Brooklyn Community Garden Shut Down for Allegedly Growing Weed

Pictured: The Green Gems community garden in East New York. Image via Google Maps

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — A large, well-loved community garden called Green Gems sprucing up the corner of Fountain and Glenmore avenues in East New York has been shut down by city officials after they allegedly found marijuana plants growing on site.

Weed plants were discovered at the garden on two different occasions by staffers for GreenThumb, the sub-agency within the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation in charge of the city's hundreds of community-run gardens, according to a spokesman for the department.

The first sighting was way back in Fall 2014, Patch has learned. 

At that time, Green Gems gardeners — aka, residents in the neighborhood who volunteer to tend to the park — were notified the park was at risk of losing its license.

"GreenThumb takes these violations of the license seriously, as well as the potential harm to communities that they can cause," Bill LoSasso, a spokesman for NYC Parks, said in an email. 

"GreenThumb — in partnership with confirmed local stakeholders — will host a general interest meeting in the near future to begin the process of licensing community members — many of which have already expressed interest —  to continue stewarding this space as a properly functioning community garden," the spokesman said.