Closing Remarks #13

Last week I wrote about the pending closure of Elizabeth Street Garden here in NYC, and this week I decided to pay it a visit on what I thought could be its penultimate day. The sun was shining, and the garden felt no more or less full than I'd expect it to be on any given random sunny autumn Wednesday.

As I walked and took pictures, I wondered how many people were there to say goodbye, how many were there for the first (and possibly last?) time, and how many people were just totally clueless that it might be gone soon. While there was a sign propped up at the entrance urging people to contact the mayor and save the garden, it was easy to miss. Nearby a few volunteers sat in gay conversation at a table with flyers. Nothing of the energy felt urgent or like the end. I was a bit confused. Shouldn't people be chaining themselves to fences and shouting through bullhorns? Where was the fervent passion to keep the place open? Nothing of the sort was to be found that day.

It turns out that as I was strolling, the garden's volunteers were celebrating a temporary court injunction barring the city from closing the garden down for at least a few more weeks. However, a quick scan of the garden's social media reveals that the space has been imperiled for at least 5 years, if not much more. What does it mean for a nonprofit to withstand so many years of uncertainty, to keep teetering at the end rather than "ripping the bandaid off" and calling it quits? In the case of an urban green space, I guess it's worth it. Judging from that sun-soaked Wednesday afternoon, it seems every additional day in the park is worth fighting for or simply just basking in.

1) Liverpool retreat complex for disabled departs
Revitalise has facilities across UK and has existed for over 60 years; this particular location was opened by Prince Charles in 1988 and was actually slated to expand its capacity only 2 years ago. Employees, volunteers, families, and past guests are reeling at the sudden shift in fortunes. The organisation's leadership claims it is struggling financially but will honor vacations booked only until 25th November.

2) Community empowerment design firm to sunset
Hester Street is an NYC-based urban planning, design and development nonprofit supporting communities in shaping their own neighborhoods. Financial challenges caused the board to make the tough decision to wind down. A timeline has not yet been announced.

3) Public access to Hawaiian geological gem to end
Makauwahi Cave Reserve is the largest limestone cave in the Hawaiian islands and has been called perhaps the richest fossil site in all of the Pacific islands. The lease for the land has been held by a nonprofit devoted to its preservation for the past 20 years. However, the owners of the land, sugar cane plantation owners Grove Farms, have refused to offer a new lease to the group. Since the announcement, two of the cave's residents -- a 30-year-old, 60-pound tortoise named Lilly and a 56-year-old, 200-pound tortoise named Thor --- have gone missing.

4) Northern California theater to take a final bow
In September of this year, Berkeley, California's Cal Shakes Theater returned after a 2-year financially induced hiatus. This month, they announced that they will be ending for good. The 50 year-old group offered open air productions of Shakespeare plays throughout the Bay Area, but arts funding has proved fleeting in the area with a spate of theaters shuttered over the past few years. Cal Shakes directors hope to do one or two more shows before early 2025.

5) MIdwestern news nonprofit downsizes
The Beacon operates out of Kansas City and Wichita, but has made the difficult decision to pull out of the WIchita area. Unlike so many of the closures I've covered, this is not related to money. The organization is still working through a healthy $4 million grant it received a few years ago.

In a (somewhat?) refreshing break with the norm, the wind down here was attributed to infighting and subsequent staff turnovers related to editorial direction. Admirably, The Beacon will be working to ensure their Wichita news archives stay online under a new steward so that the information stays accessible to the community.

6) Southeast Iowa's Latino community loses a vital resource
Latino residents in the Council Bluffs area of Iowa were shocked this weekend with the sudden closure of Centro Latino. Fresh off the heels of a rousing celebration of HIspanic Heritage Week just the Friday before, the board of directors Aurora De La Cruz woke on Saturday morning and decided to call it quits. Despite 20 years of work providing translation services and citizenship classes to the area's Spanish-speaking immigrants, the group had long been in financial dire straits, relying primarily on professionals who would volunteer their services for no fee.

7) On the disappearance of the .IO internet domain
In what is a somewhat convoluted story, the British Government is transferring ownership of the Chagos Islands to the country of Mauritius, effectively dissolving the Indian Ocean Authority, and --- by extension --- the .io top-level domain. IANA, the international agency that oversees TLDs will soon stop registering websites using .io and will give companies using .io domains 5 years to migrate away.

Closing Remarks is brought to you by The Wind Down, a consultancy for exploring, building, designing, and delivering better non-profit endings. You can read previous issues in the archive here.