Risse Gardener Fights Back

By DAVID CRUZ

The plants that once belonged to Elizabeth Carson have been destroyed. And she knows who did it. It didn’t take long for Carson to know who damaged those beds at Risse Street Garden. It was an apparent team effort.

At a meeting among gardeners at Risse Street Garden the morning of April 22, Carson confronted Brendan O’Regan, another gardener, over who destroyed her flower beds.

“Those plants have been nicely removed,” O’Regan was captured on Carson’s cell phone video recorder saying, his arms folded as he carefully explained what happened to Carson’s flowers.

“Anytime I tried to respond to anything there was an attempt to keep me from responding by someone who wasn’t chairing the meeting,” Carson told the Norwood News.

It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing spat between Carson and members of Risse Street Garden. Last year, the garden’s steering committee voted to remove Carson’s gardening privileges last year, citing violation of some of the garden’s bylaws. Carson has called the vote illegitimate, and instead continually used the flower beds for planting. Carson said she was being targeted for calling out procedural policies involving a project O’Regan started.

O’Regan previously told the Norwood News that Carson’s ouster was the result of her violating several garden rules that included bringing unruly friends to the garden, a point Carson has disputed. O’Regan said her guests violated the garden’s bylaws.

Despite Carson’s objections, the garden committee still enforced the sanction. The garden falls under GreenThumb, a division of the New York City Parks Department. Since last year, Carson has pressed GreenThumb to intervene over what she claims is lawlessness at the 28-year garden. She’s kept records of her version of events, pointing to the larger issue of lax record keeping and proper governance at city recognized community gardens when squabbles occur. Carson compares them to “little private clubs” that are “not accountable to anyone.”

“The fact that there are no good records of what has gone on at Risse is really one of the troubling parts,” said Carson. “They cannot present to anyone why they decided to take those beds from me.” Carson has since lodged a formal complaint against O’Regan to GreenThumb, but hasn’t heard back.

Citing criminal mischief, Carson is now considering suing O’Regan for $1500, the estimated cost of her perennials and plants that were plucked from the flower beds. She also brought her issue to the latest Community Board 7’s Parks Committee on May 9. “This conversation will be continued,” Barbara Stronczer, chair of the Parks Committee said.

In a statement to the Norwood News, O’Regan said, “We in the garden feel sorry to have to keep on replying to more false allegations put out there.”

Editor’s Note: The online version of this article originally included a no comment from O’Regan. The article has been updated to reflect O’Regan’s comments.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.

Nancy Arons

June 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm

I am a community member with concerns regarding the governance at the Risse Street Garden. I have long enjoyed its beauty and tranquility, now upended through what seems a series of unprovoked attacks on one of its active members. Elizabeth Carson has had her beds seized AND vandalized by a kangaroo court who seem to adhere to their own bylaws rather than those agreed upon. Having read the first article in the Norwood News and having had my ear to the ground throughout this unjust, decidedly personal attack, I am disappointed by Green Thumb’s nonchalance. As a taxpayer I object to Green Thumb’s demands yet total absence of governance over the disagreements and squabbles that result when bylaws are ignored. To, on the one hand, insist on bylaws and then abdicate responsibility for any oversight smacks of lackadaisical leadership as well as hypocrisy. Green Thumb undermines its own authority by refusing to insist on following its own mandated procedural conduct. If there are rules of order they must be followed. Easy peasy. No room for bullying, dictatorship, or vandalism. Actions breed consequences. Communities, and humanity, which follow democratically agreed upon rules of order and conduct thrive and are just. There is never an excuse for vandalism or personal assault— therein lies a recipe for only chaos.

In particular, that Ms. Carson’s “great crime” was voicing a safety concern (for fellow gardeners and visitors from the community), having her gardens removed when procedure isn’t followed is decidedly unfair. That Green Thumb is unwilling to rule on the simple enforcement of the garden’s bylaws reveals a disgraceful lack of agency oversight. Whether she triumphs in her quest is almost immaterial (though, personally, I want her to regain total dominion over her unjustly seized beds). Again, as a taxpayer you actually owe me, a community member, the right to expect that you follow rules of order, too: to insist that rather than adjudicating this dispute the gardeners “work it out yourselves” disappoints me. I do, remember, pay your salary. That this entire mess, and many others, can be easily resolved by demanding each community garden follow exact adherence to their respective gardens’ bylaws seems a fairly simple fix.

One thought on “Risse Gardener Fights Back ”

Nancy Arons

June 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm

I am a community member with concerns regarding the governance at the Risse Street Garden. I have long enjoyed its beauty and tranquility, now upended through what seems a series of unprovoked attacks on one of its active members. Elizabeth Carson has had her beds seized AND vandalized by a kangaroo court who seem to adhere to their own bylaws rather than those agreed upon. Having read the first article in the Norwood News and having had my ear to the ground throughout this unjust, decidedly personal attack, I am disappointed by Green Thumb’s nonchalance. As a taxpayer I object to Green Thumb’s demands yet total absence of governance over the disagreements and squabbles that result when bylaws are ignored. To, on the one hand, insist on bylaws and then abdicate responsibility for any oversight smacks of lackadaisical leadership as well as hypocrisy. Green Thumb undermines its own authority by refusing to insist on following its own mandated procedural conduct. If there are rules of order they must be followed. Easy peasy. No room for bullying, dictatorship, or vandalism. Actions breed consequences. Communities, and humanity, which follow democratically agreed upon rules of order and conduct thrive and are just. There is never an excuse for vandalism or personal assault— therein lies a recipe for only chaos.

In particular, that Ms. Carson’s “great crime” was voicing a safety concern (for fellow gardeners and visitors from the community), having her gardens removed when procedure isn’t followed is decidedly unfair. That Green Thumb is unwilling to rule on the simple enforcement of the garden’s bylaws reveals a disgraceful lack of agency oversight. Whether she triumphs in her quest is almost immaterial (though, personally, I want her to regain total dominion over her unjustly seized beds). Again, as a taxpayer you actually owe me, a community member, the right to expect that you follow rules of order, too: to insist that rather than adjudicating this dispute the gardeners “work it out yourselves” disappoints me. I do, remember, pay your salary. That this entire mess, and many others, can be easily resolved by demanding each community garden follow exact adherence to their respective gardens’ bylaws seems a fairly simple fix.

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