The Chico Mendez Mural Garden was a community garden located on the Lower East Side

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Named after Brazilian environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

 and activist Chico Mendes

Chico Mendes

Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes , was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples...

, the garden was demolished on December 31, 1997.

History

The East Village's Mendez Mural Community Garden(11th Street between Avenues A and B) was created in the early 1990s through the work of sculptor, Ken Hiratsuka, and muralist 'Chico.' Chico and others brought trees, plants and art to the space which had been a vacant lot since the early 1970s. The park grew without city support in a neighborhood that had suffered in previous years from violence and drug-crime. It was widely utilized by people in the neighborhood and became a fixture in the community. In 1996, the city exercised their claim of ownership on the land and Mayor Giuliani decided to sell the land to real-estate developers. A community uproar and protest followed the decision. In the end, the attempt to save the garden failed. On New Year's Eve, 1997, the land was bulldozed for condominiums.