Here are the latest stories about East River Park and the East Side Coastal Resiliency Plan. To read news about other resiliency projects, climate change and environmental justice, see our Resiliency News page. To read the 21st Century history of East River Park and links to plans and documents, see our History and Resources page. News about East River Park from 2023-2025 here.
To read the complete article of any listed below, use the link on the name of the publication. News about our efforts to stop ARTIFICIAL TURF in New York is now in our Synthetic Turf News page.
Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?
As the planet gets warmer and the rains fall harder, the future of flood control is looking less like a wall and something more like a park.
By Eric Klinenberg, April 6, 2026, The New Yorker (pdf)
The East Side Coastal Resiliency project, a 2.4-mile flood barrier that doubles as parkland along Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is the city’s largest and costliest climate initiative. The original design, led by the firm BIG, imagined a floodable landscape—planted slopes rising from the East River and a grassy berm on the western edge meant to capture storm surge. Engineers judged that version infeasible. The city chose a more muscular solution, raising the park and lifting the river’s edge to form a wall intended to hold back sixteen feet of surge. It also added submerged, deployable tide gates that, when closed, turn sewer outfalls into watertight barriers, keeping river water out of the pipes and wastewater out of the river.
In solving one problem, though, elevated walls and hardened gates can create another: rainfall gets trapped on the streets...
New York City Rebuilds a Waterfront Park to Hold Back Rising Seas
After a $1.45 billion makeover, East River Park promises to use massive sea walls and earthen berms to protect Lower Manhattan from flooding. But for how long?
By James S. Russell, March 13, 2026, Bloomberg
Along Manhattan’s East River, visitors have flocked to the gently rolling topography of a new park landscape. As they stroll or bike along a riverside esplanade, they also encounter high concrete walls and massive floodgates — reminders that this new waterfront space is also a critical line of defense against the extreme weather that will be in New York City’s future.
EAST RIVER PARK RISES, AND LOWER MANHATTAN WONDERS WHAT IT LOST
By Mallory Decker, March 13, 2026, Hoodline NYC
Lower Manhattan’s long-rumored waterfront makeover is no longer a set of renderings on a bulletin board. The city has rebuilt large stretches of East River Park and raised portions of the shoreline to blunt storm surges and future sea-level rise. The elevated terrain now does double duty as public playground and flood barrier, with new courts, lawns and pathways taking over much of the old footprint. Neighbors concede the redesign offers real protection in big storms, yet say the price was steep: decades of mature tree canopy vanished, and some residents are still questioning whether the tradeoff pencils out.