Latest news with #communityPreservation
CBS News
23-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
NYC's Elizabeth Street Garden will be saved in a deal that includes 620 affordable housing units, sources say
New York City's beloved Elizabeth Street Garden will be saved after a yearslong battle to preserve it, sources tell CBS News New York's political reporter Marcia Kramer. The garden was set to close this spring and be replaced with affordable housing for seniors, despite lawsuits and pleas from the community to preserve the park. Sources say Mayor Eric Adams has signed an agreement with Councilmember Christopher Marte, who represents the garden's district in Manhattan, to move forward with a plan that preserves the garden for the public and relocates the affordable housing nearby. Under the deal, the city will allow the garden to remain open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and, in exchange, Marte will support rezoning three other sites for even more affordable housing than had been initially planned. The mayor says this plan will lead to more than 620 new affordable homes, as opposed to the original 123 that would have been built at the garden site. "The best way to tackle our city's housing crisis is to build as much affordable housing as we can. The agreement announced today will help us meet that mission by creating more than five times the affordable housing originally planned while preserving a beloved local public space and expanding access to it," Adams said in a prepared statement. "This is what smart, responsible leadership looks like: bringing people together to reach common sense solutions that create more housing and protect green space." "This incredible win-win for our community shows exactly why we should never give up," said Marte. "Since the beginning of this fight almost a decade ago, we've been saying that we can save community gardens and build new affordable housing. And with this historic agreement with Mayor Eric Adams, this will be the largest influx of new, permanently affordable housing in Lower Manhattan in decades." contributed to this report.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Family helps Swansea transform farm where they grew up
SWANSEA, Mass. (WPRI) — The Medeiros Farm in Swansea wasn't just a farm. It was also a home. The farm belonged to Elaine Hussey's father, John Medeiros, and his brother. 'My dad grew up here. My dad was a farmer his entire life,' Elaine explained. Elaine's daughters, Marissa Hussey and Brynn Speroni, also grew up on the property. When no one else in the family became a farmer by trade, the brothers decided to sell. The land where the Medeiros family members played, worked and spent time together looks very different now. There are no more barns or fields of crops. The greenhouse, orchard and house where they spent their childhoods are gone too. WATCH: How often should you water your plants? For years, Elaine stayed away from the property. Even though she still lives in Swansea, she wouldn't even drive past her old home. 'It was just too heartbreaking,' she said. 'I couldn't.' The town of Swansea purchased the 22 acres of land in 2020. With the help of some grants, the town is aiming to preserve the area and create a space for local athletic groups. When the town started seeking volunteers to help create a pollinator garden at the farm, Elaine and her daughters decided to return. 'It felt very important to me,' Marissa said. 'To be here today and to be a part of this.' Swansea Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein said once the project is completed, there will be eight acres of fields for youth soccer, a disc golf course and walking trails. 'Many communities in Massachusetts have a town green area for local functions, large field days, really anything to celebrate the town's heritage,' she noted. 'We don't have that. So, for me, this is a perfect space for that.' A portion of the grant funding went toward purchasing 1,600 native plants from a local business, Prickly Ed's Cactus Patch Native Plant Emporium, to create the pollinator garden. On Thursday, volunteers gathered on the property to start digging. Elaine even brought her father's shovel. While it was hard to take in the changes, the family was happy to be back. 'It was hard to accept that this might be land I could never come back to,' Marissa said. '[My grandfather] would be happy to know that the soul of what it has been is going to remain.' Brynn brought her 11-week-old daughter Sloane with her. 'I wanted to give her a chance to get on the land I grew up on, the land that's so special to us in our family,' Brynn said. 'It'll be an important part of her growing up too.' According to Aronstein, the disc golf course may open by the end of the summer along with a pavilion. She expects the soccer fields will be ready sometime in 2026 at the earliest. She envisions the space becoming a fixture in the community, a place where people can have a picnic or fly a kite. 'I'm thinking maybe the library does a story walk around here,' Aronstein explained. 'Maybe an outdoor classroom to teach kids a little bit about how food is made and why bees and other pollinators are important.' WATCH: Disappearing Bees In a few weeks, Aronstein said a sign will go up outside the property with the words 'Historic Medeiros Farm Recreation & Park.' Marissa learned of the park's future name while volunteering on Thursday. 'It's a really wonderful tribute,' she said. 'I'm really happy they've made that decision. When asked how it felt being back on the farm, Elaine smiled. 'It feels good,' she said. 'It feels good.' Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
