DH
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 13/05/99 at 1:37 PM Erika Higgins wrote:
>A Victory for all gardeners! Thank you divine Miss M!!!
>
>(from the New York Times - 5/13/99)
>A day before the Giuliani administration was to auction off city-owned
>lots that had been transformed into community gardens, the performer Bette
>Midler had her private conservation organization agree to buy dozens of the
>less desirable parcels, providing the final financing to preserve all 112
>gardens that were set for sale.
>
>The 11th-hour announcement ended a long-running dispute between city
>officials who said the parcels were ripe for sale and residents who viewed
>themselves as gardeners tending to verdant oases in neighborhoods of
>concrete and steel. But the fate of more than 600 other lots that were not
>part of the auction remains unclear.
>
>Nevertheless, the $1.2 million purchase of 51 lots by the New York
>Restoration Project -- arranged by a singer and actress better known for
>her engaging flamboyance than for her diplomatic skills -- provided a vital
>piece in the city's negotiations with environmental groups.
>
>The offer cleared the way for another conservation group, the Trust for
>Public Land, to buy the rest of the 112 parcels for $3 million, a figure
>that included an additional $1 million from Ms. Midler's organization.
That makes her contribution the major one, then. 2.2 million vs 2 from the Trust.
>According to the deal, the two organizations are to work out plans to turn
>over the properties to the community groups that tend to the gardens. If
>the properties are ever used for anything other than gardens, ownership
>will revert to the city, said Deputy Mayor Randy Levine, who helped in the
>negotiations.
What a no good bastard. If the lots were paid for, who the hell are they to stick
their noses into it (the gardens are fine, but why lock into just the current view of
collective future needs)?
>-------------------------------
>Erika Higgins
>ehiggins@oxy.edu
>323-259-1426
>Community Food Security Project
>Occidental College
Douglas M. Hinds
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C. (CeDeCoR)
(Center for Community and Rural Development)
Petronilo Lopez No. 73
Cd. Guzman, Jalisco 49000 MEXICO
e-mail: dmhinds@acnet.net, cedecor@acnet.net, cedecor@ipnet.com.mx
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