We’ve been invited to do a program by the Storefront gallery at 97 Kenmare St. Tuesday, April 30, 6:30 to 8:00. (just E. of Mulberry). The Storefront for Art and Architecture displays multimedia work and arranges discussions about new ways to think about architecture, art and design. It will feature a special showing of Harriet Hirshorn’s…
Sign the Petition! Four years ago, our Lower East Side/East Village community petitioned the City Council to reconsider the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) plan that would demolish its beloved mile-long East River Park and build a massive levee. Less destructive alternatives were possible. Our voices went unheard. Today, we face the consequences as the…
New sculpture adds more dystopia to East River Park An art installation, “Joined an Avalanche, Never to be Alone Again,” opened October 4 at the foot of the temporary Corlears Hook Park bridge. The piece features gravel, corrugated steel, core samples, repurposed fencing from the FDR–and asphalt. At a recent walk-through, the DDC Public Artist in Residence Carlos Irijalba…
Not More Emissions from the FDR In 2019, when the City Council approved the East Side Coastal Resiliency project that would create a levee alongside the East River, the city promised to study the viability of covering the six-lane FDR Drive. It would add parkland and additional flood control and also stem emissions and noise…
Pier 42 provides much needed recreational space during ESCR construction. But its artificial turf is shedding into the East River. by Marcella Durand For a too-brief moment, New York City discouraged the use of artificial turf near waterways. Its “Guidelines for NYC Parks” once included the following advice: “New synthetic turf or track surfacing is generally not recommended…
In the absence of birds, I counted vehicles. There were plenty. by Marcella Durand There is a new hawk in town: a juvenile red-tailed hawk that sits on trees and fences between Corlears Hook Park and the tiny oblong of passive lawn in what used to be East River Park. I like to keep an…
The cost of cutting down 29 oak trees in East River Park—just a few of the approximately 600 trees destroyed one year ago by New York City Marcella Durand In Nature’s Best Hope, Douglas Tallamy writes, “Ecologically, oaks are superior plants, and it would be easy to make a convincing case that they deliver more…
Sparse shade in the remains of East River Park means that temperatures in the former oasis are dangerously high. We need remedies. Some intrepid Actioneers braved the outdoors despite heat advisories August 9. We measured temperatures around the area of East River Park. (We started measurements at Corlears Hook Park as shown above because that’s where…
With half of East River Park’s once verdant space now a barren construction zone, the vegetation— that formerly filtered emissions from the FDR Drive, the Williamsburg Bridge and Con Edison — is gone. How will the quality of the air be affected as a result? And what can we do about it? We’re wondering as well,…
Deconstruct the video of the “Frontline Communities Coalition” rally on December 18th https://thevillagesun.com/you-dont-speak-for-us-pro-resiliency-plan-rally-slams-park-defenders and what you see is an image makeover for supporters of the De Blasio plan that is now obliterating East River Park despite wide community opposition. It is certainly interesting how speakers at the rally evade the history of this controversy with…