Wait, wait, there is a Value Engineering Study. That’s the report the de Blasio administration cited in 2018 when they announced a change in the flood control plan for East River Park that would double the cost and bury the entire park in eight feet of fill. Yet when we submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)…
Recipes to mince and chop East River Park to cook up a very big expensive artificial environment. How can we make change happen?Please donate to our legal fund We can push for transparent external review and the flood control we need; not the city’s destructive, massive, expensive, and inadequate plan.
The Grand Street Democrats passed a resolution Jan. 27 decrying the destruction of East River Park despite the recently discovered lack of a Value Engineering report or study. Such a document is needed for large complicated projects such as the East Side Coastal Resiliency flood control plan. The Grand Street Dems are building a new…
City Admits THERE IS NO VALUE ENGINEERING STUDY—Mayor Bill de Blasio cited this study in 2018 as the reason to demolish East River Park New York, January 9, 2021— In a reply Friday to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, NYC’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) stated that the City’s Value Engineering Report on the East…
What should the East Side Coastal Resiliency Plan look like? Earlier visioning renderings from ESCR planning sessions with the community show marshes and wetlands with bridges and salt-water-resistant plantings. These are accommodations to sea level rise and storm surges. The parkland becomes a sponge that absorbs flood waters. Where our bulkheads (the promenade along the…
We need East River Park in all the seasons. We need a better flood control plan. Photos and text by Tommy Loeb.
We have a new air and soil watchdog Air In this neighborhood with high asthma rates, we need to know what’s we are breathing now before the city starts tearing up East River Park. The East Side Coastal Resiliency project will take down 1,000 trees that cleanse the air. The demolition will release particulate matter…
Toilets Overflow but Erasing Art Comes First The city was in a big hurry to demolish protest art in East River Park this morning. They’re in a big hurry to demolish East River Park itself. Why? A woman approached a Parks Department employee on the promenade by the amphitheater where six official vehicles parked. “The…
Yes, there is lead in East River Park These samples, collected by Wendy Brawer, were close to the surface. Last year, in 2019, AKRF, which “provides environmental, planning, and engineering consulting services,” had big machines drilling holes all over East River Park. They said they were doing soil tests. What was the composition of that…
I asked questions in July. It’s September. We need action. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” –Shirley Chisholm City Council Member Carlina Rivera and I (along with Rivera’s staffer Ivy Rosado) Zoomed on July 21. We went over many vital questions about the East Side Coastal Resiliency…