Friday, April 16, 2021

Reminders: March to save East River Park on Sunday

There's a "Save East River Park March" on Sunday... those who wish to join in with organizers East River Park Action can meet at noon in Tompkins Square Park. (Per the invite, at the "semicircle with the big elm tree near the southeast entrance.")

From Tompkins, the group will march to the East River Park Amphitheater for a rally at 1:30. (Details here.)
The march takes place as the city officially kicked off the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project yesterday via an announcement by Mayor de Blasio.

"Building a recovery for all of us means fighting climate change and investing in resilient communities,” he said in a press release. "This project will keep generations of New Yorkers safe from extreme weather, coastal storm, and rising sea levels — all while preserving and improving some of our city’s most iconic open spaces."

Work started in Stuyvesant Cove back in December on what is being called Project Area 2.

As for East River Park, in the city's current plan, which has been met with outrage by community members, workers will raze the 57.5-acre plot of land. bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill meant to protect the Lower East Side and surrounding neighborhoods from a 100-year-flood event and sea-level rise. 

In October 2019, the city announced that they would phase in the construction so only portions of the park are closed to the public at any given time. According to various reportsthe city has committed to leaving a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park open to the public. It is projected to be completed in 2025. 

22 comments:

Gojira said...

Funny how he can't do anything for poor PS 64 but has no problem illegally ramming through something like this giant, life-altering, decades-long monstrosity. January 1st cannot come soon enough, but I fear it will be too late for the park.

Anonymous said...

This project will definitely take longer than they are projecting. If it goes forward, East River Park will be shut for YEARS!!!

Anonymous said...

The fact that De Blasio is for this project is all you need to know! He's a first class dumb*ss.

Anonymous said...

If this was started years ago it would be done by now.

Anonymous said...

The people I know who live right there and were flooded are glad this work is getting done. I hope they are being listened to. The decision should be up to the people right there in the projects whose lives are upended and even lost due to the flooding which is only going to get worse.

Anonymous said...

Both Re Blasio and Rivera were on TV yesterday touting the project with renderings

Anonymous said...

"The people I know who live right there and were flooded are glad this work is getting done. I hope they are being listened to. The decision should be up to the people right there in the projects whose lives are upended and even lost due to the flooding which is only going to get worse."

Again, this post is a deflection of the true climate change plan that was developed with MAJOR community input which has been tossed aside for this construction union/REBNY horror show of a plan which, of course, has been signed off by Rivera, Chin, Powers, the CC and BdB since they are all bought and paid for by these interests. That a FOIA request was needed to even get even a highly redacted engineering study (a document that was initially said by NYC did not exist) says it all about this totally corrupt boondoggle that will take at least 10 years to complete, will destroy the Park, not provide any protection during it's construction and not factor in any additional climate change projections that will then have to start the whole process over again.

Anonymous said...

Thank god this is finally getting done. There is nothing worthwhile to save at East River park — it’s a 100 year old shit hole that needs a soup to nuts renovation ASAP. My neighbors dog drowned during Hurricane Sandy. The feds are picking up the tab for this as well because there is never $$ for parks in the LES. Let’s stop protesting everything. This is one thing folks got right — flood protection and a new park now!

Anonymous said...

So they are finally starting the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project for the estimated cost of $1.45 billion dollars. Very fancy name for what it really is, the asset protection project for LES private real estate developers so they can continue to build expensive apartment buildings along Avenue D and East Houston Street without fear of the next superstorm and of course don't forget about the eventual privatizing of the housing developments along the FDR drive from 14th Street down to Delancey Street.

Anonymous said...

Let's rip out every living tree and plant to deal with climate change- sounds like a great idea!

There are 2 options here that will totally protect the neighborhood. One involves the total destruction of our park (for probably a decade),the other put a wall along the FDR, and saves the Park. Both work equally well. There is no need to kill this park, except to pave the way for real estate development, which DeBlasio/Rivera seem only too happy to do.

Anonymous said...

I say we take this Fed money and get this work done now. That water from Sandy flooded a huge part of the neighborhood and it's only going to get worse. We didn't prepare for the pandemic and we haven't prepared for flooding. We got a late start on this and have to get going on it. The people bickering about elements of the plan don't get what it's like to have your building's basement flooded. It impacts everything in the whole building. Elderly people were trapped on the higher floors of all the buildings over there. We need to protect the neighborhood. It makes me crazy when I see celebrities who don't live over on D weighing in on this.

Anonymous said...

"The people I know who live right there and were flooded are glad this work is getting done. "

Pics Or It Didn't Happen.

If there is any support for this project on the east side of Avenue D it would be very easy for Rivera to use it in publicity. The choice, as outlined in the now unredacted review, is about inconveniencing the FDR Drive, a major source of asthma.

Close the FDR over nights and leave the park alone.

Anonymous said...

No one is saying don't do anything. Obviously, no one wants another flooding situation. We can save the neighborhood AND the Park if they go back to the original plan, which was to put a wall along the FDR. The only reason this wasn't done is that it cuts out a lane of the FDR (a big source of the high asthma rates in the neighborhood!)during eves and weekends, which is frankly not our problem. Too bad our pols are more interested in representing the needs of commuters more than those of our neighborhood!

Anonymous said...

11.18 AM, 1.18 PM and 1.47 PM , all 3 of these posts seem to have the same author. All 3 conveniently ignore/deflect the history of this issue which can be found at the various links supplied with what, at least the last TEN stories that the EV Grieve has done for this issue.

"The people I know who live right there and were flooded are glad this work is getting done."

Gotta love this quote. No 'receipts' at all for it. Sorry, when was the last time you were even on Ave D? And it was not just the NYCHA projects that were impacted by Sandy or who use the East River Park. NYU, Bellevue and the VA hospital plus STPCV were also impacted.

Anonymous said...

I lived through Sandy. I also lived through the first closure of East River Park, which was awful and really deprived our neighborhood of a much-needed green space for years. And now I will have to live through the bulldozing, reconstruction, noise, dust and the loss of hundreds of trees for even more years. This plan is awful--the more you look at it, the more you realize the last thing the city cares about is the health and well being of the LES.

Anonymous said...

I would love to hear from more experts who don't have skin in the game. It is inspiring to see the passion people feel about this issue but you have a lot of people who don't have expertise in this area offering critiques and I don't know how much of it is legitimately good info and how much of it is people throwing out bad info. It is confusing.

Choresh Wald said...

Tear down the FDR drive instead of the East River Park.

Anonymous said...

I'm excited for this much needed change. I hope the beautiful scaffolding mentioned in a prior article, is used for this vastly welcomed addition and provide money given bsck to the city by means of this development via the community trust partnership.

Anonymous said...

If I remember correctly, the Feds are only paying $350 million for ESCR. So will New Yorkers pick up the rest of the tab... over a billion dollars?

What's DOT and Con Ed's flood protection plans for their portions of East River Park????

Come June, vote for the candidate who didn't vote YES for this current ESCR plan!

Anonymous said...

Okay guy and gals, get your kitten heels on and lets march the f**k out of this!
I will be meeting comrades in Tompkins, once gathered we will de-shoe, only to then surprise everyone when we all see-mull-tane-eee-us-ly whip out our kitten heels in unison bend over put on right shoe, snap back, then bend again and put on left, snap back, then we will briefly bow our heads in a m0ment of silence, For march to RVP will align in a chevron formation with tallest person leading and shortest people trailing behind ensuring the safety of those in front. If there are any little people that would be like to join us, that would be so magical! The littlest one will be dressed as baby liberty and carried to ERP, where there may or may not be a water sacrifice. (bring your waders!)
Keep Calm and March the f**k out of RVP!

Anonymous said...

Billions of dollars to leak out the side of this one. Look at all the reports already completed. The money is not budgeted for this project. It will never be completed until they get rid of the public housing in the area and then suddenly it will all be finished as the new Ave D DiBlasio luxury houses are put in.

Carlina needs to be voted out. She's using her pretty smile.

Anonymous said...

This is an inane plan, the wall along the FDR was a much better one. I can’t believe the city is prioritizing not closing a lane of the FDR over closing the park and razing all of the trees.