Honoring a West Harlem legacy of stewardship, nourishment, and community.
On April 4, family, friends, neighbors, elected officials, and longtime volunteers gathered in West Harlem to celebrate the co-naming of West 138th Street and Riverside Drive as Jenny Benítez Way — and the naming of Riverside Valley Community Garden as Jenny’s Garden. Together, the street and the garden now carry forward the name of a woman whose care changed both a landscape and a neighborhood.
Before the ceremony, Riverside Park Conservancy welcomed friends and loved ones into Jenny’s Garden for a reception filled with food, music, and memories. It was exactly the kind of gathering Jenny made possible over decades: warm, generous, rooted in place, and open to all. In this one-acre community space, people didn’t just come to garden — they came to connect, to learn, to eat, to help, and to belong.
That spirit was everywhere throughout the afternoon. Dozens of community members came together to honor Jenny’s life and the extraordinary legacy she built across West Harlem. Speakers included Councilmember Shaun Abreu, State Senator Robert Jackson, Jenny’s daughter Victoria Benitez, her son Julio Benitez, and Laurie Kindred, who now serves as lead volunteer caretaker of the garden.
The tribute was long overdue. Beginning in the late 1970s, Jenny Benítez, with the help of her husband Victor, her children, neighbors, and countless volunteers, transformed a derelict lot filled with trash, abandoned cars, and dangerous activity into a thriving oasis along Riverside Drive. Over time, the space became a model of community stewardship in an urban landscape — a place where food was grown, nature was restored, children learned, and neighbors cared for one another.
For Victoria Benitez, the day was deeply personal. Looking out at the crowd, she reflected on a family history rooted in this corner of the city:
“I look around, I see friends, I see family. My family has lived in this building for 64 years.”
She remembered her mother rallying neighbors with brooms to clean sidewalks and park paths so children would have a safe place to play — and later running a hose from her apartment, through the tunnel under Riverside Drive, to help bring the garden to life.
Julio Benitez spoke movingly about what it meant to honor not only Jenny’s name, but “her way.” As he put it, Jenny cared for this stretch of parkland with total commitment, seeing it as her responsibility and mission. He recalled her special love for school groups and her belief that education was central to stewardship: “They are the future,” she would say. He also spoke about how Jenny nourished both body and spirit, from harvest donations to shared meals after volunteer workdays. In that same spirit, Julio noted that his family makes a donation to Riverside Park Conservancy every year in Jenny’s name — both to honor her belief in volunteers and philanthropy, and because this work still needs support.
Laurie Kindred, who continues Jenny’s work at the garden, spoke about the values that still shape the space today.
“If you want to stay and have a footprint here — here’s a shovel, here’s a rake. We’re going to put you to work,” she said, describing Jenny’s lasting lesson that caring for a shared place takes a whole community.
Laurie also reflected on how she has tried to raise her own children in Jenny’s spirit, with a love of the outdoors, responsibility, and service at the center — and that one of those children is now on the path to becoming a forester, part of Jenny’s living legacy in the next generation.
Councilmember Shaun Abreu captured the meaning of the day in his remarks: “From now on, this corner will carry Jenny Benitez’s name so that everyone who passes through here will know… that this neighborhood had a woman who saw a forgotten piece of land and turned it into something magnificent for her community.”
It was a reminder that street signs can do more than mark a location. They can tell a story, preserve memory, and invite future generations to ask who came before them — and what they made possible.
That same truth is now rooted in Jenny’s Garden. For years, Riverside Valley Community Garden was known informally by neighbors as Jenny’s Garden. Now the name is official, affirming what the community has long known: that this place bears her imprint in every sense. The garden remains a living example of collective care, producing a meaningful harvest each year, much of which is shared with community centers and soup kitchens, while continuing to welcome volunteers, young people, and families into the work.
Jenny Benítez passed away in 2019, but on April 4 her presence felt unmistakably near — in the stories people told, in the laughter and music before the ceremony, in the soil of the garden, and in the crowd gathered to speak her name. Jenny Benítez Way and Jenny’s Garden are more than honors. They are a promise that her example of stewardship, generosity, and fierce love for community will continue to grow.
