On Saturday morning, opponents of the city's current plan to bulldoze East River Park as part of
the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project are hosting an action in the
amphitheater to help raise awareness of what they say is a flawed plan to protect the area from future flooding.
Here's more about the event, which starts Saturday at 11 a.m. via
East River Park Action, one of the organizers:
We are calling for New Yorkers to show up on September 11th with our bodies to oppose the city’s destruction of East River Park — a preventable health hazard and an ecological disaster and to demand flood protection that does not strip this environmental justice neighborhood of its greenspace.
We need a truly resilient plan that addresses root causes of climate change instead of prioritizing traffic flow on the FDR. Heat is our city's number one weather-related killer. Trees reduce heat.
After September 11, 2001, the shabby, fenced-off amphitheater in East River Park was rebuilt by the city. Companies all over America contributed materials to repair it. The new amphitheater was dedicated to the children whose parents died when the twin towers collapsed.
Now in total disregard of history, the will of the neighborhood and the more than 100,000 New Yorkers from all boroughs who use the park, the city is planning to demolish East River Park and clear cut 1,000 trees for the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan.
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Comptroller Scott Stringer's office reviewed the $1.2 billion contract from IPC Resiliency Partners.
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.
However, Mayor de Blasio reportedly "overruled" Stringer's office and asked that he register the low bidder's contract for the massive floodproofing project.
Through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, East River Park Action obtained a copy of Stringer's report. (You can find a PDF of it here.)
According to Jack L. Lester, an attorney for East River Park Action: "The Comptroller's report highlights the deficiencies and inadequacies of the qualifications presented by this private company slated to receive a huge amount of taxpayer money. We want the new Mayor and City Council to investigate and follow up with the questions raised by this disclosure."
To date, Council Speaker Corey Johnson has refused to hold an emergency hearing on the matter and has not provided any comments as to why.
This fall, workers are expected to start razing the 57.5-acre plot of land, cutting down the 1,000 mature trees and eventually rebuilding the park atop eight feet of landfill.
East River Park Action and other advocates 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 for use. It is projected to be completed in 2025, a timetable opponents say will never be met.
Tonight at 6:30, city officials will provide CB3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee with an update on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project. Find the Zoom link here.
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For reference, find the report from independent consultant Hans Gehrels of the Dutch environmental group Deltares at this
link.
