Growing Feud Over Evergreen Community Garden In Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A dispute over the control of the Evergreen Community Garden in Queens has grown intense.
The feud is rooted in last year's decision by the Parks Department to take control of the Evergreen Community Garden. A group of Korean immigrants cleared the trash out of the lot on Colden Street 30 years ago and turned it into a beautiful garden with vegetables and flowers, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported. The Korean American Senior Center controlled it.
The senior group of Korean Americans has complained that they were left out of the garden's new management.
Growing Feud Over Garden In Queens
The Parks Department says the group was improperly selling produce from the city-owned plot and excluding outsiders.
"Took me seven years to get a plot here, and one day I came here and they chase me out," one gardener said.
The Wall Street Journal reported shouting matches and dirt fights are routine. Last year, the previous 75-year-old manager threatened to set himself on fire if he didn't get his job back.
The land is owned by the city and the five-acre garden now has volunteer guards at the entrance.
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