What We're About
The Bergen Green Space aims to establish an economic model based on reciprocity and democratic ownership rather than private property and profits. We seek to sustain the practice of mutual aid by formalizing alternative ways of organizing labor and exchange. We want to help enable New Yorkers to create and steward collective wealth, engage as equals, and realize their shared needs and desires.
Where We're Coming From
The Bergen Green Space began in September of 2020 as an effort to transform a privately-owned, long-abandoned lot into an outdoor community center, providing local residents, workers and the general public with access to green space, basic services, educational opportunities and resources for collective organization. The project began as a call for democratic intervention into the future of one neglected lot, taken as an emblematic example of the pervasive abuses of speculative, absentee land ownership in NYC. In March of 2021 this project was unfortunately cut short.
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Though short-lived the effort to revitalize 733 Bergen Street was a profoundly educational experience. The lessons, resources and relationships that it generated are all now helping to inform Bergen Green’s next steps.
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