3. First Street Garden Park

Since opening in 2008, the First Street Garden has served as an art and cultural space open to the community, partnering with artists, architects, community members, and cultural groups. The garden has merged its space with that of First Park, and between the two, street art and murals abound. In 2011, the Lower East Side Girls Club teamed up with 17 artists to paint murals of some of history’s most unforgettable women, including Rosa Parks and Alice Paul, in the First Street Garden. And recently, 86 portraits from all fifty states by photographer John Raymond Miles were seen on the exterior fence.