East Siders Will Rally Against East River Park Resiliency Plan

EAST VILLAGE, NY — East siders will march against a massive storm protection plan set to shutter East River Park for three-and-a-half years of construction days before the City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the plan.

The $1.45 billion plan to protect the area from future storms like Superstorm Sandy in 2012 has received enormous pushback from locals who have decried the plan since it would require burying and rebuilding the East River Park.

As the project winds through the public review process, locals will march and rally on Saturday, Sept. 21 — two days before the plan is reviewed by City Planning, one of the last remaining steps before it heads to City Council for a final vote.

"The city is making this neighborhood of low-and-middle income people pay for climate change with a drastic plan that will kill every bit of greenery that cleanses the air in a neighborhood with already high asthma rates," said Pat Arnow of the East River Park Action group, a local group opposed to the plan.

The group will march at noon on Saturday starting at Tompkins Square Park.

They will stop at the office of Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who has been advocating for staged construction to avoid a full park closure but has not outright opposed the plan, to convince her to oppose the plan in the city's ongoing public review. Rivera holds a pivotal vote in City Council regarding the plan, since councilmembers have historically deferred to local pols on land use issues in other neighborhoods through the process.

Locals will then march over the East Sixth Street pedestrian bridge to the park for a rally just north of Williamsburg Bridge for music, speeches, and a "mock funeral" for the park.

The plan is aimed at protecting the neighborhood from devastating impacts like those of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 — but East Villagers and Lower East Siders have blasted the project since it would require the park to be buried and rebuilt.

City officials have contended it's the better plan compared to a previous design that placed a series of flood walls along FDR Drive. The new plan would avoid extensive highway closures and protect both the neighborhood and the park itself from increasingly going offline in the wake of sea level rise and future storms.

The project is currently undergoing a two-week third-party review by a Dutch consultant hired by Rivera and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

Here's the flier for the rally, courtesy of East River Park Action: