Elizabeth Street Garden

Adams Designates Elizabeth Street Garden as Parkland, Blocking Mamdani’s Housing Plans

New York, NY – In a controversial last-minute move, the Adams administration has officially designated the Elizabeth Street Garden in Nolita as city parkland, making it significantly more difficult for incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fulfill his campaign promise to build affordable housing for homeless seniors on the site.

The transfer of the one-acre city-owned property to the Parks Department was completed earlier this month at the direction of First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, according to two administration sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. The designation was disclosed in a November 3 letter from Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina.

In a Nov. 3 letter to the parks commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, the commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Louis Molina, said that the city “unequivocally and permanently dedicates this property to public use as parkland.”

What Parkland Designation Means for Development

The parkland designation creates a significant legal barrier to development. Under New York State law, any development on designated parkland requires approval by the state legislature through a process known as “alienation.” This process involves passing specific legislation that must clear both houses of the legislature and be signed by the governor before any municipality can convert parkland to another use.

Mastro defended the move in a statement, saying the administration was committed to ensuring “Elizabeth Street Garden remains a beloved community park and cannot be alienated in the future.”

A Decade-Long Battle Over Green Space and Housing

The Elizabeth Street Garden has been at the center of a contentious decade-long dispute between housing advocates and preservation supporters. The space, developed by antiques dealer Allan Reiver starting in 1991 on a month-to-month lease, features sculptures and architectural elements that have made it a popular community gathering spot.

In 2012, the city announced plans to evict the garden to make way for Haven Green, a 123-unit affordable housing development for seniors, including 37 units specifically for formerly homeless older adults. The proposal was developed by PennRose, Habitat for Humanity NYC, and RiseBoro Community Partnership.

The garden’s defenders, including celebrities Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and Patti Smith, fought the development through years of litigation. In June 2024, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city, and a judge signed an eviction order in March 2025, clearing the final legal hurdle for construction to begin.

Adams Reverses Course Days Before Primary

But on June 23, 2025, just one day before the Democratic mayoral primary, Adams announced a dramatic reversal. Instead of proceeding with the eviction, his administration brokered a deal with Councilmember Christopher Marte to preserve the garden while identifying three alternative sites in District 1 for affordable housing development.

The agreement promised to create more than 620 new affordable homes across the three alternative sites, more than five times the 123 units originally planned for the Elizabeth Street Garden location.

“We will now be creating more than five times the affordable housing in this district than would otherwise have been possible from taking this garden site alone and, at the same time, preserving this community garden in an area largely bereft of parkland,” Mastro said at the time.

Mamdani’s Vow to Revive Housing Development

During his successful mayoral campaign, Mamdani repeatedly stated his intention to reverse Adams’s decision and move forward with the original Haven Green housing development. In a candidate forum hosted by Hell Gate shortly before the election, Mamdani said he would evict the garden within his first year in office to build the affordable senior housing.

“Within my first year in office, I would move forward with the planned eviction of Elizabeth Street Garden,” Mamdani said during the forum.

The mayor-elect has not yet commented on the parkland designation. A spokesperson for his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Housing Advocates Condemn the Move

Pro-housing organizations swiftly condemned the parkland designation as a betrayal of the city’s affordable housing commitments.

Andrew Fine, Chief of Staff at Open New York, called the move a “disgraceful final act” by the Adams administration.

“The Adams Administration is once again prioritizing elite comfort over affordable homes for vulnerable elderly people,” Fine said in a statement. “Eric Adams’ time in City Hall may be over, but this fight is not. In 2026, Open New York will be working with Mayor Mamdani, Governor Hochul, and the State Legislature to undo this pathetic lame-duck move.”

Matthew Dunbar of Habitat for Humanity, one of the nonprofit developers on the stalled project, said his organization had not received any notice about the parkland designation.

Concerns About Precedent for City Development

Former city officials have warned that the reversal could have broader implications for development partnerships in New York City. Alicia Glenn, who served as deputy mayor for housing and economic development under Bill de Blasio, and Carl Weisbrod, former City Planning head, called the project’s cancellation a “betrayal” in a New York Daily News op-ed earlier this year.

Andrew Scherer, a professor at New York Law School and expert on landlord-tenant law, acknowledged that the city would have had legal backing to evict the garden under Mamdani’s administration before the parkland designation.

“A city like New York should be able to figure out ways to have both valuable open space and the necessary housing for elderly and low-income people,” Scherer said. “It’s a bit of a failure of will and policy to get to this point.”

The Role of Randy Mastro

Mastro, who joined the Adams administration in March 2025 as first deputy mayor, has been a central figure in the Elizabeth Street Garden saga. His appointment came just days before the city could have executed the eviction order, and he immediately began reviewing the project.

A former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, Mastro has described his work on the Elizabeth Street Garden as an example of “good government working to achieve mutual objectives through partnerships that produce results otherwise unattainable.”

Critics have noted that Mastro has ties to attorney Norman Siegel and Adams’s former chief of staff Frank Carone, both of whom have supported opponents of the Haven Green development.

Financial Complications

The garden stopped paying rent to the city in 2018, and a judge found last year that its operators owe the city $95,000 in back rent. The garden’s operators have not commented on whether they began paying rent after the June 2025 deal was announced.

In an October 28 statement, the Elizabeth Street Garden organization said they would “continue to do everything we can to protect Elizabeth Street Garden from anyone who seeks to destroy it.”

Next Steps Under Mamdani Administration

When Mamdani takes office on January 1, 2026, he will face the challenge of navigating the state legislature’s parkland alienation process if he wants to proceed with the affordable housing development. This would require building political support among state lawmakers and convincing Governor Kathy Hochul to sign alienation legislation.

The controversy has divided local officials. Councilmember Marte, who represents the district and brokered the June deal with Adams to save the garden, was notably the only Manhattan council member to vote against the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning changes that Mamdani supported.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who ran unsuccessfully against Mamdani in the mayoral race, criticized the original June reversal as “political interference” that betrayed New Yorkers in need of affordable housing.

“Their political interference to stop the building of Haven Green’s 123 units of deeply affordable housing for older adults is yet another example of this mayoral administration’s capitulation to special interests,” she said at the time.

Broader Context of NYC Housing Crisis

The Elizabeth Street Garden dispute reflects the broader tensions in New York City between preserving open space and addressing the acute affordable housing shortage. According to Allison Nickerson, executive director at LiveOn NY, over 200,000 seniors are currently on waitlists for affordable housing across the city.

Councilmember Marte’s District 1 has added approximately 2,175 new units of affordable housing over the last decade, roughly a quarter of what has been built in comparable sections of the Bronx over the same period.

The garden itself occupies valuable real estate in one of Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhoods, between Prince and Spring Streets in Nolita, an area that critics note already has limited affordable housing options.

As the January 1 inauguration approaches, both housing advocates and garden preservationists are preparing for what promises to be an ongoing battle over the future of the one-acre site and the broader question of how New York City balances its competing needs for green space and affordable housing.