Astor Place
Non aquatic trees succumb,
to generous water.
By design or lack of care,
this concrete park does suffer.
•
peter radley
[Photos from last week]
Previously
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
15 comments:
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How ironic that Amanda Burden-Christ is the heir to the Burpee Seed fortune and the few green things to be found on her moonscape are drowning.
ReplyDeleteThe Astor disaster continues. Plants and trees are dead or are left to die. Dog walkers are trampling through the plants with their dogs. Garbage is everywhere with only the wind to blow it away. Yet the Village Alliance which is responsible for Astor runs food give-aways and silent dances. I said Carbynol on the Hudson. It's getting there. And nobody is embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI walk by there daily - and I don't hate the design, but I do hate the huge gardens that are full of weeds that were never planted properly with shrubs or flowers - and the revines of water that is killing the trees. I mean, who designs these gardens??
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on here, are there only 4 inches of soil and concrete below this tree pit?
ReplyDeleteIs that a multi use eco friendly KOI Pond that the city is phaseing in
ReplyDeleteWhat a howling wasteland this turned out to be! A freezing trash-blown steppe in winter and a concrete oven in summer. Ill- planted, neglected trees withering to death. Weeds, dog poop, and litter. Trash bags piled up in mountains every night. Even Chernoble is more lush.
ReplyDeleteA "plan" gone horribly wrong.
The City needs to fix this EMBARRASSING, Mismanaged Ugly SCAR !!!!Lets put a major spotlight on this disgusting JOKE of IMPROVEMENTS???Call New York One get some networks involved and get the Mayor to Fix this INSULT to everyone who must traverse
ReplyDeletethis TRAVESTY.!Stage PROTESTS,arrange some DANCES. Of DISGUST get Cooper Union involved ??Any One Else PISSED off enough?
The trees aren't dying, they were planted dead to begin with and nobody cared. The company that sold the dead trees made out just fine though...wanna bet?
ReplyDeleteWhoever awards design projects for this type of work should be fired. Somebody with a sense of design might be a better choice to oversee these types of projects and how the merits of the applicants are reviewed.
Pits of Grass....not Leaves of Grass. Plantings that are supposed to look natural but look more like a struggling garden in District 12 from The Hunger Games.
And there are still spots where trees are supposed to be planted and are not. Two along the perimeter (in the pits) of the southwest corner of the park. One on the east side of Cooper Union, just a few steps north of 7th Street. Four along the north side of Astor Place in front of the Death Star.
Cheap plumbers piping used to put up hazardous, I will trip you, just 6 inches off the sidewalk, borders around the garbage and grass pits. Which vendor made a lot of money on those cheap materials?
Large boxes promising to sell Mexican drinks and small plates interfere with the both the design of the space and the pedestrian traffic, while remaining closed serving no purpose at all other than to uglify the entire concept.
Shame. Shame on everyone who had anything to do with this overcost, overtime, underdone project.
There is always money to create the gardens. The problem is that there is no money to maintain the gardens for the next umpteen years.
ReplyDeleteKnew this whole joke project was finally doomed, way back when they installed the first pieces of the ridiculously thin walled tubular guard railings around platers. I had thought at the time that it was just temporary construction fencing to keep the open pits secured.
ReplyDeleteGive it another 12-16 months this stuff will all be crushed mushed mess.
This storm water collection pits are the new rage, and will soon be everywhere. It is a great idea in concept, but you need to be religious in cleaning and weeding. Weed everywhere. Did I mention weeds? Although some of what you are seeing are intentionally planted grasses that help hold it together and absorb water.
ReplyDeleteActually these are called Bioswales and intentionally collect stormwater runoff from the gutters instead of going into the city's ancient Combined Overflow Sewer system, which during heavy storms diverts sewer water (household and street gutters) into the East River and other water bodies. They have special engineered soils to filter the water as it returns to the natural water table. The tree is completely able to withstand sudden influxes of water as well as extended periods of drought, though the first year or two getting established can be difficult. Other plants are also supposed to be able to withstand the same. Dog piss and being trampled on, no. Garbage, no. They do need to be maintained properly.
ReplyDelete@shawn - thanks for the info on bioswales. I looked it up and these sound pretty interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/stormwater/bioswales.shtml
There is even a set of photos on Flickr showing the construction of one of these:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nycwater/sets/72157660057742497/
I also came across this NYT article about residents who don't like the appearance of these things:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/nyregion/bioswale-rain-gardens-new-york.html
TF is this shit.. we tolerated 2 years of half-assed construction with debris strewn about for this poorly planned bullfuckery? not to mention the huge rectangular cut out mosquito breeding cesspools across the street right smack in the god damned middle of the most heavily foot-trafficked sidewalk. who are these planners? like seriously.. someone needs to be fired and their name and photo emblazoned on the side of a city blimp in humiliation stating exactly how completely shitty they were at their jobs.
ReplyDelete