How Donald Trump Could Weed Out Your Community Garden
The Trump administration could decide how green New York City's future is.
More than 500 community gardens in the five boroughs rely on a program called GreenThumb. It was started in the 1970s after a financial crisis left many public gardens abandoned and bereft of funding.
GreenThumb gets 43 percent of its funding from federal Community Development Block Grants, the very funds the Trump administration wants to zero out in its latest budget.
If the President is successful, the GreenThumb program would lose $1 million a year out of a $2.4 million budget.Â
"It would be devastating to GreenThumb, it would mean laying off a dozen workers or more, and it would be less money for supplies, for bulbs, for tools," said Mark Levine, the New York City Councilman for parts of Harlem and Morningside Heights, who chairs the city's Parks and Recreation Committee.
With the city budgeting process underway, Levine is pushing for more money for community gardens, as well as the reinstatement of 150 Parks department gardeners and maintenance workers.
WNYC is funded by sponsors and member donations
