Elizabeth Street Garden Saved, 620 Homes Planned Nearby

New York City has agreed to preserve the Elizabeth Street Garden in Lower Manhattan, abandoning a previous plan to build 123 affordable senior housing units on the site. Instead, the city will rezone three nearby sites—156-166 Bowery, 22 Suffolk St., and 100 Gold St.—to create more than 620 affordable homes, marking a significant increase from the original housing proposal. The agreement, led by Mayor Eric Adams and Councilmember Christopher Marte, is celebrated by local leaders and celebrities for balancing green space preservation with affordable housing needs. The garden will remain open daily with expanded hours. However, some critics warn that the rezoning processes at the new sites may delay the delivery of affordable housing for years. Nonetheless, supporters hail the deal as the largest influx of permanently affordable housing in Lower Manhattan in decades.