Patti Smith is one of several famous New Yorkers fighting to save a public garden in Manhattan, and it’s a location that’s very important to the rock legend.
The Elizabeth Street Gardens in Little Italy is set to be demolished, but artists like Smith, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams to try to stop it.
In an interview with The New York Post, Patti shares that the garden has served as a safe space for her creativity.
“I’ve written poems there. I like to sit and think. It’s a good place just to think and contemplate,” Smith tells the paper. “I’m working on a book. It’s a work in progress and when I was in the garden I was writing about my mother.”
Patti, who’s written such books as Just Kids and M Train, has also performed at the garden, noting that “it’s not like (a) raucous atmosphere — it’s a very light-hearted, benevolent atmosphere where people are listening.”
She adds, “It’s inspiring. But it’s also calming. Sometimes I might want to go to the garden not to work, but to exist — just to feel blessed by my surroundings.”
“I’ve lived in the city off and on for over half a century, and these type of areas are fast diminishing,” Patti says. “And they’re worth fighting for.”
The Elizabeth Street Garden was built in the early ’90s by developer Allan Reiver. According to the paper, the demolition is expected to “begin in a matter of weeks” and is being done to make room for affordable housing.
In the letter to Adams, Smith described the garden as “an oasis of green space within our city,” adding it “truly stands as a work of art.”
“Affordable housing and green spaces are both essential assets and should not be pinned against each other,” she added.
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