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SUCCESS STORIES

ARROW (Astoria Residents Reclaiming our World):
Making New Strides

ARROW, or Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World, was founded in 1991 as Astoria Residents Recycling Our Waste. Queens had no curbside recycling program then, and residents in the neighborhood of Astoria wanted to change that. The group started small, with this single goal. Working largely on their own, they established a volunteer recycling program, flyering the neighborhood and scheduling pickups. The group was also interested in cleaning up their neighborhood parks, and held regular clean-ups. Slowly, ARROW built up their membership, creating a mailing list of several hundred people. Thanks to ARROW's efforts, hundreds of tons of paper, plastic, metal, and glass were diverted from New York City's waste stream.

When the City established a recycling program in Astoria, the group changed their name to Astoria Residents Reclaiming their World, and took on a much more ambitious project. Responding to the lack of parkland in northwestern Queens, the group identified a vacant lot they thought could be converted into a park. The site was full of debris and contained an abandoned building.

Through their experience staging various events and planning the recycling program, the group was able to tap into resources to renovate the area. At their request, the Department of Sanitation cleared away over 50 containers of garbage and scrap metal from the site. With the help of GreenThumb, New York City's community garden support program, the group installed clean topsoil, created raised beds, and planted trees, shrubs, and hundreds of bulbs. Community gardeners harvested tomatoes, basil, carrots, eggplant, and other produce. Art students from Bryant High School added a large, colorful mural.

Ultimately the group was also able to have the land transferred to City of New York/Parks & Recreation (Parks); however, Parks is not able to dedicate staff to the maintenance of community gardens on parkland, and ARROW was frustrated with the lack of services the new park was receiving, particularly the absence of a water source for the garden.

At this point, in 1996, Partnerships hired an Outreach Coordinator for Queens, who began working with the group. As a Parks employee with a mandate to reach out to the community, the Outreach Coordinator was able to mediate a formal management agreement between ARROW and Parks, whereby ARROW would assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the garden, and Parks would provide oversight and major maintenance, such as trash pickup and repairs. In the spring of 1997, Parks removed concrete from part of the site, providing additional space for gardening. The group created a Children's Area, with sculptures and space for play.

In 1997, Partnerships' Outreach Coordinator helped the group secure $800,000 in capital funding from the Borough President of Queens for major renovations to the site. These included demolishing a derelict building and renovating other buildings to create a year-round community center; installing a wrought-iron fence; creating a formal open space with seating in the center of the garden; and installing a water source.

Today ARROW Park is a busy, thriving community space, and ARROW is a strong, thriving organization. Partnerships' staff continue to support the group with technical assistance on applying for larger grants; however, the group is largely self-sufficient and is most often in the position of mentoring to other, newer groups establishing themselves in Queens.