"It's another twist in a saga so twisty that it's now strange to remember Adams had initially backed the idea of turning the city lot turned sculpture garden into apartments for seniors. But he flip-flopped in June, after bringing on Randy Mastro as his deputy mayor, and designated the garden as city parkland in November - a move that seemed designed to stop Zohran Mamdani from reviving the housing project on the site and secure Adams's legacy as the savior of the celebrity-approved green space."
"But the developers who had been in line to build housing there sued, arguing the mayor can't act "unilaterally" and skip over the city's regular planning processes. The suit created a delay that threw the fate of the garden to the next mayor, who had already gone on the record promising to revive the housing plan for the site. The city said the development group (Pennrose Properties, Habitat for Humanity, and RiseBoro) was pausing its suit amid negotiations,"
Eric Adams initially supported turning Elizabeth Street Garden into senior housing but reversed course in June after hiring deputy mayor Randy Mastro. The garden was designated city parkland in November to block a revival of the housing project and preserve the green space. Developers (Pennrose Properties, Habitat for Humanity, and RiseBoro) sued, arguing the mayor bypassed regular planning procedures. The lawsuit delayed the project and left the garden's fate to the incoming mayor, who pledged to revive the housing plan. On December 29, Mastro offered the developers the city-owned 22 Suffolk Street site if they dropped their suit, a move that appeared to sidestep the city's land-review process and produced no clear agreement.
Read at Curbed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]