E Village, LES Call For Independent Review Of Resiliency Plan

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The de Blasio administration's plan to protect the east side from coastal flooding under a project that requires shuttering the East River Park for 3.5 years drew some 200 people to a public hearing Tuesday.

More than 70 signed up to testify at Community Board 3's public hearing for the project, which involves burying East River Park with 8- to 10-feet of soil to protect the east side from the devastating impacts like those of Superstorm Sandy nearly seven years ago. Neighbors have been outraged for months about park closures involved with the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, which runs from Montgomery Street to East 25th Street.

East Village and Lower East Side residents called for a third-party, independent review — similar to an expert panel commissioned for Brooklyn's controversial Brooklyn-Queens Expressway plan — or, at least, phased construction.

"Closing up the parks is one of the stupidest ideas they've had in a long time," said Dave Brasuell, who's lived in New York City Housing Authority's Jacob Riis Houses for 65 years. "It's a good idea to fix the park, but they should do it in phases."

The city's Department of Design and Construction has stressed it is looking into phasing construction to prevent a full closure, though details remain to be seen.

Neighbors gave emotional testimony about spending time with children in the park, ripping out hundreds of trees for construction, razing ballfields, and destroying the existing biodiversity. Many were mistrustful the city would be able to finish in 3.5 years.

"We will not let the city ambush us into taking a plan that we know we did not create," Damaris Reyes, executive director of tenants' advocacy group Good Old Lower East Side, said at a rally with the group East River Alliance ahead of the hearing. "I want to see our demands incorporated into the plan."

The Alliance, which formed shortly after a previous design was overhauled last fall, wants the plan to undergo a third-party review and also called for a study on the possibility of building park space in a structure on top of the FDR Drive instead.

Others say their top priority is flood protection and are supportive of the plan.

"Let me start by saying, I want flood protection," testified district leader and NYCHA Jacob Riis Houses resident John Blasco, who also called for phased construction.

Referencing Sandy in 2012, Blasco said, "I don't want another four years of temporary boilers for NYCHA developments. I don't want black and brown people to suffer on the waterfront."

Thousands live in NYCHA buildings that line the waterfront, where a storm surge would hit first — a concern that some have felt is ignored, causing some division among neighbors.

"Trees are important. The park is important. We love our park, however, for Baruch Houses and its residents, safety and flood protection is the number one priority," said Camille Napoleon, a tenant leader at NYCHA's Baruch Houses.

When the previous design was overhauled last fall, DDC touted the new project would be complete one hurricane season sooner than the previous plan and make construction simpler through transporting equipment by barges in the East River. The Parks Department has also floated some mitigation efforts during the park closure, though some open space upgrades had already been in the works.

The $1.45 billion resiliency project is completely funded, DDC officials said Tuesday. The project is funded by city cash and $338 million in federal funds, the latter which expire in 2022.

DDC stressed the urgency of protecting the neighborhood from storm surge and sea level rise Tuesday night.

"The edge is low and exposed and that means that we need to act urgently in order to protect this area," said First Deputy Commissioner at DDC Jamie Torres-Springer.

Tuesday's hearing was among the first steps of a lengthy review process called the uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, in which the project goes through reviews by the community board and borough president and eventually, ends with a vote in City Council.

The CB 3 parks and waterfront committee will vote on an advisory resolution Thursday that will go to a full board meeting later this month, the committee said Tuesday.