In the 1970s, a trio of vacant lots between Warren Street and St. Marks Place and 4th and 5th Avenues became a working community garden—the Warren St. Marks Community Garden—after a transformation by neighborhood volunteers.
In 1978, the city started the GreenThumb program to provide assistance and coordination to community gardens established via grassroots efforts on city-owned vacant lots.
During the administration of Rudolph W. Giuliani, many city-owned vacant lots that had been developed as community gardens were slated to be sold to real estate developers. Across the city, citizens rose up to defend the green spaces nurtured by everyday New Yorkers, when the city itself could not manage its abandoned properties.
Eventually, an agreement was brokered, thanks in large part to Bette Midler. Her New York Restoration Project (NYRP) worked with the Trust for Public Land to save about 64 community gardens, including Warren St. Marks.
We are one of five gardens that make up the Brooklyn Alliance of Neighborhood Gardens Land Trust (BANG). Our members, all volunteers who pay nominal (and waivable) dues, collectively maintain the community plots, pathways, sidewalks, tree pits and open hours so that all in the neighborhood benefit.
The mission of the Warren St. Marks Community Garden is to advance gardening opportunities for its members and to make our neighborhood attractive and fun to be in. We accomplish this by enjoying it from within and from without, and by working in it, walking in it, and by meeting and getting to know our neighbors.