When I used to live on the Lower East Side in the early 2000's, a somewhat reclusive old hippie started being around the building all of the time. Wearing purple shirts and hats and riding around a bicycle decked out with bells, he would go through the recycling for returnable cans and bottles... I didn't really think anything of it until the construction project next to my building created a foundation to rooftop crack in the building. People's doors fell off, their sinks askew. We petitioned the landlord to intervene and get city inspectors out to verify the stability of the building, but, silence.
Shortly thereafter, I got to know Adam Purple. Unbeknownst to me, our super, who was an old time friend and community activist, had been housing him in the basement because after the city evicted him from his long time home on Forsythe St., a block away, he really didn't have anyplace to go.
Adam got the tenants together and proposed a rent strike. The landlord was completely unresponsive, we had no idea whether or not our building was safe to live in & there had been recent building collapses due to adjacent construction in the neighborhood. Many were reluctant to do it, because they were rent controlled tenants - and everyone else was rent stabilized. But he managed to organize enough of the tenants into a temporary rent strike, that it forced our absentee Italian landlord to come back to the country, meet with all of us and take the necessary steps to insure the safety of the building.
He had an uncanny ability to organize, but was a reserved man who didn't reveal much. I didn't move to the city until 1994, so had no real knowledge of what he had done, until after I'd lost touch with him. He is largely regarded as the father of the community garden movement, creating one of the most memorable community gardens in the history of the city - the Garden of Eden. One that could be seen from space.
And the movement he fostered took over the city for a long time - up through my early years here in the mid '90's. In the east village and lower east side in 1994, there were 1-2 community gardens a block - all in city owned spaces where buildings had been condemned and destroyed. It was a beautiful thing. It was destroyed by Giuliani.
Adam Purple died yesterday while riding across the Williamsburg bridge on his bike. He was 84. His legacy should inspire all of us.