East River Park, Welcome Back to The Lower East Side
Taking a moment to appreciate what we've recently gotten - and what we might look to reform next.
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Along with the development of Essex Crossing, the renovation and reopening of East River Park on the Lower East Side is likely the most important and positive change to the neighborhood's land use in the past 50 years. There is a lot left to see - how well maintained the park will be and how the new areas will look and feel - but don't doubt for a second that what you and I now have the privilege to walk into every day is a blessing most communities in New York City, not to mention the nation, would kill to have access to.
If you are on the Lower East Side and live east of Essex, you now live within a 15 minute walk of a $1 billion park built along the banks of one of the United States' most iconic waterfronts and in the shadow of a 129 year old mile-long suspension bridge. You have 6 tennis courts (so far), a soccer/baseball field, two basketball courts, a cluster of free grills and shaded picnic tables, a mini-turf field, a grassy meadow, and soon an amphitheater and uninterrupted access to the NYC Ferry offering 1-stop trips to Dumbo. Te parece poco?
But perhaps most importantly, you have its topography. Following Hurricane Sandy, a renovation was needed more than wanted and among its most imposing features is the clearance from the water when walking along the railing, or when standing atop the stairs facing the old Boat House. You sense the elevation change immediately when you trudge up the Delancey Bridge but never descend upon entering the park.
I'm primarily writing this to say that there is a success here, and though nostalgia for the old park is natural, let that not cloud us from seeing the old park as many newcomers like myself saw it when we first arrived here - in rough condition, and, as it turns out, extremely vulnerable in cases of mild tropical weather ("Hurricane" Sandy was not a hurricane when it hit Manhattan).
My second message is that, with the forthcoming completion of the rest of the park south of Houston, we should begin to take our focus and ambitions the other way.
The underbelly of the Williamsburg Bridge still looks like it did in the 1940s despite DUMBO looking the way it does today. And much like the West Side highway in the 70s, the FDR Drive's days are limited. If you live within a 5 minute walk of the FDR, you know from the soot on your fingertips after touching your windowsill how much pollution it generates. And if you walk across the Delancey Street bridge and take a stroll in our new park, you know how loud the cars are compared to Hudson River Park. All this to say - the Lower East Side's next critical environmental and social opportunity is right in front of us.
If momentum leads us to reforming the FDR, we might just get what a lot of us really wanted: an original East River Park with saplings, fresh concrete, and maybe, just maybe, a street with a crosswalk - just like the photograph.