A crowd of some 500 marched from Tompkins Square Park to East River Park Amphitheater Sunday, April 18.
500 marched from Tompkins Square Park to East River Park 
Emily Johnson 
Eileen Myles, leading chants 
Die in at Carlina Rivera’s office 
Artists Against Displacement signs 
Lucia Hartray wrote a song for the park 
Dancers honoring trees 
Isai Camilo Roca, friend of pigeons 
Daniel Strongwalker Thomas, The Delaware Nation Lenni Lenape 
Daniel Strongwalker Thomas 
Amphitheater rally 
Some of the organizers celebrate a helluva day
For more photos, including all the candidates/advocates, see the photo album: https://patarnow.zenfolio.com/p551069889
Speakers
Eileen Myles, MC
Daniel Strongwalker Thomas, The Delaware Nation Lenni Lenape
Statement from Kiara Williams, co-founder Warriors in the Garden
Emily Johnson; LES land protector
Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Choir
Chloe Shiffman – young poet
Jesse Cerrotti, Sierra Club
Jack Lester, ERPA Attorney – our FOILS and transparency
Alicia Boyd – famed community activist of Movement to Protect the People
Manhattan Borough President Candidate, Lindsey Boylan
Council Member Candidate for District 2, Erin Hussein
Tony Queylin – Two Bridges resident and representative of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and LES
Isai Camilo Roca, friend of pigeons
Arthur Schwartz, ERPA attorney on our alienation lawsuit and candidate for City Council
Council Member Candidate for District 1, Christopher Marte
Lucia Hartray, student performing a song she wrote for the park
Council Member Candidate for District 2, Allie Ryan
Reshma Patel (who is running for Comptroller)
Jonathan Gonzales, Poet
Legendary LES DJ Ralphy CBS
Kinstillatory Poets (doing poems in the park during march):
Omar Berrada
Brenda Coultas
Marcella Durand
Jonathan Gonzalez
Rachael Guynn Wilson
Mindy Levokov
Tanya Marquardt
E.J. McAdams
Patricia Nicholson Parker
Alexis Quinlan
Evelyn Reilly
Sarah Riggs
Chloe Shiffman
Robert Gibbons
Marilyn Thomas King
Linda Kienbub
Phillip Gambri
TREE-DISCO-BEAT-IENCE TEAM (dancing in the park during the march)
Nora Almeida
Tanya Marquardt
Jody Oberfelder
Alexa Smithwrick
Emily Johnson
Monica Sun
Linda La
Laziza
andrea haenggi
Liam McLaughlin
Annie Wang
and the community that can join in
TREE DISCO-BEAT-IENCE dancing team is spearheaded by andrea haenggi and Emily Johnson, in conversation with the Urban Forest in East River Park and beyond, and with Annie Wang and Tanya Marquardt.It is an effort to be in multispecies commoning during the March. The TREE DISCO-BEAT-IENCE dancing team dances with and for the trees during the March, expanding into human and more-than-human kin, and recognizes our entanglement and relation. Environmental Justice is Social Justice. Climate Justice is Social Justice.
AND MORE!
children, adults, dogs all welcome
Please wear your masks and maintain social distance
DEMANDS we made at our March and Rally to Save East River Park Sunday, April 18, 2021.
Tell City officials (scroll way down for contact information)
- a moratorium on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project
- a new environmental review
- a new flood control plan that preserves our parkland
- interim flood protection
- transparency, accountability
- an open park as the pandemic rages on
The marchers are also asking City Council Member Justin Brannan, chair of the Resiliency and Waterfronts Committee and member of the Parks and Recreation Committee, to hold a hearing on the recently uncovered (by East River Park Action!) Value Engineering Study that was the justification for the current destruction.
The study shows alternatives to the massive plan. It also appears that one reason the city chose to bury the park and build a giant levee was to avoid oversight by the state (called alienation) and having to provide adequate alternative park space during construction.
Justin Brannan, Chair, Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts
718-748-5200
212-788-7363
AskJB@council.nyc.gov
@JustinBrannan
Preserve the Park + Flood Control
It can be done.
News coverage
Hundreds march in opposition of the East Side Coastal Resiliency project
By Dean Moses, amNY, April 18, 2021
Emily Johnson is of the Yup’ik Nation, and is an avid water and land activist. She is a strong believer that climate justice is racial justice and is one of hundreds of Lower East Side residents against the ESCR project. She says that this plan is only a temporary fix that will destroy the trees in the East River Park and prevent individuals from freely accessing the open space.
“We demand the city stop the demolition of East River Park. We demand a comprehensive outside environmental review of their plan. We demand immediate interim flood control; we demand a truly resilient plan. This city, Mayor de Blasio, our Council Member Carlina Rivera, they want us to accept their environmentally racist plan,” Johnson said, adding, “The city wants us to accept a $1.5 billion plan that is only temporary, it is not resilient, destroys our park, and for years makes our community vulnerable.”
Great pictures, too!
Protesters march against plans to demolish East River Park
BY AMY YENSI, MANHATTAN, NY1, April 18, 2021
“We had a plan that the community worked on for years, planing everything, going over structures and then the mayor unilaterally decided, without community input, that the way to save the park was to destroy it for at least 5 years,” said resident Judy Capel.