Ducklings And Chicks Face Eviction After Developer Eyes Bushwick Farm, Owners Say

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Baby ducklings and chicks are being evicted by landowners who decided to develop the Bushwick land the flock calls home.

Bushwick City Farm — which has been providing free fresh eggs and produce to the neighborhood since 2011 — has until Aug. 31 to dig up its roots at its 354 Stockton St. location and find a new home, organizers announced on Facebook last week.

"If you haven't yet heard, we're sorry to be the bearers of sad news,” the farm organizers wrote. “The owner wants to develop.”

Now Bushwick City Farm organizers are scrambling to find a new home for a flock of 40 fowl, 12 fruit trees, hundreds of plants, a store of organic soil and a swingset.

They aren’t giving up without a fight.

Bushwick City Farm has launched a petition asking local residents to declare support for it and against the growing trend of gentrification.

“Bushwick City Farm is a sorely needed and deeply loved community resource,” organizers said, noting that the farm provides free fresh food to about 30 families and gardening classes for neighborhood kids.

“It has become a backyard to so many families, an alternative to sidewalk play and a much-needed respite and retreat.”

Once Bushwick City Farm reaches 1,000 signatures, they’ll take the petition to the City and are calling on supporters to contact their City Council representatives.

“In a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood that is already bristling with luxury condos and massive housing developments, it would be a tragedy to lose the lush oasis BCF provides.”

The petition had garnered 328 signatures by Wednesday afternoon and a slew of angry responses from Stockton Street neighbors.

“There is very little green space,” added Lily T. “I am certain that this betters these kids lives.”

“There is no clearer way for the city to let this community down than to let yet another luxury condo to be built in the place of an operating, thriving, community center,” wrote Kaitlin P.

“Replacing the farm with luxury condos will be depriving the neighborhood of this center for social sustenance and in its place, putting yet another source of division.”

Contact information for the landowners was not immediately available.

This story was originally reported by Bushwick Daily.

Header photo courtesy of Pixabay, Instagram photos courtesy of Bushwick City Farm