Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, East River maintenance pulled out all the plantings in the cooperative garden behind building 1 and filled in a large section of the garden with a concrete slab.

Somehow this gorgeous rose bush survived the slaughter:

The garden was started five years ago with the board’s blessing; East River maintenance assisted in preparing the beds. A year later, the board backed away from their support, but cooperators continued to cultivate the area on their own initiative.

Those cooperators this week were given no warning of the landscaping changes, nor any reason for them. (A member of the maintenance crew pouring concrete told me that the snow plows needed the area for snow removal, though I’ve seen snow from the parking lot plowed onto the grass here for several years without any ill effect to the grass or garden.)