The BroadsheetDAILY – 3/8/22 – City Says Planned Improvements to East River Waterfront Are On Hold

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Esplanade or Espla-Nada?

City Says Planned Improvements to East River Waterfront Are On Hold

A diagram illustrating the more-modest slate of improvements now contemplated for the East River Esplanade, between Peck Slip and Catherine Slip.

The February 22 meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1) included an update about long-planned improvements to the East River Esplanade, some of which are being cancelled.

Paul Goldstein, the chair of CB1’s Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee, said, “we got a report from Economic Development Corporation [EDC] regarding some of their waterfront assets and projects that are ongoing—or not.” (The EDC is a not-profit corporation controlled by City government, which oversees development of assets, such as publicly owned property.)

“The Brooklyn Bridge Esplanade is one our committee has been reviewing for a number of years,” he added. “It’s a project that basically runs from Peck Slip to Catherine Slip. The design was originally supposed to have plazas and planting areas, and included a green space that was well received.”

“Unfortunately, a lot this project is not moving ahead for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Goldstein explained, “the biggest one being that the City is focusing much more on resiliency, and they don’t want to go ahead with improvements that may interfere with that.”

“So, we’re not going to get those open space improvements,” he concluded. “But one thing we are supposed to get is a four-foot wide bike lane.”

A rendering of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Beach, which City planning officials have now abandoned.

Among the improvements that the City appears to have abandoned is a widely supported plan for an amenity that was to be called “Brooklyn Bridge Beach”—a crescent-shaped wedge of sand along the East River waterfront, just north of the South Street Seaport, where park-goers could wade knee deep in tide. If it had been built, this project would become the sole access point at which Lower Manhattan residents could step into the water that surrounds them, rather than merely looking at it.

Multiple enhancements slated for the East River waterfront appear to have been rendered moot, at least in the minds of City planners, by the Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan. Finalized in late December, as one of the last official acts by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, this project aims to protect the nearly mile-long stretch of East River waterfront between the Brooklyn Bridge the Staten Island Ferry Terminal by refashioning the landscape and elevating the riverbank, thus creating a physical barrier that will stop flood waters. The documents released by City Hall in December envision building a network of decks, berms, and breakwaters that will extend into the East River between 90 and 200 feet. The outermost edge of this complex would rise to an elevation between three and five feet above the waterline, while its landward side would reach as high as 15 feet.

As Mr. Goldstein noted in his presentation at the February 22 meeting of CB1, however, implantation of that plan, “appears to be many years away.”

Matthew Fenton

In Memoriam:

Stan Braverman (1948 – 2022)

Devoted to Family, Married at Windows, and Enamored of Automotive Elegance

(Editor’s Note: Longtime Battery Park City resident Stan Braverman died on February 28. This remembrance is provided by his widow, Maryanne Braverman.)

Early Monday morning, Stan passed away. He is free of the body that disappointed him. May his spirit of caring friendship, devoted fatherhood, and supportive partnership remain with each of us who knew him. To read more…

The Week’s Calendar

Tuesday March 8

10:30AM

6 River Terrace

Join in on the fun featuring easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography while working on your balance, coordination and range of motion. Come prepared for enthusiastic instruction, a little strength training and a lot of fun. Participants are encouraged to bring their own equipment: weights, water bottle, hand towel etc. Proof of vaccination required. Free. Battery Park City Authority

6PM

Skyscraper Museum

Twenty-two years after the original New York: An Illustrated History – first published in 1999 as a companion volume to the acclaimed 17 ½-hour PBS series New York: A Documentary Film, directed by Ric Burns and co-written with James Sanders – the dynamic duo is back. James Sanders will describe the project to revise and update their compendium of the city’s expansion from its colonial beginnings in 1624 up to the current moment.

The new 2021 edition of New York: An Illustrated History, written by Burns and Sanders, moves on from the aftermath of 9/11 to the financial crisis of 2008, the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, the continual struggle with racial injustice, and the still unfolding cataclysm of the COVID-19 pandemic. Free.

6PM

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1.  Mayor Adam’s proposed $215M cut to education and its impact on schools – Resolution

Wednesday March 9

4-5PM

The Corner 25 Fulton Street

Seaport Kids will partner with Private Picassos to present Pipe Cleaner Craft for kids of all ages on Wednesday, March 9.

Professional arts instructors will guide children in the use of wood blocks, colorful wire, pipe cleaners, beads and foam stickers to create their own free-standing sculptures. Admission is free. For more information, please browse: theseaport.nyc/events/

6PM

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

Thursday March 10

2PM

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Ernest Glaser was born Ernst Adolf Berthold Glaser on March 2, 1924 in Berlin. In 1939, his family left Germany to escape the Nazis and attempted to immigrate to the United ​States, but the family ended up in Shanghai, China. The Glasers thought that they would only be in Shanghai for a year at most, but ended up staying for eight years, until 1947, when they left for the United States. There, Ernest and his family settled in San Francisco. Later, he married, raised a family, and became the president of Avoset Food Corporation. Join the Museum for a program exploring Ernest’s experiences during the Holocaust and in Shanghai. Free; suggested $10 donation

6PM

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1.  62-64 Reade Street, application for a rooftop addition and the removal of fire shutters at the rear facade – Resolution

2.  140 West Broadway, application for sidewalk replacement – Resolution

3.  Recommendation of new LPC Commissioners – Discussion and possible resolution

A map of The Bronx at the time of the American Revolution

6:30PM

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Join Roger McCormack, Director of Education at The Bronx County Historical Society, to explore the significance of the Bronx in the American Revolution. This lecture will highlight the Battle of Pell’s Point, the impact of the war on ordinary Bronx farmers and inhabitants, and the general history of the war in the Bronx. This lecture will be held via Zoom. Registration ends at 5:30pm on the day of the lecture. Free

7PM

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Zoom lecture presented by Catherine Prescott and Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli. This installment of Tavern Tastings explores the history of whiskey: its creation, rise in popularity during the 18th century in North America, and how its role in the economy of the burgeoning United States incited a rebellion. Free; suggested donation of $10

Hometown School Makes Good

Community College in Tribeca Honored as Top School for Hispanics

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) has been named one of the nation’s top ten two-year schools (by region) for Hispanic students, in rankings compiled by Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine. Separately, BMCC (which is located on Chambers Street) has also been designated as the top-ranking City University of New York (CUNY) college in terms of awarding the highest number of degrees—a total of 2,062—to Hispanic students, and the highest-ranked college in the northeastern United States as measured by the same metric.

Win a Staycation

The Downtown Alliance is raffling off a couple’s getaway in Lower Manhattan, which includes a two-night stay at the Beekman Hotel, dinner for two at the Michelin-starred Crown Shy restaurant, tickets to the One World Trade Center observation deck, and a $500 voucher for qualifying travel-related expenses.

To be entered in the contest automatically, download and use the Alliance’s new augmented reality Instagram filter (while tagging @downtownnyc), which allows users to superimpose three-dimensional renderings of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, Fearless Girl, the Oculus and One World Trade Center on any landscape they choose. For more information, please browse: downtownny.com

Safe Space for Teens

Starting Monday, March 14, Trinity Church’s Youth Afterschool program will offer everything from basketball and mindfulness to test prep and use of a teaching kitchen.

All activities, which are free and open to students in grades six through 12, will be hosted in the teens-only space on the fifth floor of Trinity Commons (the new community building behind Trinity Church), located at 76 Trinity Place.

Trinity Youth strives to practice “radical welcome” by including not only parishioners and students from Trinity’s school partnerships, but youth from across New York City, and the inclusion all people regardless of background, beliefs, or experience. (Proof of vaccination against COVID-19 is required.) For more information, or to enroll, please browse: trinitywallstreet.org/youth

‘He Drove Me Away Like A Dog’

Black History Month: Lower Manhattan Taken for a Ride on Monument It Actually Needs

While the saga of Rosa Parks and the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott has become a canonical American parable, New York played out its own version of the same drama, more than a century earlier. In July, 1854, Lower Manhattan resident Elizabeth Jennings Graham was on her way to church, and boarded a horse-drawn street car at Chatham and Pearl Streets.

Like much else in mid-19th century New York, street car service was segregated, with most coaches reserved for white riders, but some bearing signs that read, “Negro Persons Allowed in This Car.”

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Get Rich or Get Out

Analysis By Housing Group Cites Declining Affordability in Lower Manhattan

A leading housing advocacy organization has completed an exhaustive look at threats to affordability in every community in the five boroughs, and has found that Lower Manhattan ranks among the ten most at-risk neighborhoods by one key metric, while also placing in the 20 most-endangered by another.

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.

Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.

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