According to East River Park Action in an Instagram post from Friday, the Mayor "overruled" Comptroller Scott Stringer's office and asked that he register the low bidder's contract for the massive floodproofing project.
Last month, the $1.2 billion contract from IPC Resiliency Partners was waiting for approval at Stringer's office.
Stringer subsequently sent the contract back to the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) for more information, including "how the project's lead contractors plan to meet the legal standard that minority/women-owned business enterprises receive 30 percent of the work," as The Indypendent reported.
Per a Stringer spokesperson: "Since we were unable to resolve all of our questions within the 30-day review period, our office has returned the contract to DDC to allow them additional time to address the outstanding issues."
Stringer apparently did not indicate that he opposed the reconstruction plan.
Now the Mayor is "pushing through the City's contract with the unqualified company," per East River Park Action.
Every day this week at noon, the activist group will protest the plan outside the gates of City Hall...
Eileen Myles, the East Village-based poet and novelist who has spoken out against the plan, called out mainstream media outlets for not covering this story.
From a weekend Instagram post that was widely shared on the platform, including by Kim Gordon...
Opponents of the city's current plan — where workers will raze the 57.5-acre plot of land, bulldozing 1,000 mature trees and rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill — say there are better ways to preserve the park and provide flood protection, such as the one mapped out in the years after Sandy.
In late 2018, the city surprised community stakeholders by announcing a complete overhaul of a plan discussed over four years of local meetings.
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 reports, the 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, a timetable opponents say will never be met.
