Urban Garden Center Opens in Harlem
The grand opening of the Urban Garden Center at La Marqueta under the Metro-North railroad trestle in East Harlem, New York City, has provided a much needed splash of spring color and green to this historic location.
Located under the Metro-North railroad trestle in East Harlem, the Urban Garden Center is part of a larger effort to remake La Marqueta into a destination again. This garden center is located where this historic marketplace boasted more than 500 mostly Puerto Rican vendors in the 1950s, reports Jeff Mays of DNAinfo.com.
“Anyone you speak to knows about La Marqueta. The problem is with the location. It has to be a destination and you have to have something like this that will bring people here,” said Carmen Vasquez, deputy executive director of Hope Community.
Urban Garden Center co-owner Dimitri Gatanas said the outdoor space will attract people from all over Manhattan because of the full line of design, installation and other services they offer. “For example, there are two hens in the space and Gatanas is embarking on a community composting project,” explains Mays.
“This is like a one stop shop for gardeners,” Gatanas said. “With this space, we are showing people we can take a challenging space like this and not just build another parking lot.”
To learn more about this new NYC urban garden center, click here.
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