Thursday, December 30, 2021

Workers have demolished the East River Park amphitheater

Workers have finished demolishing the East River Park amphitheater. 

EVG regular Daniel Efram shared these photos yesterday... 
The city is to replace the existing structure, which dates to 1941, with a smaller one at the exact location. In June, the city came up with $4.83 million to include a roof over the new amphitheater. (Our last post has more details.)

Meanwhile, workers continue to cut down the trees in East River Park below Stanton Street as part of the $1.45-billion East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Up to 1,000 mature trees are expected to come down in total.
The city has said that some 2,000 new trees will be planted in the reconstructed park, per a previously published statement.

Activists opposed to this version of the city's floodproofing plan continue to gather daily at 1 p.m. just south of the Houston Street entrance...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have no words for this disaster -

Dave on 7th said...

Just imagine how much money can be skimmed from $1,450,000,000. Even if it’s just 10 cents on the dollar, you’re talking about $145,000,000.

Giovanni said...

The good news is that Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, sometimes referred to as the Doomsday Glacier, is retreating rapidly as a warming ocean slowly erases its ice from below, leading to faster flow, more fracturing, and a threat of collapse. It’s collapse would lead to a 2 foot rise in sea level. This would likely create a domino effect on Antarctica’s glaciers leading to a 10 foot rise in sea level. This means that Manhattan would turn into Venice, with lower Manhattan submerged completely underwater, making this entire project a big waste of time and money. But at least the contractors will have made a whole lot of money.

The bad news is that the giant earth killing meteor doesn’t seem to be on its way anytime soon. Happy new year!

Brian said...

Merry Xmas!

Dave on 7th said...

Don’t look up!

Anonymous said...

Are you sure about that date on the amphitheater? If I remember correctly it was rebuilt about 20 years ago, the old one was in disrepair for quite a while and did look somewhat different.

Dave on 7th said...

The shell was definitely rebuilt mostly if not completely. I believe it originally looked more like the old Tompkins band shell. Which more of an open cube.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much money DeDorkio made from this disaster.

Scuba Diva said...

Dave on 7th said:

The shell was definitely rebuilt mostly if not completely. I believe it originally looked more like the old Tompkins band shell. Which more of an open cube.

The important takeaway from this is that the city has plans to rebuild the amphitheater much smaller than it was, so that there will be fewer opportunities to congregate. Presumably, it will be privatized and easier to charge admission—since most of the new housing in the park will be luxury housing.

Considering that real estate is Manhattan's only natural resource, it's surprising they haven't done this earlier—like in the last century.