How radical gardeners took back New York City

By Ranjani Chakraborty and Melissa Hirsch

Published by Vox

In the 1960s and 1970s, New York City faced a sharp economic decline and white flight. Buildings were abandoned or burned down, particularly in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods. Communities faced mass disinvestment — and what was left was urban decay.

It was around this time that Hattie Carthan, a 64-year-old woman living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, began a grassroots effort to transform that urban decay into green space. What started with four newly planted trees in her neighborhood turned into 1,500.

Along with guerrilla gardening efforts popularized by the “seed bombs” of Lower East Side gardener Liz Christy, Hattie’s urban environmental movement paved the way for the city’s support for community gardens.

Today, around 500 community gardens line streets across New York City. But the history of how we got them — through the radical work of people like Hattie and Liz — is often overlooked. Check out the video above to learn more about their stories and how they ultimately transformed the landscape of New York City.

Today, their legacy lives on through the Hattie Carthan Community Garden and Farmers Market, the Liz Christy Community Garden, the Green Guerillas’ ongoing work, and many other urban gardens — including the South Bronx casitas — that are still thriving today.

How radical gardeners took back New York City: TeamMember

Seed bombs, a "tree lady", and the roots of urban gardening. New York City looked a lot different in the 1960s and 1970s. A sharp economic decline and white flight meant there was mass disinvestment and urban decay, particularly in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods. It’s what Hattie Carthan and Liz Christy noticed in their communities when they each set out to revive their neighborhoods by making them more green. Ultimately, their radical acts of gardening would transform the landscape across New York.

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