Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Topics

Topics

The Lessons Learned In Creating Hudson River Park


A dump truck heading north crashed through an elevated highway at Gansevoort Street, accompanied by a 60-foot slab of highway that came tumbling to the ground. The accident was a shocker, and it set off a chain reaction that has resulted, almost exactly 30 years later (the accident was on December 16, 1973), in communities throughout the city seeking to reclaim their waterfront from the highways that had cut them off from it.

Out of that movement has come the Hudson River Park. The waterfront transformation embodied in Hudson River Park was the largest physical change in waterfront land use since the early days of the Industrial Revolution when the machine age ran roughshod over agriculture and never looked back. Now thirty years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, what have we learned?

1) Dramatic and even positive change doesn't come without a fight. In this case, an entire generation has fought over the future of the west side of Manhattan. The construction of what was officially called the Miller Elevated Highway during 1929-1932 launched 40 years of waterfront highway expansion between the tip of Manhattan and the Upper West Side. The first stretch ran between Chambers and West 46th Street. Over the next two decades extensions were made to West 72nd street and south to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Based on the current proposals for the western edge of Ground Zero that would spend as much as $1 Billion on a short tunnel you might say that the Highway Age is alive and well.

After three decades of organizing, advocacy, and lobbying, the Hudson River Park is being pieced together over some 400 acres spread out downtown. Some would say the highway, with three lanes southbound and as many as five northbound, still won the fight. But in looking at where this traffic comes from and where it goes, the giant traffic generators such as the Passenger Ship Terminal or Chelsea Piers illustrate lesson two

2) Don't let private interests take over.

Nothing is as simple as "development" or "not." Rather, the unique environment of the waterfront suggests that all development that happens along the river should directly relate to the water itself. Cruise ships, sure. Film studios and exhibition space, why here? Sure, the park is more than 400 acres -- on paper. But considering the fact that nearly 80 percent of the area consists of submerged land, it becomes clear that there is not a lot of space to begin with. As with any public space issue, once there are fees imposed, and one must pay to play, then that becomes physical space that will always have a price tag attached to it. And these prices are not affordable to most New Yorkers.

3) The river should be seen as the center of the park, not the edge.

Fortunately, the waters have been discovered by a new generation of stewards who want to protect the river, but also want to use it. Even in the coldest weather, rowboats called Whitehall gigs and kayaks (some hand-built) are launched from Pier 40/ Houston Street or Pier 63 Maritime. In the warmer months, its not unusual to see swim caps turning up to catch a breath anywhere along the shore.

The re-awakening to the river is just the latest stage in our society's forty-year effort to clean up the environment. Finally, we are seeing how a river reborn can become a central part of a community's recreation and open space diet for daily life. At the River Project on Pier 26, the touch tanks are filled with real Hudson River critters, fish crabs and seahorses show the next generation of Tribeca denizens that most of the action in the park actually occurs beneath the surface of the water.

The feeling of openness at the water's edge can have a tremendously refreshing impact on stressed-out city dwellers. Take one look out across the river during the height of Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as SAD (or the Holiday Blues), and you'll feel better.

Governor George Pataki recently signed a law making the entire Hudson River a no-discharge zone (meaning boats cannot flush their toilets into the river) and now the challenge is how to enable a park to create as many on- and in-water opportunities as possible. After all, it's not simply a park it's a river.

Now, thirty years into this waterfront transformation it is clear that when the time is ripe, communities must come together to roll back the highway and the railroad to reclaim what is rightfully theirs, the waterfront. The improvements happening along the west side of Manhattan are striking, sure, but we shouldn't wait before we make strides that are equally dramatic in underserved areas such as Sunset Park and the South Bronx. We've made a good start with the Hudson, but we can't forget that it's just that, a start.

Carter Craft, an urban planner, is program director of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance.

Crime in the Parks


 

An attempted rape in Prospect Park in September as well as four attacks on women in city parks earlier in the year has raised concerns about whether the parks are becoming more dangerous after years of improved safety and even though citywide crime rates have remained low. New Yorkers for Parks, the parks advocacy group, has counted 25 violent crimes in parks reported in the press since July.

In mid-November, City Councilmember Joseph Addabbo, the chair of the parks and recreation committee, held a hearing to learn what the parks department is doing to improve safety and to examine the role of the Parks Enforcement Patrol. Patrol, or PEP, officers, who are under the jurisdiction of the parks department, enforce rules and issue summons for smaller offenses, acting as a deterrent to crime. But there are just 75 PEP officers to patrol the parks in the entire city, not counting officers stationed at recreation centers and special events or employed through separate contracts for the Hudson River Park, Battery Park City, and Lower Manhattan. At several public meetings organized by Brooklyn elected officials after the assault in Prospect Park, some residents complained that PEP officers do little when minor incidents are reported.

At the City Council hearing, park advocates called for adding more PEP officers and creating a parks division within the Police department, similar to the transit, housing, and school security forces. They also recommended that the city monitor crime in parks through the COMPSTAT crime-tracking system used by the police. Because many parks fall within several different precincts, it can be difficult to detect patterns of crime inside parks and around their borders.

The parks department believes there has been no increase in crime. "Truly, the city is safer than it’s been in 30 to 40 years, and we think the parks are safer, too," said Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner for the department, citing preliminary data showing a decrease in crime from several police precincts, including the one that covers Prospect Park. The crime rate in Central Park, which has its own police precinct, has also fallen over the last ten years.

Nevertheless, Kavanagh acknowledged the psychological effect. "If you’ve ever had a house or a car broken into, crime takes on a much more personal meaning. People feel the same about parks."

Just the perception of an increase in crime can be harmful if people become afraid to go into the parks. "One of the things that have made parks safer is the fact that people are using them. The more people out using the parks, the less likely it is for there to be crime and other problems," Kavanagh said. "We’re just concerned that people’s response will be to stay away from the park rather than go out and reclaim their turf."

The parks department has begun several new efforts to collaborate with the police department on tracking incidents and monitoring potential problems. The parks department is in the early stages of sharing its GIS (Geographic Information System) data with the police department so that information on parks can be included in the COMPSTAT system. The first step is to provide park boundaries, but as the parks department adds more detail to its computerized maps, the process will be refined. Ultimately, the department will have the ability to provide exact coordinates of where a problem is occurring within a park so that not only police but also fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel can respond more quickly. Emergency responders are now sent to the nearest street address, which has sometimes caused delays in getting to the right spot in time.

Since the beginning of the year, parks department sector managers have been taking precinct commanding officers on evening and night tours of the parks in their territory. This gives the park managers a chance to show where problems are occurring – usually things like graffiti, vandalism, people living in the parks - and talk about strategies to deal with them. It also helps develop personal relationships that can cut through layers of bureaucracy and get things accomplished faster.

Anne Schwartz is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues. Previously, she was the editor of the Audubon Activist, a news journal for environmental action published by the National Audubon Society, and an editor at The New York Botanical Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three New Projects To Restore Or Build Parks


 Even against the backdrop of the city's fiscal crisis, capital investment in the city's parks has continued. Just in the past month, the papers have been full of good news for parks. On October 30, the city announced a $25 million public/private initiative to improve 16 parks in four neighborhoods in Harlem, upper Manhattan/Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. The first of 13 new or restored parks planned to help revive lower Manhattan opened the following week. And just a few days after that, to the amazement of local residents and the parks department, Mayor Michael Bloomberg worked out an agreement with Keyspan to buy the site of the old Elmhurst gas tanks for a park, land the utility originally planned to sell to the developer of a Home Depot.

To maintain its growing inventory of parkland, the parks department still has a much lower operating budget and less than half the fulltime staff it had two decades ago. The city never restored funding for park maintenance and recreation during the economic boom of the 1990s, and has further cut the budget during the current fiscal crisis. Although the Parks department has become more efficient and has made good use of an army of workers in federally funded job-training programs as well as dedicated volunteers, most observers agree that it needs more resources to properly care for its green and built infrastructure. But unlike the last fiscal crisis in the 1970s, when the parks were virtually abandoned, the city is continuing to restore and build new parks.

The creation over the last decades of scores of park friends groups and a large roster of volunteers -- there are now 60,000 volunteers registered with Partnership for Parks -- has built up a critical mass of support for parks and a resource for new ideas and partnerships. The efforts of park advocates to educate the public and elected officials about the economic, health, and social benefits of parks have also begun sink in.

"There is a chorus of thousands of voices saying that parks are important," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "I think that represents a sea change in recognizing the role parks play in the city physically, spiritually, and economically. Parks are now on the radar of council members, state senators, assembly members - even members of Congress are talking about the importance of parks and allocating money."

Both Governor George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg are strong supporters of parks, as are a number of city officials. The city's continued investment in parks "reflects the mayor's genuine interest in and concern for parks, which was a distinct part of his campaign platform," Commissioner Benepe said. "He gets parks."

NEW PARK PROJECTS


TARGETING NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS

The public/private partnership recently announced by the city focuses on groups of parks in four areas that already have a base of community involvement: historic Harlem, Red Hook in Brooklyn, Astoria and Long Island City, and the upper Manhattan and Bronx neighborhoods linked by the High Bridge. The initiative combines $20 million for capital improvements - projects that are already funded or are expected to be funded over the course of four years - with $5 million raised from corporations and foundations by the non-profit City Parks Foundation and administered by Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of the foundation and the Parks department.

So far, private funding has flowed mostly to the city's showcase parks, the heavily visited parks in Manhattan and other affluent areas. This new initiative aims to use private investment strategically, to build up and empower community groups so they can attract more resources, both public and private, for the continued improvement of their parks.

"The project is based on the premise that every park needs three things to be successful capital infrastructure, adequate ongoing maintenance, and community involvement," said David Rivel, Executive Director of the City Parks Foundation. "If you look at any successful park anywhere in the city or the country, you'll see that it has an active group of citizens who care about it and work for the park."

The private funds will be used to bring more activities into the parks, including concerts in Jackie Robinson, Marcus Garvey and Highbridge parks, track and field instruction in Astoria and Red Hook parks, and puppet shows, readings, and performing arts for kids in historic Harlem Parks. The funding also pays for a staff member in each of the four neighborhoods to help organize community groups and get more people involved. "Once you have a dedicated core of park users who've been attracted to a park," Rivel said, "you can begin to organize them into an ongoing friends group." Partnerships for Parks will support the effort with technical assistance and workshops on things like fundraising, working with the parks department, and making a map and guide of the park.

The parks department will direct the restoration projects in consultation with the community, and will continue to provide the maintenance, programs, and security already committed to those parks. Considering the present poor condition of some of these parks, there is a question about whether the current maintenance levels will be enough keep the restored areas from deteriorating. Rivel said that while "we all wish the parks department could have more money," he believes that an organized community group is what makes a difference in keeping a park well maintained.

PARKS HELPING REVIVE DOWNTOWN

Last spring, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki announced that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation had allocated $25 million to renovate or create 13 new parks in lower Manhattan. "The notion was that we could very quickly improve the quality of life in lower Manhattan by making it more attractive for residents, workers, and tourists, the three crucial ingredients for reviving lower Manhattan," said Commissioner Benepe. The plan calls for the completion of six parks by the spring of 2004 and the rest by the end of 2004.

On November 5, the city opened the first of these spaces, Drumgoole Plaza, six months ahead of schedule. The space, next to Pace University underneath the entrance ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge, was an eyesore, an empty lot used for parking cars and frequented by the homeless. The plaza now has trees, shrubs and perennial beds, new paving, benches, and lights. Pace University and its student environmental club, THINK Environment, worked closely with the city to make the plaza a reality. The university paid for the installation of underground water pipes and lighting, and will supply water and electricity. The club, which volunteers weekly in parks around the city, has taken on the responsibility of weeding, watering, and other maintenance, with tools and materials to be provided by the Parks department. Vlada Smorgonov, a Pace senior who is founder and president of the club, said that she hopes at some point Pace will hire a gardener to oversee the plaza and other green spaces the club would like to see created on campus.

TANKS FOR THE PARK

It may be a while before a park is actually built on the site of the Elmhurst gas tanks, once infamous symbols of how far the traffic had backed up on the Long Island Expressway. But residents of Maspeth, Middle Village and Elmhurst are ecstatic that Mayor Bloomberg stepped in and worked out a deal with Keyspan to purchase the site. The community and elected officials of both parties, including Republican City Councilmember Dennis Gallagher and Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat, had been fighting Keyspan's plan to sell the land to a developer planning to build a big-box commercial complex, including a Home Depot. Opponents said the development would drive out small retailers and bring even more traffic and pollution to an area that is already crossed by the expressway and has truck routes through local streets.

Ten days after starting discussions with Keyspan, Mayor Bloomberg reached an agreement with the company for the city to purchase the site for a price between one dollar and a million dollars, a fraction of its market value. "We need stores, we need economic development," Mayor Bloomberg said in the Daily News, "but the parks also really make an enormous difference in this city."

"We were facing formidable opposition and big money," said Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, which had fought to stop the commercial development. "This happened lightning fast. It's to the mayor's credit that he was able to do this."

The details of the agreement with Keyspan still have to be finalized, and the site needs additional environmental remediation. Community members say they would like to see a park for passive recreational use, with trees to filter the pollution and noise from the expressway. City Council District 29, which includes these neighborhoods, has just .28 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, one of the lowest ratios of any city council district, according to the parks profile (In pdf format) compiled by New Yorkers for Parks. Parks Commissioner Benepe said that the site is roughly six acres, about the size of Madison Park in Manhattan. "I've never seen an area this size in a very densely developed residential neighborhood opening up. It's a complete tabula rasa, not a thing on it, " he said. "It's almost flabbergasting to think about designing a park from scratch."

Anne Schwartz, a writer specializing in environmental issues, was formerly the editor of the Audubon Activist and an editor at The New York Botanical Garden.



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years