From the Wall Street Journal:Despite its serene setting and rows of flowers and vegetables, a community garden in Flushing, Queens, has turned into a battlefield.
Violent fights, death threats and shouting matches, sometimes involving fistfuls of dirt, have become routine at Evergreen Community Garden, leading to volunteer guards at the entrance and police patrols. And almost all of the tangles involve elderly Korean gardeners, officials and witnesses say.
The disputes grew out of the city Parks & Recreation Department's decision last year to take control of the 5-acre garden from a Korean-American senior citizens' group, which had transformed the trash-filled public space into a working garden back in the early 1980s.
A fight broke out at a news conference by elderly Korean gardeners upset that New York City took control of their park in Flushing, Queens. Mellad “Sam” Massoud, a member of the Evergreen Community Garden who supports the city’s control of the park, is seen shouting in the video because he was upset that the news conference was taking place. He was injured in the fight and spent three days in a nearby hospital. He said he was "simply reacting to the situation,” adding, "The fighting has gotten bad and we need to stop.”
The parks department—which contends the seniors' group had been improperly selling produce from the city-owned plot and excluding outsiders—turned control of the park over to its GreenThumb network of community gardens and installed a manager last year.
But the older gardeners are still trying to reclaim the land, at times by drastic means.
A year ago, the garden's 75-year-old former manager clutched a lighter and container of gasoline, threatening to light himself on fire if he didn't get his old job back, city officials said. The incident prompted a police hostage negotiation team to respond and two nearby schools to be locked down.
Then earlier this summer, 100 gardeners signed a petition saying they feared for their safety around one of the garden's new managers—and one person took out a restraining order against him, according to court documents. That manager now has a gardening schedule, set by city GreenThumb officials, so he doesn't violate the court order.
Parks officials say they are trying to keep the peace at the garden, located in Kissena Corridor Park.
20 comments:
What's Public Advocate candidate Cathy Guerriero doing in this scene? Who's side is she on?
What a "peaceful" group these Korean gardeners are.
Much more important news...that land is contaminated!
That's why growing vegetables in that tainted soil there is prohibited.
Only flowers are permitted to be raised there.
You can see the old Korean ladies selling its produce around Lippman Arcade.
Don't buy it. The poisons in those plants will be ingested by your body!
LOL!
Maybe John Choe's group, "One Flushing", can deal with this matter.
"Can't we all just get along"?
LOL!
Tweeding = Entitlement.
This is related to today's posting on how the historic Tyrlon Theater was also turned over to some immigrant group to garner their favor.
Meanwhile, everyone else suffers but since you will still elect them no one cares what you say or how you feel.
I rent a plot in the State Park close to my crib here in DE. There are about 200 plots, and gardeners of all ages, colors and national backgrounds... and they are the nicest, most generous people you will ever meet. Constantly helping others with their experience and advice and sharing their produce. No one sells it, they give it away. The biggest problem is groundhogs, squirrels and deer getting their share! And the human groundhogs from outside the Park that steal shit on occasion.
I have no doubt they were selling the produce and excluding 'outsiders'.
This is what colonisers do.
Could you imagine the uproar if a white seniors group had done something like that? The article would be calling them racist and stating they should be ashamed of themselves. But since its involving a "minority group" the article only quietly states they are excluding "outsiders". Why don't they call it what it is and say they are being racist? I guess that's vibrant diversity in full force.
Koreans don't garden for community building or charitable purposes. They take over plots of vacant land and grow commercial crops to make money. New Yorkers who are community gardening give away the produce they can't use. Not the Koreans. They think Americans are stupid and childish for giving away food for free. That translates as a weakness to be exploited. Add to this, the brainwashing that Americans get about illegal immigrants and you have a situation designed to benefit lowlife Korean vultures.
A community garden is a great idea. That's why aggressive, selfish people such as the Koreans take them over for their own financial benefit to supplement their Social Security checks and other US government benefits. Not only are they living off the taxpayer the Koreans want to exploit any inch of dirt for them only.
Bravo to the poster who points out the hypocrisy on this issue. Not only would the white seniors be called names, they would be arrested for stealing from the City.
Invitation for vermin that spread disease
FINALLY something is being done about this! Trucks have been hauling produce out of there for years.
And when a friend & I repeatedly asked to plant a plot around 15 years ago, we were told it was for Koreans only.
It's a beautiful spot, but it should be open to the whole community, as it was originally intended.
love Sam's performance. want to see the rest of the video. thanks for the laughs.
Love the kimchee section of the garden
It's so fragrant and makes the neighborhood smell so good.
You want to see some CRAZY SHIT. Take the LIRR west bound. Around 108th street look out the window.
There are gardeners working the field (probably LIRR owned property) growing all sorts of stuff. SO MUCH product for that matter that you don't have to be detective to know they're selling the product. I've seen boxes at harvest time. QUEENS CRAPPER....how do we get on a slow moving train to get those pics?
One of the things I do is look at what is holding poor nations back: a lack of clear and recognzed property ownership (i.e. deeds), no enforceable contracts, a heavy and mostly irrational regulatory burden, and a corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy.
This Queens story brings a lot of those elements together. In fact, a lot of recent QC stories seem to mirror the absence of econonmic freedom for the poor. I think this is because recent immigrants expect at the same time more free stuff, and less integrity from government officials. In my view, this garden/farm wasn't about the "freedom to garden", but the failure of the rule of law to provide an opportnuity for both sides to believe they were fairly treated in the process.
Don't worry. I'm right on this case.
I was informed just yesterday, by a former council member Harrison's staffer, that a local civic group had that soil tested by a private environmental testing laboratory during the 1990s.
One of the toxic metals that was discovered to be present in the garden was Cadmium. OMG!
These test results were then handed over to CB7.
What have they done about the poisonous conditions?
Community Board 7 probably passed the buck to the NYC Parks Department.
WTF have they done?
That garden should be closed down.
The Korean women selling produce from it should be arrested and fined.
Unless nobody cares about the health of Asians who seem to be their only customers.
Is this a freedom to garden poison crops?
I agree - and 3 days in a hospital on our tab.
Should have given the jerk a stiff fine.
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