The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project repeatedly affects nearby residents, even though one of the reasons the city gave for the complete destruction of East River Park was that it would lessen the disruptions. Yet, late night noise, dust, power outages, delays in toxic cleanup at Riis Houses and other problems plague the neighborhood. What has been your experience? Please share in the comments.
by Anna Theofilopoulou
Have people living in the East Village or Lower East Side been left without heat and hot water for this weekend (December 27-29?) At other times? Below is the background to my question.
Stuytown and Peter Cooper Village were informed that Con Ed would shut down heat and hot water from Friday 12/19 10:00 pm to Saturday 12/20 at 5:00 pm for “urgent, necessary work.” When all hell broke loose with many tenants contacting Management & Tenants Association to protest, Management convinced ConEd to postpone the shut-off from happening during one of the coldest weekends and just before the Holidays. ConEd had justified the interruption as required by the city in relation to several vendors. Nobody had any idea what this meant.
The shutoff happened this weekend from 10:00 PM December 27 to 4:00 pm Saturday.
I wrote to the Manager in charge of Tenant Relations asking for an explanation about the frequency of the shut-offs in the past three to four years and also the link between “several vendors and an exclusively residential community like ours.” I pointed out that as a resident of over 30 years, I had never experienced so many shut-offs of basic services in the middle of the winter, lasting so many hours. In the past, on the rare occasions that we had such events, as a rule they would start at 10:00 pm and would be over by 6:00 or 7:00 am the following day. This was no longer the case in the past three to four years.
I received a prompt and apologetic email explaining that while Management were able to delay the original date, further postponements were not possible. This work was performed by ConEd in coordination with the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, which they said is critical for long-term infrastructure improvement and safety.
So now we got to the crux of the matter! ESCR! In addition to all the damage that the ESCR has caused to the area by unnecessarily destroying East River Park in order to accommodate uninterrupted operation of the FDR and ConED, (despite the billions the latter got for repairs after Sandy), it has also created havoc and will continue doing so by interrupting basic services.
I understood that parts of the East Village and the Lower East Side have been affected by these interruptions. If so, can those of you affected just say so in the comments, giving me also the address of the building(s) in question? in Stuytown/Peter Cooper, there were 75 buildings this time. What other problems are residents experiencing?
I copied the President and one of the VPs in my email to Management as I was told that the TA had approached Management and our Council member Keith Powers whose office was looking into the matter. I suggested that we contact our State Senator Gonzalez and suggest a meeting with ConED, Management and local electeds to discuss this issue. Powers is running for Manhattan Borough President.
But before going further, I would like to know whether ESCR is depriving of basic services another group of local residents with impunity.
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Anna Theofilopoulou has been a resident of Stuyvesant Town since 1991. As she states, and this can be confirmed by other long-term residents, the recent frequent interruptions of steam providing heating and hot water to both Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, had never been as frequent and regular, and mainly during winter months, since work under ESCR started, in East River Park and Stuyvesant Cove started in early 2021.
The construction noise from the resiliency project had become unbearable when it’s in the middle of the night. Construction went on for 3 weeks straight in the middle of the night. Breaking concrete. Completely unacceptable for our quality of life.
The noise has been insufferable, and while I understand the need to do at late hours to minimize the disruption to traffic, this has been entirely excessive.
Additionally and most importantly, where is the accountability??? The section below Stanton should have been completed by now, originally by July. What is going on with this delayed project?
ESCR and Con Ed
I agree with assessment as stated. In addition, I would like to see Con Ed’s long term project for Avenue C between E 18th Street and E 20th Street. When a project has so many “emergency” outages it tells me there is something seriously wrong with management’s capability, competence and or scope creep. There is also serious issues with Stuyvesant Towns ability to manage it’s service provider, Con Ed. Stuyvesant Town management should be asking these questions of Con ED and ESCR and communicating with it’s residents, instead of giving out an 800 number for Con Ed.
Avenue C between East 18th and E 20th Street has been ripped up and paved over countless times. Most recently, throughout 2024 and now into 2025 almost every weekend begins and ends with jack hammering the street & digging up and moving earth from here to there. Men in hazmat suits go underground to bring up large bags of who knows what. This activity is accompanied by incessant beeping of construction vehicles backing up. There is also movement of construction equipment that is dropped off or picked up in the middle of the night, usually between 2AM and 5AM. Living on 18th St and Avenue C is like living on an active construction site day and night.
It is time to have a public review of these activities. I call on our elected officials to lead this effort