You bike for what feels like miles without seeing a single tree. You pass identical city blocks that contain only boarded-up storefronts, tiny churches, and hair salons. You see a man place a chaise longue on the sidewalk of traffic-clogged Atlantic Avenue, as if there weren't any pleasanter place to catch some sun. And then you arrive at the Phoenix Community Garden, a little oasis of green in Ocean Hill/Brownsville, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that sorely needs one. Just three years ago, the... More »
