NY State Awards Funding to Help Close the Greenway Gap

Some big news coming in today concerning New York City’s urban waterfront and the East River Greenway.

The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s Waterwire reports that New York Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez has announced that $23.8 million will be funneled from the state’s Environmental Protection Fund to waterfront revitalization projects across the state. Of that total, nearly $9 million will go towards various projects in New York City.

First and foremost, $400,000 will be awarded to New York City’s Small Business Services and Economic Development Corporation to advance planning and preliminary design for waterfront amenities along the East River between East 38th Street and East 61st Street. When completed, the project will fill a major gap in the Manhattan Greenway, a 32-mile waterfront path around Manhattan that remains disconnected in parts. Currently the FDR Drive and the United Nations campus block waterfront access in this section.

$650,000 will be awarded to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to complete plans for the future Blueway Trail in the East River from East 38th Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. Waterwire quotes Christine Datz-Romero, executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, explaining that the Blueway Trail will focus on waterfront access and is complementary to the NYC Water Trail. “We are very interested in a floating swimming pool in the stretch below 14th Street,” she added. “The pool would be a way to address the issue of water quality in the East River. You need people to get in the water to care about it.”

The City’s Deptartment of City Planning will also receive $475,000 to produce a new ten-year Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (originally adopted by the City Council in 1997) and revise the City’s Waterfront Revitalization Program (originally created in 1982 and revised in 1999). The planning process will include an updated assessment of waterfront resources for the areas of natural, public, working and developing waterfronts; produce a statement of planning policy for the waterfront with consideration of the ten-year capital strategy, four-year capital plan and community board 197-a plans; and generate proposals for implementing the planning policy.

These funding awards show that significant progress and commitment is being undertaken by our State and City officials on important infrastructure projects, albeit in times of severe fiscal crisis. However, most of the grants awarded are for only half of the projects’ total cost. More money and funding sources will be needed to ensure that they pass from the planning stages to actual construction. Also, no mention was made in the Waterwire of the FDR ODR caissons, an important link if the Greenway Gap is to be fully completed south of the Queensboro Bridge. Nonetheless, these are exciting developments for the East River Greenway – Stay tuned for more updates and reaction later this week.