Senior citizens are outraged at the Queens Botanical Garden, who for the first time is charging the elderly for their plots in the Senior Garden, which some members have cultivated for 45 years. Membership fees recently rose from $30 to $45 a year, and on top of that seniors with plots, often used to grow vegetables and herbs, will have to pay $150 for plots that used to be free. “This is financial extortion,” said Joseph Siegel, 71. But the garden says they need to make the changes to account for budget losses.
The garden's budget recently dropped from $3.2 million to $2.9 million, and QBG Executive Director Susan Lacerte said, “We’ve been making salary cuts, imposing furloughs on our own staff. Seniors aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of our financial woes." Seniors could get a $100 discount if they agree to work as a greeter four hours a week from April 1 to June 30, but even then the Senior Garden is being phased out for the "Family Garden," which will welcome gardeners of all ages. Which Senior Garden co-chairman Alfred Rosenblatt finds confusing: "How are they going to have a family garden? The kids are in school. You can't just do this on weekends, the weeds will eat you alive," he told the Daily News.
We've contacted the Queens Botanical Garden to see why they chose to go from free plots straight to $150. 91-year-old Lola McLinden, former chairwoman of the Senior Garden, says that the move will alienate more gardeners than it will attract. “It’s insulting in a way,” she said. “We use to be a program that was considered an asset to QBG now some of us will never be here again.”
