ADAM PURPLE'S LAST STAND
By Chris Flash 

    Adam Purple, the legendary Lower East Side artist best known
for creating The Garden of Eden, a world-famous "Earthwork," has
been living without gas, electricity or running water for 17
years. Now he is being threatened with eviction from his home of
26 years.
    On February 24, 1972, Adam moved to 184 Forsyth Street as a
tenant, and later became the building superintendent for landlord
Sol Janklowitz of Bermike Realty in Brooklyn. When Janklowitz
abandoned the building in November of 1976, Adam and the
building's residents took over and kept the furnace running. In
February 1981, in an effort to get paid for utilities, Con Edison
asked the city who owned the building. According to the Inner
City Light newspaper, Con Ed was told the "Purple People" owned
it, even though the City of New York had taken the building in an
"In-Rem" foreclosure. As the landlord, the city is responsible
for providing electricity for hall lights and the furnace, but it
has refused. Con Ed then cut off all utilities to 184 Forsyth.
Soon, the water pipes froze and burst, and the water had to be
cut off. Adam says that the tenants tried to get help from
various city agencies, but "we got the runaround." The tenants
then moved out one by one, until finally, only Adam was left.
In JIn July 1980, the city began billing Adam $2,400 per month
for rent as "John Peter Zenger II". The bills stopped in August
of 1992 when a reporter asked the city why they were charging
rent while providing no services at 184 Forsyth. By then, the
total rent charge had reached $352,706. 
    At the time Adam moved to 184 Forsyth, the city was facing
bankruptcy. With the economy in a deep recession, insurance
companies and banks "redlined" certain neighborhoods, making it
impossible for small landlords to keep their buildings. Some
landlords who were insured torched their buildings to cash out,
while others simply walked away. At the same time, crime
increased as heroin flooded the Lower East Side, further fueling
the cycle of arson, abandonment, and "white flight" (the middle
class moving from the city to suburbs). Throughout the 1970s,
the City of New York amassed a huge portfolio of real estate.
Instead of repairing their housing stock, buildings that were
unsafe or burned out were either sealed or simply demolished.
    Around 1974, Adam, watching kids at play in a rubble-strewn
pit where two buildings had stood on Eldridge Street, decided
that a garden would better serve his community. By the time he
and his neighbors finished creating a garden, the city had taken
down more adjacent buildings, and the garden expanded into those
lots as well. At its peak, The Garden of Eden, with a large
double yin-yang center, encompassed five lots, had 45 fruit and
nut trees, attracted tourists from all over the world and was
featured in National Geographic magazine (Sept. 1984).
    By 1985, Adam says, the city considered The Garden of Eden a
threat: "They couldn't just say `go away,' so they found a HUD
project and got all the local poverty pimps to jump up and down
and say `we need housing, we don't need flowers.' They divide the
community, conquer it, and everybody loses." A transcript of
testimony in an August 22, 1985 US District Court hearing
provided to the SHADOW by Adam reveals false and contradictory
testimony by "housing organizers," including Margarita Lopez, now
city councilmember representing part of the Lower East Side. At
the time, Lopez said: "our people don't go there...that garden
never was put together in a way that included our children..."
The purpose of this testimony was to support the false claim that
Adam had created a private garden, unavailable to the community.
One poverty pimp remarked "Well, it may be art, but his canvas is
too big."
    On January 8, 1986, The Garden of Eden was destroyed to make
way for the "Infil" housing project, that Adam says was chosen
for the site of the garden "because the garden was there. It was
deliberately used by the city to smash something they found
offensive."
    Adam says "I call the garden a psychic booby trap. Who gets
caught in a psychic booby trap, except a psychic booby? They
destroyed the garden but they got caught, and now they have to
live out the rest of their lives in psychic exile because of
their act of vandalism." 
    Since the destruction of The Garden of Eden, the city commenced
eviction proceedings against 184 Forsyth in 1986, but it never
went further, due to improper service. In September of 1994,
Community Board Three (CB3) approved a proposal by poverty pimp
housing group Asians for Equality to take 184 Forsyth, but their
approval was mysteriously switched in October to the New York
Society for the Deaf.
   Now CB3 is stepping up its efforts to get Adam out of his
building. On February 24, the 26th anniversary of Adam's move to
184 Forsyth, the board voted 30-1 in favor of a proposal by the
Society for the Deaf to acquire site control of Adam's building
and a vacant lot next door as a step toward building 21 units of
federally-funded housing. The Society for the Deaf already has a
large building on several lots on Forsyth, just south of 184,
built in 1993. According to CB3 member Herman Hewitt, Adam would
not be eligible to live in the new units since the apartments
would be awarded under a lottery system. Strangely, just a few
hours before the CB3 vote against him, Adam was served with a
notice to vacate his building by March 31.
    "Now they're seeking to go around the courts," Adam says, by
having his building transferred to the Society for the Deaf.
"Nice neighbors. They move next door and they want to throw you
out." Adam says that by transferring his building, the city can
avoid housing court, the legal process and public oversight. He
notes that the city can grant site control, but they cannot sign
over an occupied building.
    Rudolph Giuliani, as US Attorney for the Southern District of
New York, oversaw the legal effort to destroy The Garden of Eden.
As mayor of New York City, it is not likely that he will defend
Adam's "huwomanimal rights under Article 18 of the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights."
    "Whether I'm here or not, this building should be landmarked.
It's in good shape. It needs love and attention, and it's getting
neither from the City of New York."
    Concerned readers are urged to contact city councilmembers
Margarita Lopez and Katherine Freed and demand that they help
Adam keep his building. If you or someone you know has legal
expertise, advice, suggestions, resources and if you can make a
donation to Adam Purple's Defense Fund, please send whatever you
can to his attorney Colleen McGuire at: 305 Broadway, Room #402,
New York, NY 10007. Phone: 212-571-4080. Fax: 212-571-4079. 

                        **PLEASE INTERNET THIS!!**

"How long do I have to do this? I've been here 17 yrs wo svces,
I'm willing to do another 17 yrs, but they're not willing to let
me do another 17 yrs, ...I've demonstrated that I can do it. It
is possible to surv in really cold weather with the minimum.
Henry Davidson Rose said in Walden" Simplicity, simplicity,
simplicity. And now this society is based on complexity., co
plexity, complexity. And we can all see what is happening, the
environmental systems are going down the tubes." Adam Purple