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East River Park News 2023

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 2022 here.

Articles on this page are included if they have to do with East River Park and sustainability in the neighborhood. Partisan news may be included and is not an endorsement of any candidate. To read the complete article of any listed below, use the link on the name of the publication.

FRESH HELL

Reopenings of Closed East River Park Sections Pushed Back, But City Insists Project Is Still on Time

Will the contentious project actually hit its 2026 deadline? The city says yes, and is already reopening some areas, 

By Max Rivlin-Nadler, May 31, 2023, Hellgate

Residents maybe had reason to worry—in a presentation to a community advisory board right before Memorial Day weekend, the DDC pushed back its estimated completion dates for parts of the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, its name for the park demolition and reconstruction, as well as its surrounding floodwater management plan. Overall, however, DDC insisted that an end of 2026 deadline was still in sight. 

Workers demolish the south ramp to East River Park at Houston Street

May 17, 2023, EVGrieve

The demolition/reconstruction of East River Park continues its northern march. Most recently workers have demolished the south ramp at the Houston Street overpass…

NYC completes work on East Side Coastal Resiliency project’s first phase, Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan

By Josh Niland Jun 2, ’23, Archinect

This Wednesday marked the long-awaited opening of BIG’s planned Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan, marking an end to what was for some a contentious process that drew ire from various community groups on the two-year path towards its eventual completion.

New York City Begins Its Climate Change Reckoning on the Lower East Side, the Hard Way

By Delaney Dryfoos, March 13, 2023, Inside Climate News

The city redesigned much of a $1.5 billion floodwall project along the East River without any community input, shattering trust. Now, New York is pursuing similar climate resiliency projects in Manhattan that Mayor Eric Adams calls “complex, novel and unparalleled compared to any other American city.”

…The first phase, now called the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, was described by city and federal officials in 2014 as a “nature as buffer” approach that would allow the beloved East River Park, built by Robert Moses in the 1930s, to flood during climate-amplified extreme weather events. Officials said that phase would cost $770 million and be finished in as little as four years.

None of that turned out to be true.

The story provides a pretty good assessment of the project, but there are inaccuracies. 1) East River Park activists did not delay the project for months and years—the city’s own ineptitude including with the bidding process was to blame. At most we were responsible for a 30-day delay due to a lawsuit. 2) The writer says trees could not withstand the saltwater inundation, but most trees did survive, including oaks, London planes, elms and more. When there would be further inundations, ailing trees could be replaced with salt water resistant varieties. 3) It is true that artificial turf fields are ruined by flooding. However, natural turf fields recover quickly. There are many reasons not to install artificial turf. NYC should stop putting in these type playing fields altogether, and certainly not by waterfronts where harmful chemicals from the fields drain into our waterways, as evidenced by the new field at Pier 42. See our post about the new field at Pier 42, installed as mitigation for the loss of East River Park.

Stop clear-cutting New York City

BY ERIC UHLFELDER, March 2, 2023, New York Daily News

…In cities, mature trees are very efficient at carbon capture. But government policy, especially in New York, shows officials are not particularly concerned about this matter. It will take decades before tree replanting makes up for the carbon capture loss caused by cutting mature trees. Officials need to better balance essential improvements and climate issues.

This is evident in the destruction of the 53-acre East River Park. Nearly 1,000 fully grown trees are being cut down in the belief that doing so along with land improvements will make the area more resilient to rising tides — itself the product of climate change. The park hosts the equivalent of several acres of forest. According to the U.S. Forest Service, one acre of forest stores 75 tons of CO2.

Environmental Justice Atlas

East River Park, NY, USA, compiled by Howard Brandstein, EJ Atlas

Manhattan’s Lower East Side community rejects the destruction of East River Park. “At a time when our community is faced with multiple threats unfolding daily from the climate emergency, it is delusional to believe that building a wall will save us.”

How Bjarke Ingels, Architect, Spends His Sundays

by Paige Darrah, February 26, 2023, New York Times

His firm is also involved in the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, an initiative to protect part of Manhattan, including East River Park on the Lower East Side, from rising waters because of climate change. The preliminary phase has involved razing what is there now, including beloved trees and fields, which has produced some tensions in the community. “The more people you touch, the more opinions you solicit,” Mr. Ingels said of the divisive and long-term undertaking. “But I think most of the residents who experienced Hurricane Sandy would probably prefer to remain dry.”

Smug, dismissive and inaccurate.

East River Greenway now closed along the Con Ed power plant

February 16, 2023, EV Grieve

Multiple EVG readers shared the news that, as of Monday, the East River Greenway is closed for “construction activities” between 20th Street and 14th Street, including the narrow passage along the FDR and Con Edison power plant.

Mathilde, cherished 83-year-old tree, is felled in ongoing East River Park demolition

BY CHARLOTTE MORLIE, JANUARY 18, 2023, THE VILLAGE SUN

On Wednesday evening, Jan. 11, the tree was still standing, both beautiful and weird looking, with its slight bend and leafless winter branches. By 8 o’clock on Thursday morning, all that was left to see was a desolate trunk standing behind construction fences covered with black fabric.

2022 News page

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2018-2019 News Page

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Be There!

Visit our ACTIONS NOW! page to find out what you can do to help the health and livability of our Lower East Side.

The Latest

  • Our Health and Environment July 1, 2023
  • Make Parkland and Public Transit June 7, 2023
  • Artificial turf, real damage February 11, 2023
  • What to Count and When to Breathe January 6, 2023
  • The Case for Quercus December 13, 2022
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This Lenapehoking Land

This wonderful park we are trying to preserve is forever Indigenous land of Lenapehoking. We hope to honor and respect the land of this park by advocating its use as a resilient flood-absorbing sponge working with the river-side ecosystem, rather than in defiance of it. We oppose the ESCR project that continues assault on the land and recognize it adds a layer of injury to the ongoing systemic oppression of the original stewards of this land, the Lenapeyok People.

NYS Constitutional Amendment for Environmental Rights: "Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

  • Home
    • Who We Are and Our Goals
  • News, History, Resources
    • East River Park News 2023
      • East River Park News 2022
      • East River Park News 2021
      • East River Park News 2020
      • East River Park News 2018-2019
    • History and Resources
      • Whaddya Want Anyway?
      • Cover the FDR
      • Value Engineering
      • Value Engineering, Redacted
      • Resolved: No Value No Plan
      • Not One Sandbag
        • Not One Sandbag Part 2
      • The Rivers Beneath the Streets
    • Resiliency News from Everywhere
      • East Side Coastal Resiliency Alternative Resources
  • Legal
    • Alienated, reasons we sued, 2019
      • Alienation Lawsuit denied 8/20
      • Alienation denied, reasons for appeal
      • Alienation Lawsuit Appeal documents
      • Court orders, defied
      • Lawsuit Filed for Unredacted Value Engineering Report
  • Videos/Photos
    • Endangered Environs
  • Breathe
    • LES Breathe
    • Sensors
    • Bad Air Days
    • Open Air Quality
    • Soil Foil
  • DONATE
  • Posts
  • ACTIONS NOW!
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