Walking down West 51st street towards the river, I came upon a little garden located in the yard outside of a public housing development. The gate into the garden was locked, but looking through the fence, I could see beautiful wildflowers, herbs, and even some unripe tomatoes. The manager of the Mobil gas station across the street told me that he remembered when the garden was a VACANT lot where drug addicts slept at night. No longer - in 1993, the space was transformed and named after community member and active gardener Juan Alonso. It has been open to the community ever since, save a brief period of time in 2000 when the public housing it surrounds was renovated. Emblematic of the regrowth of Hell's Kitchen over the past two decades, it provides a space for locals, especially low-income residents, to come together and grow food for themselves and their families. The park and community garden is only one of several such green spaces in the area, all created and maintained by the organization CultivateHKNY, which aims to promote community through the revitalization of shared spaces. Any community member who wants a key to the garden can purchase one for only two dollars and start cultivating their own small plot of land. For the rest of us, the garden is open on the weekends in the early afternoon, and can always be appreciated from the sidewalk.
