Neighborhood News: Big Trouble in Little Paradise

The decadelong battle over the Elizabeth Street Garden nears its end.

- Matt Stieb

AT A GLASS TABLE Surrounded by rhododendrons and a young Japanese maple, Joseph Reiver, the executive director of the Elizabeth Street Garden, has taken a break from mulching a walkway on a warm summer morning. At 31, he is the same age as the garden founded by his father, an antiques dealer who leased a vacant lot from the city to house his eclectic stoneworks back in 1991. "It defines me in every way," Reiver says.