Paths to Pier

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / FEATURE five boroughs—the waterfront Based on a robust community engaged while building resources remains marked by warehouses visioning process and an and momentum during the and brownfields (figure 2). There independent financial review multiyear campaign for the is a bike and pedestrian path of both plans by Pratt Institute, People’s Plan. along the waterfront, but LES the People’s Plan would offer residents must brave notoriously amenities such as open- The story of the P2P42 project dangerous underpasses beneath space parks, greenways, public illustrates an innovative approach FDR Drive to reach it. restrooms, a community center, an to community-driven urban change in a very strong market economy, where the speed of development is often too fast for residents to contribute. It also sheds light on the challenges and opportunities of implementing biophilic urbanism in lower- income communities. Mapping the Lower East Side Figure 1: Rest Stop, by Interboro Partners Photo Credit: Hester Street Collaborative As with many neighborhoods, the boundaries of the LES can be fluid and overlapping. For the Paths to Pier 42: purposes of the P2P42 project, the LES includes the East Village, The Challenges of Making Biophilia Equitable in New York City Chinatown, Little Italy, and By Barbara Brown Wilson the Bowery (figure 3). The LES is home to more than 75,000 people, 18 percent of whom are We’ve been totally ignored. If you walk to South Street [ (Waterfront Park) ], it looks like a piece of junkyard. Figure 2: Pier 42 Location Map under the age of 20. Almost 40 They did fix it a little bit and they put some exercise bars and things like that, but still, nothing compared to Photo Credit: Kevan Klosterwill percent of residents are Latino, when you see what residents have on the West side. My neighbors go to the West side to use the parks there, but 25 percent Asian, 22 percent they have to pay for the bus. And so, when they did the People’s Plan for the East River Waterfront they started Beginning in 2005, LES residents inlet and river pool, and space white, and 9 percent black, talking about ways to stop the flooding naturally while also giving us access to the water. And I said, “Okay, now sought to influence the for environmental education and according to census data. Roughly we’re talking.” redevelopment of the waterfront community gardens. The City was a third of families live below the through a combination of receptive to the People’s Plan but poverty line and pay less than —Aixa Torres, President of Alfred E. Smith Resident Association grassroots organizing and social noted that it would take years $500 per month in rent. Almost practice art in a temporary park. to raise the money and political a third are foreign born. Within The Lower East Side (LES) of Historic Preservation designated Across the East River from The effort began in response to support necessary to fully walking distance of the Pier, the Manhattan is known for its rich, the LES one of America’s Most the LES, Brooklyn Bridge Park a waterfront-redevelopment plan implement it. population is approximately 40 cultural fabric and beautiful, Endangered Places in 2008. boasts a roller-skating rink, an put forth by the NYC Economic percent Asian and more than 40 historic streetscapes. It includes educational center, a swimming Development Corporation (EDC), In the interim, a network of percent foreign born. distinctive enclaves, such as Despite the development pool, and a barge-music venue, which featured high-end lofts community organizations joined the East Village, Alphabet City, interests pressing upon it, the among other amenities. These and shops that would not suit with arts and design-focused These residents live in an Chinatown, the Bowery, and Little LES waterfront continues to beautiful parks serve as physical the needs of existing residents. groups to create the Paths environment shaped by a legacy Italy. But this vibrant community, lag behind most of Manhattan reminders of the lack of services Feeling completely ignored by to Pier 42 (P2P42) project—a of displacement. Originally which is home to many in terms of public amenities. In throughout the LES. the EDC plan, a coalition of LES temporary park with art and occupied by the Lenape tribe, immigrants and lower-income Battery Park, a wealthy enclave community organizers, residents, design installations created by the seventeenth century, the households, has become a target across Manhattan to the west, Near Pier 42 on the LES—which and designers came up with a by commissioned artists, in LES was home to several farms, of real estate developers. The you’ll find beautiful flower also happens to be where the “People’s Plan” for the East River collaboration with community later subdivided to form the stressors of gentrification are so gardens, countless sculptures, largest percentage of public Waterfront. residents. The project was neighborhood’s major street strong that the National Trust for and an aquatic-themed carousel. housing abuts a waterfront in all developed to keep residents 16 BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | MARCH 2019 | 17 The brownfield site was flooded about local recovery needs. could be built, and the influx of large-scale efforts, including and became even less welcoming new, outside interests hoping to signage, shading, plant life, and than before. LES residents As federal, state, and private contribute to the future vision for reclaimed water sources. They suffered great hardship: In the funding flowed into Manhattan Manhattan’s waterfront put the included the Rest Stop project, high-rise public housing across after Sandy, many alternative community-driven plan at risk of designed and built by Interboro the street from the Pier, power redevelopment agendas for appropriation. Partners, which created custom was off for weeks after a flooded the area emerged. LES Ready! planter/benches from recycled substation exploded. Residents, community organizers worked The temporary park project lumber to temporarily hold many with limited mobility, in collaboration, and with spanned three years and included saplings that replaced those lost lived without air conditioning renewed momentum, to maintain a series of temporary, creative during Superstorm Sandy (figure or functional elevators. And the community’s vision of the installations. Year one focused 1). The trees were later replanted local small businesses, including waterfront. But the People’s on turning the patches of uneven at nearby public housing community grocers, also closed— Plan for the park still required concrete into a usable park. These properties. some never to return—resulting significant fundraising before it early installations tended to be in a long-term amenity loss, as well as profound short-term difficulty. The P2P42 network responded Figure 3: Pier 42 Project Map Photo Credit: Kevan Klosterwill by using project events as a platform for local groups to grids. The area around Rutgers creation of the People’s Plan for share information and produce Farm and other areas adjacent to the East River waterfront became community-based art that the East River became the site of the foundation for the P2P42 helped residents to process their much waterfront and industrial project network (figure 4). emotions at each stage of the development, including piers, recovery process. The community slips, warehouses, and factories. After the People’s Plan organizing legacy of the LES This set the LES on a trajectory was released, the coalition provided a civic infrastructure of urban development that successfully advocated to transfer on which it could rely during continues today. control of Pier 42 to the NYC the Sandy recovery process. Parks Department, and the These social networks helped The LES has a strong civic project was awarded $14 million LES residents increase their infrastructure, with long-standing from the Lower Manhattan adaptive capacity to post-storm community organizations and Development Corporation to stressors, and the community tenant associations that take on jumpstart reconstruction. But, demonstrated a greater ability to new forms as new challenges as Hester Street Collaborative’s mobilize broadly and collectively emerge. These include the former design director Dylan around resilience needs in Henry Street Settlement and the House explained: “$14 million Sandy’s aftermath. For instance, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent is just the tip of the iceberg in the neighborhood quickly formed Association, which have been terms of the overall budget of the Lower East Side Long Term present in the community since what a capital project for the Recovery Group (LES Ready!) after the late 1800s. This strong civic waterfront would be. It’s more Sandy, an open coalition meant infrastructure can be seen in the like a $90 million project. So how to “cooperatively coordinate P2P42 network, and also in the do we keep people involved, raise response, resources, preparedness People’s Plan that inspired P2P42. awareness about this site and planning and training in response build community ownership of it?” to Superstorm Sandy and in the A Temporary Park with Long-Term event of future disasters.” This Goals With these questions in mind, the group of organizations used P2P42 project was launched, but P2P42 as a venue to educate The relationships that drove the just weeks before Superstorm the neighborhood on available Figure 4: Paths to Pier 42 Network Map Sandy hit the New York region. services, as well as to gather data Photo Credit: Kevan Klosterwill 18 BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | MARCH 2019 | 19 As the temporary park made the Placemaking adaptive reuse of seemingly asking what the design should first three-year project, the city http://lesready.org. space more hospitable, there or Placekeeping? uninviting infrastructure, to the look like, I wish we’d asked, ‘What asked the Good Old Lower East were additional opportunities experimental closure of portions can we do for you?’ People have Side (GOLES), the community Litvak, Ed (Aug.

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