Despite the absence of any sweet sweet cheeba, parks officials destroyed a vegetable garden cultivated in Highbridge Park by Washington Heights senior citizens to prove a point: parks are meant for tweaking out and screaming at smokers, not experiencing a kinship with the earth through peaceful cultivation. "The basic principle is that what this person did is wrong. This is a public park, not private," Manhattan Parks Commissioner WIlliam Castro told DNAinfo. Although the Parks Department initially said the garden may have contaminated the soil, Castro said, "We're not really concerned about contamination so much…you just can't go into a public park and dig up a significant area, or any area, it's just not right." That'll teach those seniors to not neglect Highbridge park!
The garden in the park was uprooted on Friday, and Castro said he would try and find a space for the farmer and his helpers. Most gardeners who ask to work in parks plant flowers, and Castro noted that "we almost never get a request for" vegetable gardens. Sure "permission" to plant your vegetables is great and all, but there's nothing quite like biting into a tomato from a guerrilla garden. Mmmm, transgressive.
