Information about this lot
Political Boundaries
Why is this lot here?
We posted this lot because:
Government Agency
Steward
This land is being stewarded by the following group:
The 462 Halsey Community Garden Project is a collaborative effort between residents and businesses of Bedford-Stuyvesant to transform 462 Halsey Street, a vacant lot for almost 20 years, into a thriving community garden.
Our goals are:
To forge new community bonds and relationships through mutual hard work.
To offer neighborhood youths a place to learn and grow through hands-on learning and involvement.
To serve those who have helped shape the heart of this community: families who want and need healthy food options.
For the community to be self-sustaining through independent agriculture.
To offer a percentage of our harvest for sale to local businesses, in order to give them the opportunity to financially support this community effort as well as provide them with the freshest ingredients for their customers, by their customers.
Our Garden:
462 Halsey is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7B. We use recycled materials whenever possible and we constantly strive to minimize our environmental impact via rainwater collection, composting, and more.
Pathways
News feed
Thanks to amazing organizing by gardeners and supporters, this community space was taken off the list of potential development sites and TRANSFERRED TO THE PARKS DEPARTMENT TODAY!
This is an OLD letter:
March 26th, 2015
Dear Citizens Committee of NYC,
596 Acres has been working with 462 Halsey Community Garden since before it opened its gates in 2011. It was the first fence our organization hung a sign on to let neighbors know that they had to power to transform the vacant lot into a neighborhood resource. We helped connect a longstanding resident to a newer neighbor to work together to begin the process of turning this Housing Preservation and Development-owned site into a garden. Within just a few short years neighbors have created a wonderful community space open to the public throughout most of the year.
462 Halsey Garden is home to Grow NYC’s Fresh Food Box Program, providing consistent, affordable, healthy food for the neighborhood. It also hosts “tupperware” potlucks where neighbors share food and ideas about healthy eating. During 2014, the compost team processed over 19,700 pounds of food scraps. These three projects display the involvement and participation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community outside its membership base.
As 462 Halsey Garden expands its compost collection system, this grant will be benefit the surrounding neighborhood by diverting greater amounts of food scraps away from landfill. The compost team is the garden's most popular committee consisting of nearly one dozen members. Its diligence and organization is paying off with record level highs of compost created and food scraps diverted.
The 462 Halsey Garden is an exceptional garden with an avid group of community gardeners and composters. In their short time span, they have done an incredible job of transforming a vacant lot into a thriving healthy community compost center. Their success will only flourish with support from the Citizens Committee 2015 Compost Grant.
Sincerely,
Mary Elizabeth Prall
Organizer for the NYC Land Access Program
718-316-6092 ext 3
mary@596acres.org
This site was included in a list of sites that developers are being asked to apply to build housing on by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. (see http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/developers/request-for-qualifications/nihop-ncp-rfq.page).
The list was published on January 14, 2015 and developers' responses are due on February 20, 2015. The fact that this site was included DOES NOT necessarily mean that housing will be developed here, but it does me that HPD is encouraging housing development and is not likely to consider other uses for the time being. If no one applies for this site, it may again be available in March!
The list and RFQ are products of HPD, under the direction of the Mayor's office. Development is not certain - this is simply a request for developers to apply to become qualified to build in these sites.
This site has been slated for a rental housing program: 15-30 units of housing going to people making less than 165% of the Area Median Income (AMI); this means rents in these units could be more than $3,000. per month for a family of four.
This article sums things up pretty well (and has the voices of folks from across the 596 Acres network): http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150116/morningside-heights/community-gardens-threatened-by-de-blasios-affordable-housing-plan
You can let your City Council member, the mayor's office and HPD know if you have feedback about the program or the selection of this site.
We just wrote your councilmember and spoke of 462 Halsey!:
"In 2011, 462 Halsey Community Garden was the first fence we hung on a sign on. We helped connect a longstanding resident to a newer neighbor to work together to begin the process of turning this Housing Preservation and Development-owned site into a garden. 462 Halsey is the recipient of numerous local awards and grants and is a Community Supported Agriculture site."
Woohoo!
I came from Brasil to run a project collaborating with the 596 acres, documenting some vacant public lots in brooklyn -- the project is called Lots of Land / Land of Lots, planning to be booklet and currently being showed at the BRIC Rotunda art gallery (http://www.bricartsmedia.org/events/on-purpose-art-design-in-brooklyn-2012).
So I've been to your wonderful community garden and sit there for some days... made some drawings of the lot, the neighborhood, asked the neighbors I met about it all -- and, when getting the chance, tryed to get an answer trough an image.
Welcome to the Neighborhood, 462 Halsey Community Garden!
July 19, 2013
The first 596Acres-initiated community determined green space opened its gate as a compost drop-off site a week ago on Saturday, December 3 -- the 462 Halsey Community Garden. Shatia Jackson, organizer and co-founder, had this to share about the journey so far and the path ahead. We originally posted it on December 12, 2011.
Getting permission to use the lot at 462 Halsey Street has had its hiccups and has taken 4 months to see it through. My involvement started when 596acres put a sign on the fence, alerting us that there is so much vacant land in Brooklyn that it would be a crime not to try and utilize it for the betterment of our neighborhood and explaining that this empty lot is owned by Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), a New York City agency.
We started by gathering community members through fliers, a facebook page, a yahoo group and local publications. We got together a group of people who were interested in gardening. From there, we had our first meeting to discuss our vision and what we wished to accomplish in August. Through the 596 Acres network, we connected with Brooklyn Permaculture who have been instrumental in helping us plan out this garden using all natural, cheap permaculture methods.
We spread the word as much as possible about this garden venture by attending New York Community Garden Coalition meetings, passing out information at local festivals and leaving fliers at local businesses. Once we felt secure in the number of serious members we had on board, we contacted HPD and Green Thumb and tried to get ourselves registered.
This part of the process was the most confusing because we contacted HPD and they told us that we had to contact Green Thumb and then vice versa. We even had problems with figuring out exactly who to contact within both organizations since it seemed that each individual gave us incorrect information. Finally we were put in contact with the correct people and started our application process. Green Thumb has a protocol for managing HPD-owned land and will, if you are trying to start a project on such land, send you all the necessary info and applications and they serve as a middle-man between you and the agency.
While our application was being processed, we continued to network, meet and finalize our goals/blue prints and raise money. We had a very successful fundraising effort on IOBY.org and that is how we were able to buy all of our start-up tools. In addition to fundraising, we have applied for grants and have so far been approved for the "Love Your Block" grant totaling $1,000.
We have had two weekends of working on the garden thus far. and I can't believe how far we have gotten! We completed our compost station which has 4 bins, raked up all the dead leaves to use for compost, got rid of about 15 bags of garbage and pruned all the trees to optimize sunlight. The volunteer turnout was amazing: at our peak we had at least 20 people helping out. The community's interest is overwhelming! For anyone who would like to help out, we will have our gates open every weekend as long as weather permits.
I hope sharing our journey helps other upstart gardens!!
462 Halsey Community Garden is here. You can follow their progress on facebook or join their yahoo group for direct communication.
REMINDER: Now that we have 4 groups that have gotten official access to their lots in the 596 Acres network, we are thinking about how to make our online tools useful for the next stage of local organizing. As members of one of these groups -- this means useful for you! How can we add features to our website that let you better use the 596 Acres network to improve your work? Come tell us!
We are hosting a conversation on Thursday, May 31 at 5:30pm at The Commons (388 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn). We'll provide some snacks and post it notes. We really want to hear from you! Please RSVP to tell us you can make it. Also please share this invitation with your group -- we'd love to hear from everyone from leaders to casual volunteers!
Now that we have 4 groups that have gotten official access to their lots in the 596 Acres network, we are thinking about how to make our online tools useful for the next stage of local organizing. As members of one of these groups -- this means useful for you! How can we add features to our website that let you better use the 596 Acres network to improve your work? Come tell us!
We are hosting a conversation on Thursday, May 31 at 5:30pm at The Commons (388 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn). We'll provide some snacks and post it notes. We really want to hear from you! Please RSVP to tell us you can make it.
There's a great video by some NYU students about this garden here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHwymV0d7ZE&feature=youtu.be
Pictures of 462 Halsey in action: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.349375331765572.67621.212988388737601&type=1
Lot owned by HPD.
Visit http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/my_community.jsp to view any open Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the lot.
The lot has been approved for use by HPD to the 462 Halsey Community Garden Group. We are now fundraising in order to start work on transforming the lot into a garden. You can donate here"