The non-profit that manages the Elizabeth Street Garden in Manhattan has filed a federal lawsuit against New York City. The lawsuit aims to stop the city’s plans to demolish the garden and build affordable housing in its place. Joseph Reiver, the non-profit’s director, argues that the garden is a work of art protected by the Visual Artist Rights Act (VARA).
VARA grants artists certain rights over their work, even if they don’t own it. The act protects works of “recognized stature” from being destroyed on purpose. Reiver and his late father, Allan Reiver, turned an abandoned city lot into the sculpture-filled garden 30 years ago.
The lawsuit claims the garden is “a sculpture and a social sculpture” because of its carefully chosen sculptures and landscaping. The fight to save the garden has support from people in the neighborhood and beyond. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese, actor Robert De Niro, and author Patti Smith have all written letters backing the garden.
The city wants to build a development called Haven Green on the site. It would create 123 affordable studio apartments for seniors, with 30% set aside for formerly homeless residents.
Non-profit sues over garden’s fate
The plan also includes some public green space, but it would be much smaller than the current garden. Reiver believes the city’s plan is a “Trojan horse” to get the land for development. The two sides have been in legal battles since 2013, when the city first wanted to use the garden site for new housing.
“There are many ways to address the housing crisis without destroying a community garden,” Reiver said. He thinks that once the Elizabeth Street Garden is gone, New York will never have anything like it again. The lawsuit follows different results in other cases involving VARA.
In 2018, a judge awarded money to street artists whose work was destroyed at the 5Pointz warehouse in Queens. But in another case, an artist couldn’t stop the Des Moines Art Center from taking down her land art piece, although she did get a settlement. The city owns the land and has been leasing it to the Reivers since the early 1990s.
Officials argue that building more housing is the only way to solve the city’s housing crisis. They say the Haven Green project will create a community space that is truly for everyone.