Taking up space. The building next door to our garden needs to repoint their brickwork and wants to close one our 90th Street Garden gate and a quarter of the Public area 8 am-4 pm weekdays for about three weeks during the work. We found out about the scope of the project a scant three weeks before the beginning of our annual Tulip show. A large part of the Tulip display would have been in the closed off area. After a meeting at the Garden, the building agreed not to begin the project until later. So now we're negotiating for August dates and we would like them to contribute a sum of money to pay for new plants plus an amount to reimburse us for the loss of use of a quarter of our Public area Monday through Friday during the work. The building points out that if we were just another building they would not be expected to put up any money for stepping on our roof top, and any damage would be paid out of their insurance. They are right, but we are not a roof top. We are a Garden which can't wait several months for insurance to pay for lost plants and trees and shrubs. At this point, they have pretty much agreed to a small sum to replace lost plantings. It's the lost use of public space that is giving us problems. It's a hard concept. We are open daily, and the 90th Street gate and area to be closed during the work is the most accessible for the handicapped. Many disabled people come to the Garden every day, many pushed in wheelchairs or helped along by their Aides. They will not go around the block to the 89th Street Gate, they will just go someplace else, and after being turned away a couple of times many will stop coming to the Garden for this season. So what is the value of that? I'm having a hard time convincing the building that public access and public use of the space has value. I can point out that we will lose donations, but even that is hard to quantify. Our Corporate purpose, covenants running with the deed, and agreements with the City of New York all mandate that two thirds of the Garden be open to the public daily except during icy conditions. So what is the loss of a quarter of our Public Space worth? What is the worth to the 50 or so people who cannot walk around the block to a more inaccessible Gate, and how do we make the loss up to them? What is the value of the loss of pass-through egress to the hundreds of people that walk through the Garden daily on their way to work, or as a pleasant short cut while running errands? What is the value of open space to the public in a City anyway?