Saturday, April 13, 2013

Roosevelt Island Garden Club Controversy Makes Front Page Of New York Times Today - Sex, Adultery, Misspending & Bullying Charges, Who Would Have Thunk It?

 Image of Disputed RIGC President April Ward In Garden From Ángel Franco/The New York Times

It's hard to believe but the Roosevelt Island Garden Club insurrection, first reported here almost two weeks ago, was the subject of a NY Times front page story today.

According to the NY Times:
It started with the accusations of sex behind the back pond. Of late-night parties that begot stitches and adultery. Favoritism. Misspending. Bullying...

... So goes life these days at the Roosevelt Island Garden Club, where palace intrigue surrounding the garden presidency has grown as abundant as the daffodils, organic vegetables and lazy cats that populate this speck of earth in the middle of the New York City map.

This is no garden-variety garden dispute. After all, in a neighborhood where most people are renters, a patch of flowers and shrubbery to call one’s own is no insignificant thing — especially when the waiting list for such a plot can outstrip the lines for the most coveted kindergartens....
Click here for the entire article and here for previous posts on subject.

4 comments :

CheshireKitty said...

The Garden Club members probably need to sue Ward to regain control of the email account etc. Even mediation wouldn't help at this point. A judge needs to direct Ward to turn over the email account to Schuppert, and to stop referring to herself as President of the GC.

DictatorsForWorldPeace.org said...

If the leadership of the garden club had treated the space that RIOC has so graciously given them as a community garden, rather than a clubhouse, someone like April wouldn't have been needed.


When they had a valid permit, they ignored its terms. Now they don't have a valid permit, and I hope that RIOC uses this opportunity to write a new permit such that the garden club must put the community first, or else lose access to their gardens again.

PeaceandPlenty said...

....Or the Garden Club members could go in the other direction and go after the board for not following the terms of the land lease and putting the garden in jeopardy. Or for following improper procedures, which is what led to this conflict. Of the five or six members I know -- most of them elderly and one with children -- every one of them has complained at one time or another about the behavior of the board and has indicated apprehension about saying anything because of the feeling that they would be penalized for it. One "associate" was told she was not allowed in the garden because she had not paid. After she was able to produce the paperwork and info proving right to be there and payment, a few weeks later she was told she could not be in the garden because she had been caught stealing. To clarify, I am referring to the pre-election crew. Another gentlemen was concerned because he anticipated requesting board approval for renovations to his apartment within a few months -- and some of the board members of his building and the garden club overlap -- and he was afraid it would affect what he wanted to have done. Whether these fears are based in reality or not, the critical thing is that they don't happen in a vacuum. I wonder what a judge would say about that...

CheshireKitty said...

Even if the Board was replaced, that still doesn't make Ward a member. Improper procedures were followed in the election last year so maybe the Board should step down. A new election could be held to fill the Board seats, President and other officers' positions.