Ongoing Con Edison utility work in East River Park at the Greenway will necessitate a temporary closure of the E. 6th Street Bridge. All park amenities will remain. Access the park from E. Houston St. and the E. 10th St. Pedestrian Bridge. Pedestrian detour in effect. Please follow all posted signs.
To date, work on the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project has focused on cutting down trees and demolishing all the amenities, mostly below Stanton Street. Workers will bury the 57.5-acre land under fill and elevate it by 8-to-10 feet above sea level to protect the area from future storm surges.
The city has said they will maintain public access to a minimum of 42 percent of the park throughout construction, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2026.
The completion of this mammoth project will probably be in 2030 or 2035 which will amount to probably 3 billion in change when all is said and done. I was returning from a work related event last week at Hudson Yards and took an Uber home to my apt in the EV on the West Side Highway. When the driver was going through FiDi, I witnessed the full extent of the destruction of the East River Park, which rendered me speechless as I had not been anywhere near it since its closure in early spring. Given how the city works at a glacial pace, I don't foresee how this can move forward without significant delays, bureaucracy, the proverbial red tape, and additional funding from state and federal assistance. Our community deserved better. The wildlife and trees deserved better. I continue to receive pamphlets in the mail for the upcoming election in reelecting Carlina Rivera, whom we all know represents our district, whom we all know was passionately behind the tearing down of this. And yet, I am somehow expected to vote for her? Fat chance. There could have been another eco friendly, less expensive, and less time consuming alternative to circumvent around the potential of coastal flooding. Look to Amsterdam. They are below sea level. Do you see the city doing this to their land?
ReplyDeleteWell said. Do note vote for Rivera. For the memory of the long gone East River Park and other ventures, if it isn't for a photo-op, then she doesn't care. Btw, there are stickers posted near the park that say do not vote for Rivera on behalf of the park.
ReplyDeleteKilling healthy, 80 year old trees is never a solution.
ReplyDeleteThis just sucks all the way around -it makes me sick to even think what these so-called politicians who made this horrible decision were thinking. And the LES will pay for it in the long run for decades to come
ReplyDeleteI do not see much work getting done -- and this is summer. The passive oasis -- toted by ESCR as our green space reprieve -- has been demolished. The passageway to the ferry is a hellhole. And . . . no bike infrastructure if you want to call the Avenue C bikeway a successful alternative. What a mess! Based on what I see this will not get done until 2030 -- and we'll have a few powerful hurricanes before that to run the mud from the barren landscape onto the FDR and bury it along with the auto traffic!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the sentiment that cutting down all of these trees is terrible, but what are we supposed to do? I know there was a plan prior to this one, that included community engagement, however it didn’t seem like a feasible plan. It sloped upwards in the back which would have done its job of stopping or at least mitigating flooding while preserving trees but it also would have led to continual damage from flooding to the areas below the sloped wall. Over decades it would end up costing more and more to fix each time there was damage. Raising the entire area 10ft stops this from happening. Cutting down these old beautiful trees sucks, but so does spending millions each time there is a flood to rebuild and having longer closures to fix parks and amenities.
ReplyDeleteSide notes
I seem to remember reading they did consult Dutch architects and engineers.
Also the BIG U which I thought served as a large influence on this was designed by a Danish Architect and the Danes know a thing or two about canals and designing around waterways.
Lol! Is this a PSA???? City Hall calling???
DeleteI love trolls!! What are we supposed to do?? Do not vote Rivera!
ReplyDeletePrimary is in three weeks. Early voting before. Yuh-Line Niou was on the right side of stopping this corrupt boondoggle and is the only one with a realistic chance to beat Rivera.
ReplyDeleteYes!!!!!!!!
DeleteAND, YES!
DeleteIn civilized countries, construction is 24/7 and about 10x cheaper than NYC. Somehow everyone gets their panties in a knot about the what, but not the how. We could be done much much faster.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a bad plan. This destruction was not necessary. First we need to vote out Rivera. Then we need to plant new trees.
ReplyDelete🤩
DeleteAnyone But Carlina!
ReplyDeleteRemember that on Aug 23!
What a heart break seeing, the trees cut down to the ground.
ReplyDeleteTrees are being cut down in Thompkin Sq Park, too. Could we not
take some of the trees from the East River and replant them
in Thompkin Sq Park???
Just imagine full grown trees being placed about Thompkin Sq Pk.
Other parks too. It costs money to cut them down, Trees fully grown
replanted are expensive, but we already have the trees.
Just a thought.
Thoughts are
seeds, that will
grow with the
action of others.
Please water
these thoughts
replanting beats
tearing life down.
•
Yes!!!!
ReplyDeleteTo those who would rather have an outsider elected to represent them in Congress rather than the only person on the ballot who actually lives here, guess where Levi-Strauss heir Dan Goldman spent his time during the pandemic? According to Politico, he “spent the early months of the pandemic with his wife and children at their multi-million-dollar second home in Water Mill — a hamlet within the town of Southampton, on the eastern end of Long Island — while the virus was raging through the city. Election records reveal that he requested an absentee ballot at the address in June 2020.”
ReplyDeleteAnd where did Carlina Rivera spend her time in the early days of the pandemic? “City Council member Carlina Rivera, who tied for the race’s top contender with Niou in the Working Families Party poll, was in office and spent the pandemic with her husband in their one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. A spokesperson for Rivera said she “did not leave NY from March 2020 until July,” when she left the city for a few days.”
IDK Giovanni, unless somehow Kips Bay is now the new Lower East Side, akin to Midtown South being the new East Village.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely fair to be upset by the park closure (entrance at Houston Street is a dangerous mess... why is the chainlink fence on the inside of the existing fence, forcing it to be uncomfortably narrow for one person, let alone people to pass?) but assertions that work isn't being done are laughable. Literally woken up by it every day.
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in keeping update on progress, definitely check out the presentations page on the ESCR website: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/escr/project-updates/presentations.page Without it, I too would probably be unaware of all that's going on.