November Parks Committee Report for Manhattan CB3
ABC Playground in Lower East Side is getting a makeover. Also, discussion of drug use in Sarah D. Roosevelt Park.
Author’s note: Tal and I serve on the Parks Committee of Manhattan Community Board 3 together. I write the newsletter Friends of New York City Abundance. The views expressed here only represent my own and not Manhattan Community Board 3.
Parks Manager Update
Luc A., the Parks Manager, provided an update on several ongoing projects and events:
Parks hosted two successful bulb planting weekends (here’s one listed event from Queens)! The flowers will appear in the spring.
The East River Park history webpage mistakenly just focuses on Pier 42 — that will be fixed. Pier 42 connects to the southern tip of East River Park but is not part of the park.
With sunset now earlier in the day, park bathrooms will start closing around 5pm.
Parks is focused on cleaning leaves, in collaboration with the Department of Sanitation’s organic waste program (this may be part of Sanitation’s Curbside Composting program).
Parks is ready in case a snowstorm comes later this year
This is the last meeting for Luc. Eddie Rodriguez will be the new district manager. He is a 14-year Parks veteran.
Questions for the Parks Manager
Q: Any needles found in East River Park?
A: None found. Needle data collection by Parks is pretty meticulous (here’s a dataset from NYC Open Data). A high number of needles were found in Sarah D. Roosevelt Park. If you see needles in a park, please tell NYC Parks or 311 — Parks employees have been trained on how to safely remove needles.
Q: Why isn’t Parks locking the Gates at Columbus Park every night?
Q: Following a crackdown on the drug markets at Washington Square Park, drug use has apparently migrated over to Sarah D. Roosevelt (SDR) Park. Why doesn’t SDR Park have a drug use task force like Washington Square Park? Or, why isn’t the NYPD’s 5th Precinct doing more? This is an especially pressing issue since there is a playground at SDR Park.
A: There is an upcoming inter-agency meeting about this.
Q: With the changing of district managers, how do we make sure Park Row requests (e.g. overgrown trees crowding sidewalks, etc.) don’t get dropped?
A: There will be no change in Parks Managers for Districts 1 and 2.
ABC Playground Reconstruction
NYC Parks presented to the committee about proposed designs for the ABC Playground. This corresponds to the External Schematic Design Approval stage of the Parks “How we build” process.
First, we heard more about the Community Parks Initiative from Project Liaison Steve Simon:
Mayor provides funding for parks that haven’t received funding in the last 20 years (according to the website, the initiative “is New York City’s first equity-driven investment program through which Parks enhances greenspaces in underserved neighborhoods”).
$6M budget for this project
ABC Playground is …
a Jointly Operated Playground (JOP) with PS20 Anna Silver Elementary School
JOP means that the playground is used by the public during non-school hours and by students during the school day
half an acre in size, located near the intersection of East Houston and Essex Street
The Parks department already consulted the Student Council at PS20 about the reconstruction design. They mentioned keeping the Coqui the frog and protecting existing trees was important to them.
Questions about ABC Playground Reconstruction
Q: Why is the fence only 4 feet high? The current fence is 5.5 feet. 4 feet isn’t ideal since …
there is a lot of nightlife nearby, so by Monday morning there might be a lot of trash in the park. There are also a lot of tourist foot traffic on Houston.
Tompkins Square Park playgrounds have 4-foot fences. This doesn’t seem to stop drug use from creeping into the playgrounds.
the short fences were a legacy of former NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver, but he stepped down in 2021.
The principal of PS20 supports the existing / taller fence height.
A: The current 5.5-foot fences are non-standard, so we can’t replace them with new fences of the same height.
Q: What does it mean that this project is in a rat mitigation zone?
A: This is an Adams administration initiative. It means that this design limits open mulch areas, and excludes certain ground covers and plants. Other plants like mint that rats dislike are encouraged.
Q: Why are there no Bioswales in this design? The City said 40 were coming to the Lower East Side. Kids could learn more about nature there.
A: We could highlight the new nature components of this design with panels, etc.
Q: Why does this project require MTA review?
A: Anything within 200 feet of a subway (line?) requires review, but we don’t anticipate this to be a blocker
Q: What about swings? None were included in the design.
A: Kids said they wanted other features more.
Q: Why isn’t there more soil or nature in this design? Also, why not more wood structures like other parks around the city have?
A: Lots of soil means a higher maintenance cost since it wears out quickly. Ditto for wood structures. They also lead to more splinters.
Q: What are the next steps here?
A: We will take the design to the Public Design Commission (PDC). Then there will be the post-design and procurement phases. So, maybe construction begins in summer 2027.
East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) Construction Updates
Lead has been found during soil testing in Project Area 1. The contaminated soil is being safely stored. No exposure to nearby residents.
There are laws around community notifications of lead discovery if lead amounts pass a certain threshold during testing
On Sunday November 16th, FDR will be closed for 10 hours to remove the Corlears Hook temporary bridge
The old Fireboat house still exists in East River Park. It is going through federal Section 106 historical review.
Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience (BMCR) Updates
Q: Could there be more collaboration with Con Edison on parallel conveyance (sewage) construction? Con Edison is also doing construction nearby, so it feels pretty disruptive to residents
Q: What is the vision for Pier 35? It is pretty run down and recently the swings there were removed.