NYC Public Spaces in the Media – East River Park, Elizabeth St Garden, Hudson River Park & More

Save Elizabeth St Garden Rally, Summer 2018

At East River Park, Drama with the City & Parks Department

Community Input? Gathered, then deemed not important. Sound familiar?

LES & East Village Residents Feel ‘Duped’ By City’s Surprise Plan To Bury East River Park, via Gothamist:

“There are over 700 trees and over 350 species that call the East River Park home,” said Christine Datz-Romero, the executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center. “This is an urban oasis for so many creatures, and there’s been no compelling reason offered so far to justify destroying it.”

Among the benefits of the new proposal, according to officials, is the fact that the landfill approach will allow the city to avoid constructing a floodgate along the FDR Drive, which would have resulted in the closure of one lane of the highway for several years. The consideration has led some to accuse the city of appeasing drivers at the expense of local residents. …

“The new plan is essentially to transform the park itself into a flood barrier,” read a letter delivered on behalf of state Senator Brad Hoylman, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, and Congressmember Nydia Velazqueza on Wednesday. “Since it is clear that the City would not be demolishing or reconstructing the park otherwise, we believe that City is not undertaking the project for a park purpose, and it therefore requires alienation.*”

For now, Lower East Siders say they’ll do everything in their power to ensure the city’s new landfill plan doesn’t trash years of public feedback that went into the previous plan.

*= this would require dedicated approval from New York State.

Elizabeth Street Garden

Elizabeth Street Garden Receives Support from Community Board 2

The Community Board 2 meeting on January 24th included a vote from the full board on Elizabeth Street Garden. C.B.2 passed a “Resolution to Deny the City’s Application for the Disposition of City – Owned Land and UDAAP Designation for the Proposed Haven Green Development on the Elizabeth Street Garden site and in Support of Permanently Saving the Garden and Building Substantially More Senior Housing at an Alternative Site, Only If the Garden is Saved in Its Entirety.”

30 voted in favor, 7 opposed, 4 abstentions. You can read the Community Board Resolution here.

Activists at Save NYC Neighborhoods Rally 2018 City Hall

Hudson River Park to include a public beach at Gansevoort Pensinsula…?

Whether this is a good idea, I am not sure. However, it’s a sign of the continual building, scheming, needing to raise more money for more plans to pay more salaries to raise more money instead of just letting a park be a park. This is what private entities do. It’s never enough.  [Link: Crain’s New York Business]

The Battle to Save the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Have you heard? The battle to stop the Brooklyn Promenade from being closed and replaced with highway for six years to repair the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) continues.        [Links: New York Post]

Photos: Cathryn

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