For starters, the field was said to actually debut last week for public use — a dedicated space for nearby residents to use for recreation for the years the rest of the adjacent East River Park is gutted.
On Saturday, we were outside the passive lawn, accessible through a narrow passage marked by chainlink fences that leads from the Corlears Hook Pedestrian Bridge to the ferry. There wasn't any signage pointing potential passive-lawn users to this space. (You need to go down to the ferry stop to find the entrance.)
One EVG reader said that the Parks Enforcement Patrol hadn't received the opening memo ... and the reader was told to leave the space.
Eve Josephson shared the top photo from dusk the other day... showing the little lakes on the lawn. She has walked on the property several times.
"It is a sodden mess," she said. "The more you walk toward the center of the field, the more you sink into the muck."
Workers, who started on this in late October, apparently didn't account for drainage (an issue with the previous Compost Yard here too).
"In essence," she said, "the passive field is unusable."
The city has said they will maintain public access to a minimum of 42 percent of East River Park throughout construction, expected to be complete by the end of 2026.
26 comments:
Some very fine thinking there.
They could have, as well, salvaged some of the benches that were senseless destroyed, and had them arranged here as well, along with a BBQ or two and tables. How are we supposed to use this? And what does passive mean -- just to glance at the greenery??? This whole thing -- the built up to, the demolition of, even the outcome for, seems a horrible, messy con job and nightmare. And to solve the drainage problem, why not construct an actual pond -- which could be used by some of the resident wildlife?
Passive means that former politicians make promises and current politicians break them. Just as this project has gone the entire time.
@ 7:56 - spot on
The contractor will add asphalt to the entryway.one hopes the area can dry out.
This is so pathetic and, honestly, insulting. The city (Mayor and our so-called Reps) toss a viable and well-researched plan, raze the entire landscape, and leave us with a puddle to play in and we're supposed to be grateful. I fluctuate between being enraged and heartbroken, I don't know what to say.
As I posted at the most recent EV Grieve East River Park thread:
"Anonymous said...
Any news about the East River Park these days is not good news. So depressing.
January 24, 2022 at 3:02 PM"
Sigh.
I wonder why NY City hates the Lower East Side and East River Park so much?
I don't know if I will ever stop being shocked that in 2022 such an overreaching, ass-backwards, environmentally destructive, actively harmful public project was allowed to go forward, even after all of the data and articles about "community engagement," carbon emissions, urban forests, environmental racism, and in the face of substantial protest from those who live here (despite how the NYTimes mischaracterized residents as outsiders--as if people outside the EV and LES gave a shit about East River Park). The shitty sodden passive lawn is just one more log on the fire of turds that is ESCR.
This is why the Ecology Center spent years working on a plan for an artificial wetlands at the compost site... there was funding and an approved design, when the city pulled the switch.
A sodden mess is what we have in the Parks Dept. and City Hall itself for that matter. The "powers that be" just blatantly threw out a well-crafted, ecologically sound plan because they didn't think it could be properly maintained. And so for twice the price, we get proof that nothing they do is properly maintained. Hence the plan is for a wall topped with concrete (which emits mercury and greenhouse gases in production) and Astroturf (which displaces beneficial insects) and whatever other shortcuts to a desolate future, and let's see how it plays out to serve salivating developers. Meanwhile what will happen to the community as storms grew wilder and more frequent? The whole area is marshland, and the waters come from above and below as well as to the east. We're trapped.
same politicians... it's always been Carlina's game. She just got re-elected
If possible, I would like to know (beforehand) when and if the use of the track is going to be compromised and/or terminated. As of this morning, the work crew's fence was right up to 6th Street bridge, but there is still access to track and bridge.
Is their any online guide to the timeframe of work and the parts of the park that are accessible?
Bill De Blasio is so openly corrupt and disdainful of the LES, he has unapologetically trashed our park and will never be held accountable.
To rub even more salt in the wound, he goes and suggests a plan for extending the shoreline of Lower Manhattan (District 1):
https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/extending-shoreline-key-lower-manhattan-flood-protection-plan
What gives?!?!
Look, 2 things are going on:
1) The entire situation is just for the benefit of developers who are drooling at all the glassy "luxury" condos they can build on that land if only we locals can be consistently elbowed aside.
2) Our new mayor is only interested in crypto-currency & his paycheck.
I'd like to see Adams hold a press conference about crypto-currency while he's standing in THE MIDDLE of the sodden field. THAT would be worth seeing.
That isn’t a passive lawn. It’s a passive aggressive lawn.
We will never forgive Carlina Rivera for this betrayal of our neighborhood. Nothing she ever does will compensate for the damage done to all us who live here.
Yes and other politicians have been moved out too. De Blasio to Adams, Stringer to Lander, all of which have had a hand in this.
At 10:23 AM, Anonymous said...
I wonder why NY City hates the Lower East Side and East River Park so much?
Shhh…activism.
Two things can be true here:
1.) This is pathetic execution by Parks and its contractors, and the ESCR leaves a lot to be desired (burying the FDR, for starters)
2.) We need some kind of flood protection for the storms we know are coming, and ESCR is what the city came up with and got funded. It's better than "Bah, let it flood, so what if the projects on Avenue D are without heat and power for a few weeks or months, NBD, think of the trees"
Also, a lot of you Carlina haters should really think about what it is about her that pisses you off so much. Reeks of curdled misogyny. Here's a pol who's actually delivering for poor and working class people and you act like she's a REBNY sock puppet. No wonder the left loses so much.
" It's better than "Bah, let it flood, so what if the projects on Avenue D are without heat and power for a few weeks or months, NBD, think of the trees"
This right wing statement is beyond a lie and is filled with misinformation. Per the usual REBBY/construction union attack that always appears at any EV Grieve East River Park thread, ZERO mention of the plan that was developed over years with community input and was tossed aside for this CF of plan approved by BdB, the NYC CC and our NYS reps, who all had a hand in it.
I been going almost everyday to fed the squirrels I seen it the beginning when they was take away the compost and left it with huge pool of water all around I say in CB3 Meeting they going fix it that was in late October and every single meeting i went to they said going to fix it even complaint on there web pages There don't care I complaint about the light going the ferry too it took 7 weeks only halfway to the path Now the lawn it use as doggy park There going be a lot arguments in small place so the people to use probably going be fight slabbing and shooting is going be like the Bronx The Park was made for the Lower East side residents so we relax freely and don't get anybody business to do what we want to enjoy the park Just watch out when you go there when the weather get warm
I don't have anymore tears......
@12:02 PM: IMO, Carlina *is* a REBNY sock puppet. She's a turncoat who has explicitly changed her support and position on many occasions, and not for the good of the neighborhood.
Anyone remember her opposition to the "tech hub" on 14th St? Yeah, neither does Carlina!
Blaming elected officials for this problem with NYCparks and DDC is par for the course for an opposition largely white and having the luxury of not being in subsidized housing.
The mitigation efforts, such as keeping parts of the park open and creating passive rec areas, were fought for by Councilmember Rivera alongside the backdrops of community wishes.
Lumping in the current flaws with the overall merits of the life-saving protection ESCR will provide low-income black and brown waterfront residents is opportunistic at best and pathetic in it's betrayal of all the virtue signalers who pretend they care about those most vulnerable.
To those who oppose ESCR's flood protection- just come out and be honest for once and say you care more about the nonresilient trees that have been disappearing in large numbers since Sandy than the lives and futures of NYCHA residents we all know you never interacted with in the first place.
Hey Anonymous Commenter who calls the opposition "white and having the luxury of not living in subsidized housing," please stop using this divisive language that rips up our neighborhood as badly as the city is ripping up East River Park. What you are saying is ugly and untrue.
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