Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Reminders: This week's meeting lineup on stormproofing plans for East River Park



As a reminder, here are your opportunities this week to learn more about the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project as the public review process continues:

• ULURP Public Hearing – Parks, Recreation, Waterfront & Resiliency Committee
Tuesday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.
PS/MS 188 – The Island School, 442 E. Houston St. (entrance at Houston/Baruch Drive)

• CB6 Full Board Meeting
Wednesday, June 12, 7 p.m., 433 First Ave. between 25th Street and 26th Street (NYU School of Dentistry), Room 210

• CB3 Parks, Recreation, Waterfront & Resiliency Committee Meeting
Thursday, June 13, 6:30 p.m., Henry Street Settlement Youth Services Gymnasium, 301 Henry St. (CB3 posted several relevant documents on the project here ahead of the meeting.)

Last fall, the city unveiled an updated plan, which took residents, community leaders and local-elected officials by surprise after years of outreach and groundwork. The revamped plan — released without any community input — is radically different than what had been discussed. City officials have said in various presentations that this approach will provide a reduced construction time, resulting in an operable flood protection system for the 2023 hurricane season and future sea rise.

Creating the intricate flood protection system would see the city close East River Park for up to three and a half years starting in March 2020.

Also, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is available for public comment until Aug. 15. Find those details on how to comment here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here are the next meetings for you to learn more about stormproofing plans for East River Park

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whatever 'they' do will fail against nature. 'They' will use the cheapest material, with the minimum standard, at the highest cost and slowest pace - after all, its not 'they're' money.

Anonymous said...

What we REALLY need is to DeBlasio-proof the city: to protect it from
his cronies and his worst ideas.

Anonymous said...

More bullshit. More excuses. I am so over this entire debacle.

Giovanni said...

Anyone who believes that this is the only solution has not listened to actual experts who have studies this issue. Watch the PBS special and read article in Rolling Stone. which both say that building a wall around lower Manhattan is only a short term solution.

The biggest red flag is how the city and state are not coordinating their flood plans, and how DeBlasio and Cuomo are just looking out for their own political interests. Mayor De Blasio admits that the BIG U is not going to stop flooding long term, all but admitting that this project is about protecting Wall Street and big developers, his political backers. The barriers in Manhattan will likely make flooding even worse in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Meanwhile, Cuomo is spending billions on renovating LaGuardia Airport, which is located right in the middle of a major flood zone.

Manhattan will flood, there is no way to stop it. So part of the answer is to make our infrastructure (subways and electrical) flood proof and able to withstand and manage flooding, and to stop allowing massive development in flood prone areas. Projects like the Two Bridges towers should have never been allowed, and one day this giant wall will probably just hep keep the water in when it has no where else for it to go

The other part of the solution is to start to depopulate lower Manhattan. We need to stop building giant towers downtown, and give people incentives to move to safer areas. The city should stop letting people invest in real estate that will be uninsurable and eventually unlivable. One day soon, nature will reclaim all of these low lying areas. We should start figuring out ways to work with nature and stop pretending we can ward off the inevitable.

Gojira said...

@Giovanni, I'd vote for you in a mayoral race any day of the week, and I doubt I am alone in that reality.

Giovanni said...

@Gojira. Thanks, but I will probably moving to another country soon the way things are going in this former imitation of a democracy, so you might need to get dual citizenship to cast your vote depending on where I go.

I find it hard to believe that the planning for East River Park shifted so dramatically, at the last minute, and in a matter of a few short months, away from the original plan which had been in the works for several years. How is it possible that they also have Ignored the study and analysis of more comprehensive solutions while settling on this one, which they acknowledge is temporary, which means that East River Park as we know it is doomed no matter what.

The powers that be must know that they are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. At least the people who went down with the Titanic got to enjoy the trappings of a grand cruise ship while it was still useful, while we are foolishly destroying a beautiful park years or perhaps even decades before it would ever be destroyed by nature,

The true rationale for this project is obviously to protect the valuable downtown real estate market. and to keep Wall Street and the general population from moving away from Lower Manhattan. The fact that elected officials cannot be more honest with us about their real agenda is the why I cannot support it.

They also can’t even explain their plan without having a series of very long and boring meetings, because the real plan appears to be to just wear down the community and bore them to death so that later on they can claim full transparency.

So I’ll see you in Canada, or France, or maybe Portugal, or anywhere that’s saner than this idiocracy which we have somehow stumbled our way into.

Gojira said...

@Giovanni - I could not agree more. I'm thinking Germany or Vietnam myself - the beaches in the latter are beyond spectacular! Although Provence or the Algarve wouldn't be shabby either.