. “The kids are in the garden smoking pot. It is a no-smoking garden,” Stevens said. Upon asking them to stop smoking or leave, a confrontation erupted. “One kid said to me ‘you need to back up, I don’t like you being so close.’ When we asked the kids about the trash, they said it wasn’t theirs,” said Stevens.
Then, at the beginning of June, the garden committee received an email from a longtime visitor who said she and her children had encountered “5-6 kids…and the whole garden smelled of weed.” She went on to say, “These boys told me they have been given permission by the community garden to hang out and smoke their weed there whenever they want. My understanding was this was a no-smoking garden.”
The garden committee is considering their options. “It seems to me that a good solution would be to find a person of suitable temperament who has the time to oversee the garden during certain hours,” founding member Tom Yager, wrote to the Rag. Other ideas being explored include: installing a security camera; a sign-up volunteer schedule; or, as noted, keeping the garden locked when a volunteer cannot be on-site.
“We have been brainstorming ideas about how to stop the vandalism,” said volunteer Christina Abossedgh, who is concerned that, with the end of the school year, the students could “hang there all day during the summer, and that the new senior class may pick up where they left off.”
West Side Rag contacted Council Member Gale Brewer’s office, located down the street from the garden. Her spokesperson said they had “reached out to some principals of local schools in the neighborhood [who] didn’t know anything about it.” They also reached out to the Community Affairs office at the 24th Precinct, promising to stay in touch with garden members and the police. Brewer also plans to frequent the garden “more often and more purposefully,” in the upcoming weeks, her spokesperson said.
Volunteers to help clean the garden and to serve as “garden monitors” are needed. If you would like volunteer contact Greg Stevens at 87thstreetgardennyc@gmail.com
I live near the garden. I have witnessed the daily gathering of large amounts of teens (as many as a dozen at a time) in the garden smoking prodigious amounts of marijuana. They effectively take over the garden for several hours in the middle of each school day, making the garden deeply inhospitable to anyone who doesn’t smoke, and leaving behind large amounts of litter.
I have spoken with the kids about it directly. (Most come from Brandeis High School.) They were respectful to me (mostly) but said they had permission from the “owner” of the garden to smoke there. (The “owner” of the garden, they explained, was a person with keys to the garden.)
I called the Community Affairs office at the 24th Precinct three times to report this. I left messages twice and spoke with someone once. They said they would look into it.
I’ve written three emails about this to our neighborhood coordination officers. On June 5, I wrote to PO Nunzio Vetrano and PO John Carty. On June 16, I wrote to Sergeant Alan Hassel. My emails were thorough and respectful. I included photographs, dates and times, as there’s a regularity to the teenagers’ comings and goings. Neither PO Vetrano, PO Carty nor Sergeant Hassel have responded.
I contacted Council Member Gail Brewer’s office at least five times since June 6. Elise Kwan from Gail Brewer’s office has been responding to me. Initially, Ms. Kwan said she will forward my email about the matter to the Community Affairs division at NYPD and keep me posted; as far as I know, she never heard back from them. In a follow-up email on June 15, Ms. Kwan said that Gail Brewer’s office is working with local school principals and the community garden to address this issue (and will follow up). On June 20, Ms. Kwan encouraged me to attend the 24 precinct community council meeting taking place the next evening at the Bloomingdale Library, but I was unable to. I haven’t heard from her since then.
Obviously, I know we deal with much more serious problems in our world, but quality of life is important to me and I have not wanted to sit by quietly while I lose the use of the W. 87th Street Community Garden. The W. 87th Street Garden is (was) a beautiful spot that has been ruined for non-smokers. I wish our neighborhood coordination officers at the 24th precinct had seen fit to at least respond to one of my emails. I was attempting to bring this matter to their attention before the vandalism occurred. The school year has just ended, so the kids have not been congregating in the garden in the same numbers the last few days, but that’s not the same as actually addressing the matter.
Good work, Jerry. Keep up the fight.
Thank you for this lovely comment. I have also witnessed the daily gathering, and I feel similarly helpless and powerless to change anything given the lack of response from local officials.
There won’t be any from our lovely elected officials. It is one of the major party lines and they will stick to it despite their constituents grievances.
Thank you, Jerry.
Unfortunately, these complaints are not being addressed to the correct authorities — the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) are the ones responsible for enforcing rules and regulations in parks and public spaces, including community gardens established under the GreenThumb program.
PS the garden is in fact between Columbus Ave & CPW, around the corner from Gale Brewer’s office
@ Michael
My very first step, prior to everything outlined above, was to call 311 and initiate a service request, which was referred to the Parks department and promptly closed (with no action) 26 minutes later.
How sad. I spent a lot of time in that garden when I lived in the neighborhood
Volunteer monitors on site, and otherwise locked sounds like a good plan
Another downside of there being a CBD shop on every block in that area.
Alert Brandis High School administration and other high schools in are and make clear teens with weed are not welcome in a no smoking area, nor teens that have no respect for the wonderful sanctuary this place has been – and will continue to be I hope – for the residents of the area. Police your trash, kids! And yes, I think monitors and increased security and restricted access are all in order. This wonderful garden should not be a victim to these dreadful kids. thank you.
It’s 2023, Not 1953. That civil society thing. That died in the 60’s. Now, in this city. The garden is doomed
I worry about volunteers. Given the crime level in the city and kids now out of school this sounds like a potentially dangerous situation.
What we want something to be and what it actually is needs to be considered. Sad situation. These gardens should be safe and pleasant havens.
Not in todays NYC
Bro this is really news? Where were y’all in the 80’s
It is – we got away from the situation of the 80s and that has made the city more livable. This is not the crime of the century, but it is anti-social and wrong and should be stopped.
This is also the new normal at Septuagesimo Uno (pocket park on 71st between Broadway & West End). Can’t remember the last time my wife and I were able to visit without it being full of teens smoking weed.
Obviously there are bigger problems in the world, and kids will be kids, but it’s a lame situation.
I wonder if a sign at the entrance saying something like, “This is a place of reflection and silence, please be respectful,” might help modestly. It’d probably get tagged, but no harm in trying.
Your bigger problems are the result of allowing these little problems to fester and grow. The frog in the frying pan is now NYC reality.
Yes. So disappointed to also have this experience. We need some Guardian Gardeners to hose them down…
Sadly these are the exact quality of life issues that many of us who comment lament. Sure it’s “just graffiti” and sure “it’s just pot”….next thing you know the life you had gotten use to is very different, and not in a good way….the city has tough issues to deal with, and our elected leaders refuse to address them properly….we have no right to complain, this did not happen over night and it wasn’t Covid. This is a product of a complete abandonment of policies that were working in favor of a new normal that some are convinced is better.
The thing is, you can’t violate peoples’ constitutional rights, even if it “works”. It just isn’t an option.
The problem is that now that weed is legal, I’m not sure what crime they are committing in the daytime. Obviously, graffiti is property damage, so it is a crime, but not one that sends you to prison. But just sitting and smoking weed is not illegal. So what can they be arrested for? Are park rules enforceable by police?
I grew up at 176 W 87 St. It was a wonderful area at the time (40’s-late 60’s) So sorry to read these sad stories about my old street.
Bill
Senator Patrick Moynihan, decades ago, popularized the term deviancy down. The idea is that society can tolerate only a constant statistical amount of deviant behavior. In order to maintain this constancy it certifies previous deviancy as the now acceptable behavior.
This is exactly the case here. Graffiti , loud noises and garbage littering as in the garden has become acceptable behavior.
I would consider just spray painting.
Place prominent 24-hour video cameras in the garden. That might help.
Don’t Brandeis students have a garden of their own, down the block at Amsterdam & 84th?
This is unfortunate, to say the least. No one is happy to see this peaceful place treated without care and respect, including a nature-lover and block resident like myself.
I would add to the conversation happening in these comments a reminder that these are, in fact, children. Some amount of foolishness and misbehavior was a part of my childhood, and plenty others. Children can learn to grow out of it, especially if the adults in their families, schools, and communities engage in a real dialogue with them, with a spirit of patience and respect.
This is far from easy, as any parent or teacher will tell you. Much harder than the actions some have proposed: changing the garden from an open space, welcome to all, into yet another place in this city that is kept under surveillance, behind lock and key, guarded by armed police. At the end of the day, these children are members of this community, just like you and me. In small ways and large, they’ll learn from us what kind of community we chose to be, one way or another.
Sometimes teenagers do things they should not – and especially sad to see vandalism in this community green space.
On the other hand, there seems to be a massive increase in “do what i want” attitude/entitlement at all age, educational, income etc levels – like allowing dogs to pee-poop in flower beds, leaving Starbucks cups on top of overflowing trash instead of holding for one block, Citibikers going through red lights and the wrong way….