We delivered 9,000 petitions from three grassroots groups. We have a letter signed by 34 groups. Most everyone in our Lower East Side/East Village opposes the East Side Coastal Resiliency Plan to demolish East River Park since there are better ways to gain flood control. We lost the first critical vote Nov. 4 in the…
Category: East Side Coastal Resiliency
boondoggle
boon·dog·gle \ ˈbün-ˌdä-gəl noun: a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft — Merriam-Webster Example: New York City’s flood control plan for East River Park is a boondoggle—a $1.45 billion unnecessary destruction of a wonderful, much-used park. Our park survived Hurricane Sandy. It won’t survive New York City’s flood control plan—unless…
Report on the Report on Flood Control for East River Park
Brian McGrath’s letter to City Council Member Carlina Rivera: It is with great concern that I write in response to the independent report on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR). I lived in the East Village for twenty years, and continue to work nearby where I advocate for my former neighbors on community issues…
A Mountain of Testimony Against a Pile of Landfill
“If this was caused by a natural process, we would call it a natural disaster. If it was caused by anyone other than ourselves, we would call it an act of war.” Here are excerpts from some of the compelling and knowledgable testimony submitted to the City Council committee that will vote on the East…
Stop the Death Sentence for East River Park: a Dozen Reasons Why
East River Park ACTION is asking New York City to find a way to preserve and keep open as much of our park as possible while providing temporary and long-term flood protection. Here is why we oppose the plan and our proposal for a better plan: 1) UGLY AND CRUEL: According to the phased construction…
Goals for East River Park
We deserve a better plan People have been asking, “Why don’t you like the city’s flood control plan, and what do you want?” Here’s a summary of my take. What do you think? East River Park ACTION opposes the city’s destructive flood control plan. It is an environmental injustice to inflict the dire mental and physical…
Hello Hello? NYC can you hear me?
Excerpts from testimony and statements by people living near East River Park, which is slated to be closed and demolished March 2020… unless city officials listen: I don’t understand how the city can even propose an Environmental Impact Statement for a plan that is unprecedented in its destruction: how can anyone predict impact, when there…
There was a plan, and we want it back
It gave us flood protection and didn’t kill our park The Big U was part of a larger plan to protect Lower Manhattan, and our community helped develop it over four years. The city trashed it in late 2018. Now the city is going to trash our entire park and close it for years. Here…
Imagine All the People–and the Flood Control Plan for East River Park
A conversation with the planners at a public event Why Not the Old Plan? What happened to the berms (the earlier, accepted plan for the park featured grassy embankments alongside the FDR Drive)? I asked Eric Ilijevich, Associate Project Manager at NYC Department of Design and Construction. Why couldn’t we stay with that plan? Parts…
MAKE SOME FLYERS
At the bottom of thepage are links to pdfs of two flyers that you can download and print out. Hand them to everyone and tell them it’s urgent that we save our park from closure and destruction next year! Here are the texts of the flyers: There is a better plan for temporary and long-term…