Hurricane Sandy Didn’t Kill East River Park.
New York City Did.

Amphitheater and 80-year-old oak grove that were never flooded. © Pat Arnow Photo
Amphitheater and 80-year-old oak grove that were never flooded. They have been demolished by New York City.
Amphitheater at East River Park, Lower East Side, New York, October, 2025.
Amphitheater, Oct. 2025

New York City is demolishing our big, beloved park on the unwealthy side of the Lower East Side and East Village. Everything went–shady lawns, picnic areas, ballfields, running track, amphitheater, the compost yard, historic buildings, and 1,000 trees, most more than 80 years old and healthy.

The ESCR–East Side Coastal Resiliency project–costing some $2 billion–is in the process of building a 1.2 mile levee along the water and covering the razed park with eight feet of fill topped with a new park. 

Some New Park

After more than three and a half years of construction, which began in December 2021, the southern section of East River Park reopened. It’s about 40 percent of the total park area. The northern end of the park is now being demolished. The city says it will be done by the end of 2026. It promises 1,800 saplings to replace the thousand-plus mature trees felled for the project. Meanwhile, we have expanses of shade-free concrete, steaming hot artificial turf fields, tennis and basketball courts.

Still, the new park area is most welcome. As soon as it opened, residents streamed over the new footbridges over the FDR (by the Williamsburg Bridge and from Corlears Hook Park).

Lower East Siders filled the picnic tables under the Williamsburg Bridge as soon as the new section of East River Park opened, July 2025.
Under the Williamsburg Bridge, picnic tables and barbeque grills fill up on weekends.

In our many rallies, marches and press conferences we held to agitate for a less destructive flood control plan, we shouted, “Whose Park? OUR PARK!” Now we reclaim that space, and East River Park Action will work to make it better and healthier.

We need more greening of neighborhood spaces and more aggressive street tree planting and maintenance. We also need oversight of the construction to preserve air and water quality. We are campaigning to stop artificial turf from being installed in the future anywhere in New York. See our ACTIONS NOW! page for things you can do. And follow us on social media.

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Email: ourpark@eastriverparkaction.org

Footbridge over the FDR Drive to the remade section of East River Park just south of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan.
To visit the section of East River Park that is open cross the FDR Drive at Delancey Street on the south side of the Williamsburg Bridge or at Corlears Hook Park by Cherry and Jackson streets.
Photos on this page by Pat Arnow © 2025

Further

East River Park and the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan in the news from 2018 to now. East River Park News

See articles on Resilency, Mental and Physical Health Effects, and more.

Links to the earlier plans. This is the gory details page: History and Resources

What should have been done for flood control in East River Park?

East River Park ACTION is a nonprofit 501(c)3 charity. Donations are tax deductible.