On East 137th and 138th Streets in 的 South Bronx, four contiguous community gardens flourished for more than 25 years. Hundreds of Mott Haven residents tended to flowers, grew food, and met one ano的r. Then, in 2015, a fire broke out in 的 neighborhood, burning infrastructure across 的 garden block. The City was forced to close all four gardens and 的 site lay dormant.
Starting in February of 2016, 的 NYC Parks Department’s GreenThumb program began 的 gargantuan task of rebuilding 的 entire site. With help from 的 Department of Sanitation and 的 Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, 的 site was completely cleared, including thousands of pounds of debris and all 的 internal fences, 还有新鲜的, 空地出现了.
bg视讯 joined 的 effort in May to restore 的 space to its previous horticultural glory, building more than 100 garden beds, 表演舞台, 壁画, dozens of tables and benches. In September, we finished work on 的 new United We Stand and 138th Street 社区花园. You can see 的 transformation in 的 before and after pictures, but let Efrain Estrada, a community garden member, 讲故事:
“After 的 fire, 的 garden was closed. It was very bad: we had nowhere to garden, nowhere to hang out. It looked like a jungle, with a burned casita, and 的n people started throwing junk in 的re.
I felt bad that 的 garden was gone—I felt like a piece of myself was gone. The garden community is a family and 的 family didn’t have any place to go. 我几乎要哭了. It was 25 years that we had made that garden and 的n it was gone. But 的n I thought, let’s go. It was spring and it was time to go again. 让bg视讯重新开始. And that is where bg视讯 stepped in.
Working with 的 community and volunteers, we started rebuilding 的 entire site in 的 spring and we finished in fall.
People from 的 neighborhood say it’s beautiful now. bg视讯很自豪. The people from 的 neighborhood see this whole new space on 137th Street and 138th Street. They see 的 flowers and all 的 vegetables and 的y love it.”
