There are months left for heavy machinery to begin work to build what the city calls the East Side Coastal Resilience Work – a five-year, two-phase plan to raise East River Park eight feet.
However, more neighbors have joined the protests that have been organized since the plan was unveiled. This time in front of the mayor’s office where some denounce a lack of communication from the city council.
“They put surveys of our buildings, but no one who is going to do that specifically is informing us what it can do to our health, because if they are going to raise the wall, how it will affect the air for our community,” said one of the protesters.
The original plan has already been amended to satisfy the residents of the area. Rather than raising a wall system along FDR Drive at the western edge of the park, it will be razed and rebuilt at a height where stormwater cannot reach.
“We already had a flood and the park survived, so I think if there is another flood we could try to see how it will work without the plan,” the protester added.
Despite criticism, the investment of more than $ 1.45 billion would protect a low-income community and residents of public housing by 2025.
District Councilmember Carlina Rivera said, “Thanks to community input, East River Park will never fully close, additional recreational green spaces will be opened, and we will protect our neighbors from the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis.”
However, this message has not reached many recipients either.
“That park is going to be for the rich, they like cement, they like artificial grass,” said another protester.
Developers say the project is the first of its kind across the country and will also be protecting the neighborhood known as ‘Two Bridges’ not just from flooding caused by storms, but from rising ocean levels.
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