When a large barge parked itself next to the East River caissons at 53rd Street, we put a call into DEC and a day later to see what was really going on. After some initial phone wrangling, I was able to speak with a high ranking official at DEC about the matter. DEC explained that the barge was actually from a different agency (NY Sttate DOT) and was there to work on repairing the FDR Drive seawall. The seawall, in turns as it turns out, needs frequent maintenance due to an increase of marine life in the East River. Shockingly (and happily) the East River does seem to be getting cleaner. DEC emphasized that no final decision had been made on the future of the Outer Detour Road (ODR) caissons that could be used for a future East River Greenway. (For more on the ODR portion of the Greenway Gap, read this).
the ODR in use (photo via NYTimes)
And now for some (very) good news: Based on recent measurements in the water, most of the caissons are actuallycloser to shore than DEC originally thought. As a result of this finding, DEC has softened it’s stance on how many of them might be able to be kept in place. However, DEC cannot officially approve keeping the caissons in the water until the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) presents a finalized plan for rehabilitating and adapting the caissons into a Greenway.
It seems DEC’s two key concerns regarding this section of the Greenway gap are:
- The distance from shore of the Greenway support beams (the close the better…for DEC)
- The width of the Greenway over water (the narrower the better…for DEC)
DEC’s concerns with EDC’s first submitted plan was that the caissons were too far from shore and the width was too wide. It now seems that DEC is more comfortable with at least the first concern on the distance from shore of the caissons – which would serve as the site of the Greenway supports. However, we currently have no information about the width of the Greenway in EDC’s first proposal and DEC did not give us any rough ideas as to what they would consider to be acceptable. DEC did mention that they approved a wide section of the Greenway over the water in Lower Manhattan because of very high expected demand. Obviously, a narrow Greenway that has a high volume of cyclists, pedestrians and other users (like joggers, skaters, anglers, etc) would become a danger as conflicts in the shared space would be more frequent. Therefore, DEC is not above listening to arguments based on the practical necessity of a wider Greenway to accommodate a high number of users.
A clear message needs to be sent to DEC that any new East River Greenway construction must be wide enough to accomodate the high number of anticpated users.
ACTION: Tell DEC that you plan to use the Greenway on a regular basis and want a sufficiently wide Greenway to accommodate the large number of expected users. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people will use a full length East River Greenway everyday based on comparative estimates from current usage figures on the west side’s Hudson River Greenway.
Reach out to DEC now:
- Fill-out a message on the web form to Commissioner Grannis
- Email the Division of Public Affairs: dpaeweb@w.dec.state.ny.us
Even more effective: Call or write to the DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis or the NYC Regional Director Suzanne Mattei:
Commissioner Pete Grannis
Department of Environmental Protection
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-4500
Tel 518-402-8013Regional Director Suzanne Y. Mattei
Department of Environmental Protection
1 Hunter’s Point Plaza
47-40 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11101-5407
Tel (718) 482-4949
I wrote (again) to DEC, and also referred them to Sandy Mckee’s professional proposal here: http://www.yoshiharamckee.com/manhattanbike.html
Sandy is going to expand the number of pictures she includes on her firm’s Greenway Proposal, but, especially in light of DEC’s concern over the width of the Greenway Gap Esplanade, her proposal remains the easiest, least environmentally disruptive, cheapest and simplest to implement. It should be promoted over the MAS proposal, since it it much more practical, at this point, given the budget and other constraints.