Grove Street Rejuvenation Project
The Grove Street Garden has been a hotspot for community activity since it was founded in 1982, but today it is in need of renovations and community reactivation.
Leader
Luis Munive
Location
72 Grove Street Brooklyn, NY 11221
About the project
This is the Concerned Citizens on Grove Street Garden. It was Founded in 1981 by a community leader and father that lived next door named Jaime Alvarez and later bought by The Brooklyn Queens Land Trust making it a protected Green Space. Mr. Alvarez moved from Bushwick 3 years ago. He entrusted the garden to folks from El Puente and PS75 to continue his legacy.
COVID-19 delayed our plans over the last year but here we are now trying to transform and revitalize the space into something that can once again stand for community resilience and legacy. Since early June 2021 El Puente and local gardener Kofi Thomas have been actively involved in cleaning up and revitalizing the garden space. We got a lot of work done during the summer and look forward to opening up the garden to the community this year.
The Steps
Reactive the Concerned Citizens of Grove Street Garden Group
Plan and implement activities at the garden to raise awareness of the space.
Meet new neighbors on Grove street and work towards organizing a block party on Grove Street in the future
Host open garden days for the community and the youth of PS75
Why we‘re doing it
The purpose of this fundraiser campaign is to support the transformation and restoration of the Grove Street garden. Over time the garden has seen better days. We’ve spent time during COVID lockdown reimagining with youth and community members how we can come together to continue to make this space thrive for the next generation. Expanding garden beds around space, installing solar panels so that the garden becomes self-sustaining are some of the ideas that came to mind. Funds will be used for supplies and materials in addition to supporting community wellness events that we would like to schedule at the garden once restoration is complete.
This July also marks the 41st year anniversary of the Grove Street gardens' existence through radical resilience. Mr. Jaime Alvarez organized community members to clean up the abandoned empty lot 40 plus years ago. And because of COVID last year we did not get a chance to honor his legacy and we would like to kick off the summer by hosting a block party that would do that. Our relaunch/ celebration of the garden would be scheduled to take place sometime in August or September so that we can involve local elementary school PS75, a long time partner to the Grove Street garden.
Our aim is to work with community residents to highlight and honor the legacy of the garden by celebrating the 40th year anniversary of resilience on Grove Street. This way we can celebrate past traditions and as we embark on the next generation of environmental justice organizing.