The Appellate Court heard our arguments for Alienation. The City Attorney provided falsehoods.

The State Appellate Court heard our appeal to obtain alienation (state oversight) for the East Side Coastal Resiliency project October 27, 2021. Our attorney, Arthur Schwartz, argued that building the levee for flood control is not a park purpose. The state legislature would be entitled to impose deadlines, budget guidelines and a guarantee that the park will be returned as a park. (We have no such commitment right now.)

The attorney representing the city argued that there is a dual purpose, and that should be ok—to provide flood control and to protect the park, which is dying anyway—really, that’s what she said, and it is FALSE.  Arthur made it clear that even if there is a dual purpose, there is no precedent for the city to avoid alienation—except for one case involving a Citibike rack at Petrosino Square in Soho—a tiny project, not at all comparable. 

We await the decision. 

East River Park This Fall

Vibrant and full of life with nearly 1,000 healthy, mature trees and teeming with greenery and biodiversity

Photos by Pat Arnow ´© 2021

For more information:

Appellate Brief our lawyer filed.

For more about the reason for the suit and the Appeal, see our Alienation Lawsuit Appeal post. `

Here’s a good article about the appeal:

Attorney argues East River Park project is floodwall first, requires state approval

OCTOBER 30, 2021

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON, Village Sun

 East River Park is dying — at least that’s according to a city attorney fighting a community lawsuit over the fate of the 60-acre park.

Park activists, though, couldn’t disagree more strongly with that spin, and are continuing to battle against a first-of-its-kind resiliency megaproject that really would kill the existing waterfront park.