Volunteer Gardeners at Verdi Sq. Soldier on Despite Water Project Delays
Volunteer gardeners laboring to keep Verdi Square green welcome progress on an irrigation project that could transform how they care for the beloved Upper West Side park, but they’ve persisted regardless without it.
| 03 Aug 2026 | 01:42
The statue of Giuseppe Verdi at Verdi Square on the Upper West Side (
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All the greenery found in Verdi Square can be attributed to volunteer work. (
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Paving and planting done by volunteers, facing Broadway. (
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More aving and planting by volunteers. (
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Facing away from Verdi Monument and facing 72nd Street Station, one can find more planting completed by Friends of Verdi Square volunteers. (
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Volunteers don’t just work on the greenery surrounding Verdi Monument, but all the raised garden beds immediately surrounding Verdi Square. (
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Verdi Monument, facing West 72nd Street. (
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A friends of Verdi Square flyer, noting that they accept donations through their website (friendsofverdisquare.org), over Venmo, and by mail. (
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Slide 17 of the NYC parks presentation details the plans from a bird’s-eye view. (
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Slide 18 includes a print with more details. (
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Slide 19 details the planned ADA-compliant asphalt walkway. (
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A long-awaited city irrigation project could transform how volunteer gardeners care for Verdi Square, but while the project inches forward, the gardeners continue hauling water by hand and rallying community support to keep the beloved Upper West Side park flourishing.
The Friends of Verdi Square is a 100 percent volunteer-based, 100 percent donation-funded community organization dedicated to enhancing and maintaining the public square, located at the intersection of Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue and West 73 Street.
“Honestly, we think of Friends of Verdi Square as an amazing, wonderful, remarkable group of people, ages 4-84, who show up for Verdi Square Park and one another... with a community garden as backdrop,” Directors Kathleen Murphy and Quentin Webb told West Side Spirit.
They also said that water has been one of their biggest challenges.
“We are very much looking forward to the irrigation system that has been in the works, coming to fruition,” they told West Side Spirit. “The dirt in the park is pretty bad, we are fundraising to get the nutrients it needs to support the plants - so a water source will help us immensely.”
The water service installation project is currently in its procurement phase, which is projected to be completed in April 2027.
According to sources close to the matter, the project is currently soliciting bids from Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises. Those bids are due in the coming weeks, and construction is anticipated to start next summer.
Project plans, presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in February 2025, include a new accessible asphalt path, water service and two quick-connect water outlets, along with a backflow-prevention device and water meter housed in a vandal-resistant enclosure. The NYC Parks project tracker lists “between $1 million to $3 million” in allocated funding, from the Mayor’s Office, the Borough President’s Office, and the City Council. In addition to installing water service and the new path at Verdi Square, the project will install water service uptown at Riverside Oval.
Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer said that she’s long appreciated the work that Friends of Verdi Square do.
“This is an example of real New Yorkers doing real work for the community,” she said. “They don’t get anything for it, but they help the rest of us.”
Brewer expressed support for the city’s water service and an ADA-compliant path installation, citing how increased water access would help the volunteers who are currently moving water via buckets and watering cans. However, she also emphasized how frustratingly slow progress can be with city projects: “You can see how long these things take.”
Friends of Verdi Square has been active since 2018. The project’s formal start date is listed as January 2024, and construction will not be complete until at least 2028.
Eddie Pensiero Slept Here
Verdi Square encircles the Verdi Monument, which honors world-renowned composer Giuseppe Verdi: “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “Don Carlos,” “La Forza Del Destino”; “Otello,” more: who can choose? The monument was unveiled on October 13, 1906, and NYC Parks gave the square its matching name 1921. In the 1960s and 70s, however, it went by a much different name (alongside neighboring Sherman Square): Needle Park, on account of widespread public heroin use in the spaces.
“Panic In Needle Park” was both the title of 1967 Life Magazine story by reporter James Mills, and a bleak yet rewarding 1971 film of the same name that gave Al Pacino his first starring role opposite Kitty Winn. Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne co-wrote the powerful, feel-bad screenplay. Thankfully, though the 72nd Street subway entrance still attracts its share of unpredictable characters, things have since changed for the better.
“Thousands of people use Verdi Square every day, and it looked terrible,” Brewer said, applauding the volunteers who show up in the sweltering heat and freezing cold to address the space’s needs. She added that the new plantings helped decrease the rat population in the area.
Webb and Murphy were keen on acknowledging the essential role of city workers in maintaining Verdi Square: “The unsung heroes of the park are the city workers who pick up garbage, tend the seating area ... and support the work that we do to keep the park clean and tended - we consider them part of our team,” they wrote.
Volunteers are supported by local businesses, like Amsterdam Wine Co. right across the street. Owners Sabrina Jawer and Kaare Bivin-Pederson, who contribute to the Friends’ yearly celebration honoring the gardeners’ hard work, expressed appreciation for the care that volunteers put into maintaining their community.
“Our neighbors rock,” Webb and Murphy said. “The kind words they give us every weekend as they walk by keep us going.”