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East Side Coastal Resiliency report mysteriously appears with unreadable redactions
by Dean Moses, March 2, 2021, AMNY
…according to a tweet by Kirsten Theodos, who shared the report over social media, the majority of its pages are blacked out, making it unreadable.
“The new City plan will destroy 57 acres of coastal parkland, fell nearly 1000 mature trees and eliminate the only large outdoor greenspace residents on LES for recreation and wellness. The City plan is twice as expensive, provides no interim flood protection during the many years of construction, & requires unprecedented ecological destruction of the largest municipal park on the LES impacting the residents of the predominantly low income, BIPOC neighborhood,” Theodos wrote in a tweet.
East River Community Group Gets Action on (heavily redacted) value engineering study
EV Grieve, March 2, 2021
…East River Park has many outstanding questions for the city to answer. “Our many ACTIONeers have pored over the plans and have found fatal flaws that will damage our neighborhood’s well being for years to come. We must have transparency, accountability, and community involvement in a revised plan.”
City Finally Releases East River Park Resilience Study, but with Heavy Redactions
March 1, 2021, Bowery Boogie
It took three years and the accompanying community pressure for the city to finally release a critical report on the East River Park reconstruction plan, which it initially claimed did not exist.
The Value Engineering Study, as it’s called, was the report Mayor de Blasio cited in 2018 when announcing the sudden change in the flood control plan for East River Park. This new resiliency approach – the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project – roughly doubles the cost and buries the entire park in eight feet of fill.
NYC finally releases East River Park report, with heavy redactions
By Melissa Klein, February 27, 2021, New York POST
”The lack of transparency in this $1.45 billion public project is unconscionable. These redactions are just a pattern of disdain that the city has shown toward our community,” said Tommy Loeb, a member of East River Park Action.
The city used the value engineering report as the basis for ditching another flood protection plan that would not have decimated the 57-acre park. The report says the plan to raise the level of the park would save $319 million.
Sierra Club demands hearing, transparency on East Side Coastal Resiliency plan
FEBRUARY 22, 2021 BY THE VILLAGE SUN
Following the city’s release of a heavily redacted report, the Sierra Club of New York City is urging the City Council to hold a hearing ASAP on the embattled East Side Coastal Resiliency plan.
EXCLUSIVE: Erin Hussein primarying Carlina Rivera in District 2
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON, FEBRUARY 14, 2021, THE VILLAGE SUN
The top issue where this is being felt is East River Park, in her view. The city’s East Side Coastal Resiliency plan, which Rivera staunchly supports, is facing resistance from a broad group of environmental activists, block associations and individuals, who have sued to stop the project.
L.E.S. Dem club snubs Rivera for ‘ignoring concerns’ on East River Park plan
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON, FEBRUARY 11, 2021, The Village Sun
Claiming that Carlina Rivera has “ignored” community concerns about the city’s draconian plans for East River Park, the Grand Street Democrats declined to endorse her for reelection.
The stunning snub came Monday night as the Lower East Side club was considering an endorsement for City Council District 2. Currently, Rivera is running unopposed in the June 22 Democratic primary.
Mayoral candidate Shaun Donovan: De Blasio botched East Side resiliency plan
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON, FEBRUARY 7, 2021, THE VILLAGE SUN
A candidate for New York City mayor says the fiasco of the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan is exactly why he is running.
Governors Island rezoning is wrong on so many levels
BY ALLIE RYAN, The Village Sun, JANUARY 25, 2021
This plan highlights the hypocrisy of the East Side Coastal Resiliency project and the impending demolition of East River Park. East River Park, with 60 acres, in a floodplain, will be raised 8 to 10 feet to withstand floodwaters for 100 years in the future. Yet the proposed climate-change center’s two sites are in floodplains on Governors Island.
Opponents of NYC’s $1.4B East River Park project demand new review
by Melissa Klein, NY Post, Jan. 16, 2021
New York City’s bold plan to bury East River Park is based on a phantom study that doesn’t exist, opponents of the $1.4 billion project charge.
Interview on nonexistent Value Engineering Report
Paul diRienzo, WBAI, Jan. 13, 2021 (Listen from minute 12:24-17:07)
Emily Johnson of East River Park Action speaks about the news of the nonexistent Value Engineering report that the city says is the reason East River Park must be demolished. “Why is this East Side Coastal Resiliency plan being pushed through…our elected officials are lying to us, to community members who live here and will be deeply affected, and are also lying to other elected officials.”
(Clarification: Johnson is from the Yup’ik Nation in Alaska, not New York as she was introduced. The original people in Manhattan were the Lenape. Johnson communicates with descendants of the Lenape diaspora and has received support for the preservation of East River Park .)
Advocacy group: The city’s value engineering study for East River Park does not exist
January 11, 2021, EV Grieve
A value engineering study, an oft-cited factor behind the city’s change of plans in September 2018 to bury/elevate East River Park by eight feet as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, does not exist, according to advocacy group East River Park Action.
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