A New York Resident Has Been Quietly Transforming Empty Tree Pits Into Amazing Micro Gardens

In 2020, Manhattan resident Gabrielle Tessler was upstate due to COVID. She dreaded coming back to the city, but when she finally returned, she was in for a surprise. Her block, which was usually cluttered with garbage, was now lively with flowers. The transformation wasn’t just limited to this one block, but the entire city. What Tessler and zillions of other residents are witnessing is the single-handed initiative of a man named David Kass. Kass is on a mission to transform the image of New York City one flower bed at a time, as he shared in an interview with CBS News.

The inspiration

Kass grew up gardening in Brooklyn. When he moved to Manhattan, he was disheartened to see the city littered with trash. Oftentimes, as he walked across the neighbourhood, he felt frustrated seeing clumps of trash discarded in random places. Over time, his anger became a fuel that propelled him into action. "I think I was just fed up with passing the garbage, and there was just nobody doing anything," he shared with CBS News. In the next few years, he invested all his money and time into revamping the city by planting trees and flowering plants.

The process

Like any man on a mission, Kass walks down the street he desires to transform. With wheels rotating before him, he hauls his cart with seedlings, flower buds, and pails filled with water. As he walks, he traces the nooks and crannies for heaps of litter. He stops when he spots one. Then, he kneels and squats on the ground to pick up the trash. He replaces the gritty patch with a fresh flowering bed.

Many times, residents stop by to appreciate his effort. Once, for instance, a homeless gentleman came around and asked Kass whether he could help him. He watched him work on a bed and then bent down to plant an iris. By 2021, his dedicated work had materialized into 22 beautiful flower beds in his immediate area, Kass told the host of HeroesOfNewYork in 2021.

Earlier, Manhattan’s streets were teeming with dense throngs of blue-collar workers. Swirls of dizzying smoke rose from congested traffic blocks and cast grisly shadows on glass walls of towering skyscrapers. The scene today is not much different, except that the roads and streets are now punctuated with rainbow flower beds.

Gardening between lights

“Watch out!” Kass exclaims as a reporter interviews him while he’s working on a flowering bed in the middle of a road. He’s used to keeping an eye out for traffic. But he has trained himself to stay tuned to the precise mathematics of traffic lights. He waits for the tight gap when the lights turn red, which is when he gets down to work. "I have to make sure that for about two lights I'll be able to go in here and do what I need to, if it's removing trash or planting something," Kass said. Traffic isn’t the only obstacle. There are many.

The obstacles

Kass endorses his mission with the phrase Just One Person (@JustOnePerson). However, being “just one person” often hinders his mission with obstacles. “It's really not a 'just one person' job.  And the environment to maintain the gardens on the busy streets of Manhattan is brutally harsh.  Trash always ends up in them, drought and heat take their toll, and then there is theft.  People often think the beds are a free-for-all and pluck the plants right out,” he shared in the description of a GoFundMe page he set up for funding.

The outcome

Despite that his path is dotted with humongous barriers, Kass loves what he does. "I feel like I've eliminated a garbage pit and turned it into something that people can appreciate," he told CBS News. "I'm just one person, and one person can make a difference." A reporter from TODAY asked him about his inspiration. He said, “I feel like I am their caretaker and they are my babies.”