The prospect of urban agriculture in New York City appears
less daunting if people realize that throughout most of the
city's history agriculture and open space were more prevalent
than commercial and residential land uses. In 1898, when the
City of New York was created, only lower Manhattan below
Canal Street (now the financial district) was intensively urbanized.
Much of upper Manhattan was farms and estates,
and most of the other boroughs thrived on agriculture. The
1898 consolidation, immediately followed by the opening of
the city's first subway lines, spurred a huge wave of real estate
development that rapidly subdivided and consumed the
remaining farmland. While the consolidation created an opportunity
for government to preserve farmland through
comprehensive regional planning, real estate interests promoted
growth and dominated land use policy