Community gardens are an endangered species in New York City (NYC). Esperanza (Hope) Garden, a 23-year old community garden in the Lower East Side of NYC, was bulldozed by the Mayor Giuliani administration in February 2000 to make way for “affordable housing.” Play for Keeps asks the question: “affordable to whom?” and exposes the city’s attempts to gentrify New York’s poorest neighborhoods and destroy thriving communities. Interviews with Loisaida (Latino and especially Puerto Rican pronunciation of “Lower East Side”) residents and gardeners and More Gardens! activists, illustrate the need for direct action and civil disobedience to defend the last of NYC’s truly free green spaces.