Three empty lots
I do not believe in glamorizing empty lots. Empty lots in cities do not symbolize some kind of urban wilderness. They are not wilderness, and they do not exist as functional ecosystems. Anyone who believes they do would benefit from touching grass an endemic perennial forb. They are a placeholder, hopefully temporary and when long-lived exemplify a process failure of some kind. With that said, here’s some glamour shots of three empty lots.
441 Willoughby Street
On the corner of Nostrand and Willoughy sits a storied empty lot still owned by a black women’s Masonic chapter.
Somewhat incredibly, almost every single plant in this lot seems to be an introduced speices, including the horrible mugwort that makes the bulk of the vegetation and this beautiful out-of-gamut Dianthus, probably escaped from the nearby Home Depot.
Some other classic European non-natives:
They might all be from the Home Depot.
Coreposis is one exception! I’m not sure what species this is though.
784-800 Myrtle Avenue
Around the corner, another group of vacant lots will hopefully not stay vacant much longer.
Despite being a bit more gravely and less superficially lush, this lot had a few natives, including some gorgeous common milkweeds.
Plenty of introduced species, though fewer of them seem sourced from Home Depot.
And a bumblebee!
223 Nevins St
223 Nevins St is a kind of traffic cone garden. A “New York energy innovation first”.
