East Village and the World of Tomorrow

O Sky Captain! My Sky Captain!

Ya’ll remember that movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? Me neither. But I sure as hell remember the title. In fact, I’ve been looking for an excuse to rip it off for nearly 20 years. And that excuse? Well the East Village is living in 2099.

Alright, it’s still New York—rats running around, unexplained smells, no clear line between where the street ends and the sidewalk begins. The usual.

No Place Like the East Village

Look, people think of utopia as the perfect society, but did you know utopia literally means “no place” in Greek? As in—it can’t exist. No, I’m not providing you the link. Go look it up.

And the East Village ain’t utopia, but I’ll certainly say there’s no place like it! And why’s that? Well, how about 50 community-managed green spaces.

Read my lips: EAST. VILLAGE. GARDEN. DISTRICT. And yes, I did just steal that line from George H. W. Bush. And, no he wasn’t talking about tomato trellises and pollinator corridors, but here we are…

Honestly, I could end this article right here—but I imagine you’re curious at this point.

Fall from Glory

See, once upon a time, there was a city that fancied itself the greatest on Earth—no, I’m not talking about Detroit. NYC, baby. The city of top hats and walking sticks! Just check out these friggin’ Rockefellers…

Pictured: The vibe

But then trouble came-a-brewing: deindustrialization, white flight, fiscal crises—the usual suspects. So, NYC lost 10.4% of its population between 1970 and 1980. That’s right, baby: shrinking city. And you guessed it—the most visible byproduct? VACANT LAND.

Vacant Land Transformation

Now what to do with all that vacant land? Well, legend has it that Liz Christy—who helped start what became New York City’s oldest community garden—once saw a kid playing with an abandoned refrigerator on a trash-strewn lot. She asked the mother why she didn’t clean it up for her kid. The mom shot back: “I work full time. You’re a bunch of college students—why don’t you clean it up?” And boy, did they…

Now if you want more visuals, check out my TikTok.

Point is—it wasn’t just Liz. All across the East Village, neighbors came together to turn vacant lots into community spaces. Sound familiar? Yeah, I talk about this all the time in the modern context of the American Rust Belt. Remember those cities that never came back?

NYC, Greatest Comeback in American History?

Initially, many of these spaces had an edge of anarchy to them. These were pieces of land that had fallen out of the economic system—worth little to nothing—being run by a bunch of edgy youngsters. But then New York did something funny: it came back (greatest comeback in American history, maybe?). And when the East Village came back, these gardens were already part of the urban fabric.

But then the East Village really came back, and people started saying, “Hey, you know, those community gardens could fetch a fair penny on the open market.” But garden lovers had something to say about that—locking themselves to fences and all that good stuff. And now? The majority of these sites are protected through New York City’s GreenThumb program, which supports more than 550 urban gardens citywide.

The World of Tomorrow

The East Village isn’t perfect—and sure, New York has more density, more money, and more political leverage than most cities. But it still set a standard. It showed that when the system gave up on a space, communities didn’t have to. They could plant something instead. If we’re serious about building the world of tomorrow—not just redeveloping, but reimagining—we could do worse than looking to the blocks where neighbors turned trash-strewn lots into community roots.

In a country that once dreamed of becoming a kinder, gentler nation, this is what that might actually look like: people claiming land not for profit, but for each other. And yes, I did just quote George H. W. Bush again… See you soon—and for god’s sake, pound that subscribe button if you haven’t already!

Postindustrial Futures