Toothless agreement satisfies City Council Committee
The City Council Land Use Committee passed the flood control plan that will demolish East River Park. The plan goes before the full City Council Nov. 14. It is expected to pass, and bulldozing will begin next year.
Before the vote Nov. 12 (10 Yes, 1 abstention), City Council Member Carlina Rivera read a hearty endorsement of the deal she and fellow Council Members Margaret Chin and Keith Powers made with the city. (East River Park is in their districts.) There is little that’s reassuring in it.
For instance, the agreement includes a promise to study the feasibility of protected bike lanes to substitute for the greenway in the park. It will look into “future infrastructural reconstruction” surrounding the FDR Drive.” (Is that about covering the FDR with a park?) It “will conduct further feasibility evaluation to understand whether there is a potential for Interim Flood Protection Measures along the project area.” Once the City Council passes the flood control plan, the city has no obligation to do anything on any of those fronts.
Here is the agreement: “Council Members Chin, Powers and Rivera Reach Agreement on Construction Plans, Community Investments for East Side Coastal Resiliency Project”
There are many other gaps in the agreement—about timelines, on whether the new community advisory board will have teeth—or experts to consult—on critical timeline concerns. Read more in my op-ed in Gotham Gazette: “Local City Council Members Must Head Back to Drawing Board on East River Park Plan,” by Pat Arnow, Gotham Gazette, Nov. 13, 2019
Here’s NY1’s story on the Land Use Committee Vote:
The City published a good overview, “HOW LOWER EAST SIDE COASTAL PLAN BRACES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE,” by Rachel Holliday Smith in The City. One argument she mentions for having to raise the park eight feet–artificial turf fields can’t be flooded. So we have to spend $1.45 billion instead of installing and maintaining natural turf fields, which can be flooded. And that are better for playing sports and for the environment.
It is not the end. We are looking into legal options. We fight for the urban oasis that we use every day, all us non-rich non-tourists:
The City Council and the the NYC Dept. of Planning are lying about the explicit costs. You must EASILY DOUBLE THAT 1.4 BILLION, to say nothing of the implicit and opportunity costs. Just payoff to the COUNCIL’S backers similar to the cost over runs with 2nd Ave subway;fortunes were made BY THE OBSCURE BACKERS OF THE GOV AND COHORTS while neighborhood business’ went under. They must KNOW THEY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE FIVE- YEARS PLUS OF MISERY THEY WILL UNLEASH ON ALL THE COMMUNITY ALL THE WAYS TO AVE A. AND FROM 23RD ST. TO THE BKLYN BRIDGE. Only in NYC you can get way with cost over runs that go triple the initial estimates and the simple thuggery of politicians and their backers..
How is it that one side of the island is all fancy and the city allows Barry Diller to build his little vanity island? On the other side of the island you have housing projects, Stuytown, First Houses, tenement houses where people have no fancy pools, or a Hudson River Trust to maintain their park. It’s the tale of two cities of parks going on here with no mention of Con Edison’s lines that go under the river. Of course, Delbasio has nothing to say about this since he was too busy running for president when he should be managing his dysfunctional city planning agency.
Well, so much for grassroots efforts. The city council voted for this shitty plan and now we’re going to lose our park for 5 years (realistically 7-10 years). This is a big fuck you to everybody who uses this park. Do you like walking on real grass? Too bad – fuck you. Do you use the track? Too bad – fuck you. Do you use the ballfields? Too bad – fuck you. Do you use the east river esplanade? Too bad – fuck you. Just a bunch of fuck you’s all around to everyone who uses this wonderful park. 5 fucking years of construction – oh wait, not really, months of construction with months of idleness. A big fuck you to everybody who uses this park. It’s like we don’t exist. There were better plans that wouldn’t have fucked everyone – but something else is at work. Probably the billions of dollars in construction contracts that are going to someone with connections to the myopic council members.
wait, this is so dumb. why are they only deciding to do this now? why did they spend millions and millions and millions of dollars, after sandy, to re-do the whole entire riverside walk with new bricks, walkways, fountains, rails, etc. then shut down and re-do the whole track for over a year. then a few months later, someone decides they need to level the whole park? you cant replace thousands of trees of all different species that are hundreds of years old and growing. how was this plan even brought up and why in the hell did anyone approve it? something evil is going on here. what a travesty. also, why is no one mentioning the fact that this wall will not prevent a damn thing from another storm surge when it comes? who can i punch in the face?