I talked again to the owner of the lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue.
Pictured above: Bosco in action.
In the last few weeks we’ve been mulling the idea of turning the lot on 29th Street and 10th Avenue into a community garden or dog park—see recent posts about my initial call with the owner and the preliminary proposal we sent two weeks ago.
On Friday I talked to the owner again for about 15 minutes, and the short story here is that he is receptive to our idea (and quite personable). He said that:
He does not foresee himself selling or developing the land for, at minimum, 2-3 years, and he is potentially open to us using the land until that point;
He would need to see more details, however, before bringing the plan to his partners who also have some decision-making power over the land;
In particular, he is interested in the approximate timeline over which we would turn the land into a public space and the potential tax exemptions he would get in us doing so.
My friends, I have tried and failed at enough things in my life to recognize an intermediate win when I see it, and this is it. So let’s keep it going. Right now I’m interested in whether there are block residents who know anything about the following:
The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, and specifically the program called GreenThumb which helps neighborhoods develop community gardens;
NYC tax exemptions and Section 420-b of the NYS Real Property Tax Law. I’m specifically interested in whether a private owner can get the 420-b exemption by retaining legal title to the property and leasing to a nonprofit;
Forming a nonprofit organization;
Gardening;
Putting a very large sign on the fence around the lot saying something like “what if we turned this into a community garden?”;
Executing on a long-shot idea (second most important);
Taking a walk around the block and either talking or not talking about any of the above (most important).
Posts you missed this week:
Also, send me things to put on the front page—if there’s something that you like or that has caught your interest or that has crossed your mind in the last few weeks, consider the possibility that the whole block would like to know about it. Keep in mind that the editorial standards are pretty lax around here.
