The East River Ferry (via nycedc.tumblr.com)

The closure of the flooded subway system frustrated commuters earlier this month but it was a godsend for the East River Ferry.

Over 7,400 commuters crowded into the boats on Nov. 1, a number more than double the average ridership for the season. The weekend saw heavy ridership numbers as well, with 5,000 on Nov. 3, 3,000 on Nov. 4, and more than 7,700 people on Tuesday, Nov. 6, one of the highest totals of the year. When the L train returned on Friday, Nov. 9, some 3,200 people rode the ferry over the East River, an average figure for this time of year.

Ferry officials say that the high figures show the service is a necessary transit alternative for the city. “The return of the East River Ferry service was a significant step in providing a quick and safe transit option for commuters heading back to work in the wake of Hurricane Sandy,” said Paul Goodman, CEO of Billybey Ferry Company.

To read more New York political coverage, visit cityandstateny.com.

By Paul Bisceglio

Memorial Sloan-Kettering counsel Shelly Friedman frustrated the Upper East Side’s Community Board 8 at its full-board meeting last Wednesday, Nov. 14, by refusing to hold a second public hearing on the environmental impact of the recently announced medical center construction project on East 73rd Street.

The project, a $215 million real estate deal between the renowned cancer treatment center, Hunter College and the city, will add two new facilities on a lot by the East River: a 750,000-square-foot outpatient cancer care building and a 336,000-square-foot science and health professions school.
Following the deal’s confirmation in September, the project entered a public feedback—or “scoping”—period, during which anyone with concerns about the project’s effects on the surrounding Upper East Side neighborhoods could share their thoughts with the parties involved. Included in the process was a hearing during which residents could speak directly with Friedman and other MSK and Hunter College representatives. The hearing, though, was held on Nov. 1, three days after Hurricane Sandy.

“I am outraged. It’s not even a sham of a mockery,” said Ed Hartzog, a CB8 member, of Friedman’s refusal to entertain the notion of a second meeting after almost no one attended the first. “You had a public hearing, the public wasn’t informed. You are shoving this process forward without any public input.”

Friedman disagreed. The public was well-informed of the hearing, he claimed: It was announced weeks in advance in accordance with scoping rules, and an e-mail went out shortly before the meeting to confirm that it was still on. “The sense was that the city had sufficiently returned to normal,” Friedman said. “There was a sense that buildings were available. This wasn’t like a snowstorm in which people couldn’t navigate the streets. It was terrible, but people were out in the streets, stores were open, transportation was available. There was no reason to put it off.”

He noted that the scoping period had been for comments after the storm.

“Scoping hearings,” he added, “do not conduct themselves according to the Community Board’s rules.”

Board members contended that they were not arguing for rules, but principles. “Forgetting about whether there has to be a second meeting or not, the point is that this is a project in which you claimed to be a good neighbor and part of the community,” said board member A. Scott Falk. “When in doubt, err on the side of openness. You’re expecting us to approve several variances. All we’re asking you to do is hold a second meeting. This is not about what you have to do, this is about what you should do and could do.”

Friedman shot back that holding another meeting would be useless, because the scoping period was still open and the public could still share their concerns. “These hearings aren’t for people to come and get information,” he explained. “The whole concept of the scoping hearing is that there’s material online, and if you have a comment about what’s online, you can come in, you can write, you can telephone, you can e-mail, you can do whatever you want to submit your comments. The hearing is not the be-all, end-all of the scoping process. … Nothing in that process has been compromised.”

CB8 was not convinced. Following the discussion, they voted to pass a motion that requested a second hearing and a further extension of the comment period.

This was not the first time Upper East Side residents questioned MSK’s neighborly character. Earlier this year, co-op residents in a building next to MSK’s outpatient surgery facility at York Avenue and East 61st Street protested renovations to the facility that would block their building’s windows. MSK rejected their requests for a less bulky design.

Like the rest of New York, Gov. Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn have now become acutely aware that there is a new normal: climate change, extreme weather events and crumbling infrastructure must inform every public policy decision made about our city.

We must now revisit the mayor and Speaker Quinn’s mistaken decision to site a marine transfer station (for those who prefer less euphemistic language, it’s actually a garbage dump) in an Upper East Side residential neighborhood, right off the East River and next to one of the largest athletic facilities for children in the country.

Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn must finally see their folly—like the Mayor finally did on the scheduled marathon recently—and immediately cancel this garbage dump that will threaten New Yorkers’ health. Perhaps most poignantly, this marine transfer station will potentially hurt the area’s many poor residents and the thousands of children who could be exposed to carcinogens, hazardous air pollutants and the potential for contaminated water flooding off the East River during a future extreme weather event.

Obviously, recent events affecting the East River highlight the enormous risk in locating a garbage station on the far east end of 91st Street. The proposed site is located in a hurricane flood zone that has been classified “A” by the City’s Office of Emergency Management. The FDR Drive, which is adjacent to the East 91st Street site, has flooded more than six times in the past four years, causing temporary closures.

Flooding of the garbage station or the barges carrying garbage from the facility could contaminate the East River and nearby residential neighborhoods. During Hurricane Sandy, sewage, bacteria, gasoline and debris contaminated New York City’s waterways, threatening human health. River water containing this contamination flowed down residential streets from the FDR Drive to York Avenue. In addition, Asphalt Green’s facilities suffered water damage from the hurricane, and the defunct garbage station, which is over the East River, is likely to have suffered damage as well.

We could go on to cite many statistics and reasons to stop this stinky plan. Here’s just a few: There are 2,200 public housing residents who live nearby and will be put at risk. As will the 40,000 children who use Asphalt Green and will be exposed to the 2,000 garbage trucks and their diesel fuel emissions and pollutants 24/6.

But this plan is so wrong—especially in the wake of Hurricane Sandy—that we will not waste more paper and ink today explaining why the Mayor and Speaker Quinn must halt this plan now.

If there is not a halt to this folly, Our Town plans to keep this issue on our front page and our news pages consistently in the coming months until we get the attention from Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn and a reversal of this plan. If you agree with us on this, please send a brief letter to us at editorial@manhattanmedia.com and we will present these to the mayor’s and speaker’s offices and we will publish many of these letters in our paper and on our website in the coming weeks.

It’s one thing to acknowledge the reality of climate change and endorse a presidential candidate because of that, but it’s an even more important thing to realize that because of the new normal, the plan to site a garbage dump in the middle of Hurricane Zone A is dangerous and wrong.

Mayor Bloomberg: listen to your better angels like you did recently on the Marathon. STOP the 91st Street Marine Transfer Station.

Our kids—and our city’s health—depend on your decision.

The existing East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station was shut down in 1999.

Opponents of the recently approved East 91st Street Waste Transfer Station have a new weapon in their ongoing battle against the 10-story, $240 million project: Hurricane Sandy. The flooding that surged from the East River all the way to Second Avenue between 91st and 96th streets during the Oct. 29 storm, they argue, provides tangible evidence that the station could do more harm than good.

According to Assemblyman Micah Kellner, in light of the storm, the transfer station’s susceptibility to flooding “is no longer a theory, it’s a reality.” Kellner partnered with various Upper East Side advocacy groups in June to file suit against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city Department of Sanitation and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to prevent the station’s construction on a small piece of land that juts out into the East River at the east end of East 91st Street, beyond FDR Drive. Kellner’s concern is the environmental impact on the homes and parks surrounding the approved site, and he told Our Town that floodwater from a storm of Sandy’s proportions could push trash deep into the Upper East Side and cause severe pollution.

Asbjorn Finsnes, the executive director of Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, a volunteer advocacy group that partnered with Kellner in filing the lawsuit, agreed. “Imagine all the toxic materials that would flow into the streets,” he said. “All these chemicals would flow in and pollute the community.” Additionally, he said, garbage would spill into the East River.

The transfer station proposal was originally passed as part of the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan in 2006. The overhaul of the city’s waste management was intended to reduce garbage-truck emissions and street traffic by allowing more trash to be moved by barges, a point that proponents reference when arguing in favor of the new station at East 91st Street. The proposal also passed muster with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which evaluated the infrastructure and potential changes to the East River environment, though not without falling under criticism from the likes of Rep. Carolyn Maloney for not taking the full impact into account. The potential to reduce overall pollution and the purported state-of-the-art technology that will go into the new station have led some politicians in favor of it to take opponents’ environmental objections with a grain of salt. Though the station may increase garbage-truck traffic—and could conceivably decrease the property values for homes—in Yorkville, proponents of the station such as Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito argue that locals need to bear their share of the burden of waste management.

Finsnes and Kellner argue, though, that the station’s expected benefits of course presume that the station would not be ruined in a storm—and after Sandy, they say, there is no guarantee of that.

“I’m not sure that there can be reliable predictions about flooding when the flood of the century comes every 16 months now,” Kellner said. “The old standards can’t apply. They clearly don’t protect community.”

He referenced an oil spill at 200 East End Avenue and flooding at 535 E. 78th St., consequences of the storm that were not anticipated. “There were effects that no one saw coming,” he said.

Finsnes, too, said the storm revealed faults in the transfer station’s design, such as its intended 6-inch elevation above the city’s 100-year flood level. “The whole plan is already outdated before it is implemented,” he asserted, citing climate change—and consequent raised sea levels and more frequent storms—as a confounding variable the plan failed to factor in.

“This is not NIMBY [not in my backyard],” Finsnes said. “This is about what’s right and wrong.”

Homes in Zone A weren’t the only places affected by flooding at the height of Hurricane Sandy. An Upper East Side apartment building in Zone C also flooded Monday night.

In the aftermath, residents of 555 East 78th Street were evacuating after about five feet of floodwater surged into the building around 8:30 p.m., creating a chaotic scene, according to neighbors who hurried past with their belongings in trash bags.

A building on East 78th Street faced unexpected flooding. Photo by Meredith Rosenberg.

Barry Skipp, 30, was one of the residents directly impacted. His apartment faces the FDR and East River, and is also just off the lobby. He recalled watching the water surging over the highway around 8 p.m. “I started trying to prepare my windows as best I could, I duct taped them, I had towels there,” he said.

Skipp said the water started to breach his windows around 8:30 p.m.

“I tried to stop it and then it just came to a point where it flowed so much, the whole place flooded, and the entire lobby was flooded up until first landing step,” he said. “I grabbed what I could and I ran out.”

Skipp pushed open his door as far as it would go and revealed the damage the floodwaters left behind.

“If you look there’s a stool in my apartment. That’s not mine,” he said, noting he didn’t have homeowners’ insurance. “My wall got breached and my neighbor’s stuff came into my apartment, and I assume vice versa. I don’t even know what’s what anymore.”

Gerry Sirio, 44, is one of the building’s doormen. He was working last night when the flooding started. Standing in front of the building, he pointed out how the water entered through air conditioning vents below windows. Sandbags that had been placed in front of apartments facing FDR and the East River did nothing to stop the flow.

At first, the water was only a couple inches, Sirio said, so he simply pushed it back with a broom. “But then the river was right inside the building. We couldn’t do nothing anymore,” he said. “The first apartment, LK, was destroyed completely,” said Sirio, referring to the apartment closest to the lobby. He said many of the apartments on the first floor were also flooded.

Around 9 p.m., a power transformer on the block exploded, Sirio said, and neighbors described the panic of evacuating flooded apartments in the dark. The power has yet to be restored.

“It was worse here then Battery Park because I was watching CNN, and they said it just breached the walls. It breached the walls 30 minutes ago up here,” said Skipp, who didn’t think of evacuating because the building is located in Zone C.

“We didn’t expect this,” said Sirio. “I know a guy who’s lived here more than 30 years, and he said nothing like this ever happened.”

Both Skipp and Sirio agree that going forward, areas closest to the East River on the Upper East Side should be changed to Zone A.

By early afternoon, building maintenance had pumped out the floodwater, but the cleanup was far from over.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

More than 1 million people have ridden East River ferries since the service began just over a year ago, Mayor Bloomberg announced today.

Bloomberg said this number far exceeds ridership projections, according to the Huffington Post. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn rode the ferry from North Williamsburg to Lower Manhattan to celebrate the occasion.

The Post reports the ferries, which quickly transport people to businesses and parks, are not just for tourists. City locals are also partaking in ferry transportation.

“Using our waterways as transportation corridors makes for a greener and more livable city and knits together rapidly growing neighborhoods in new ways,” Bloomberg said in a statement. The Mayor called it an alternative for people looking for ways to get around the city, and the massive ridership supports this transportation alternative’s popularity.

“Surpassing the one-million milestone is a testament to how popular our service has been with commuters, tourists and leisure travelers in the first year,” said Paul Goodman, CEO of BillyBey Ferry Company.

On weekdays, the ferries, which accommodate 149 passengers, run from 6:45 a.m. until 8:45 p.m. in both directions. Numerous groups are working hard to acquire feedback and provide even more improvements to the ferries.

One-way fare is $4, while a monthly pass goes for $140. Scenic beauty that doesn’t involve dark, cramped tunnels is, of course, priceless.

—Alissa Fleck 

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

A fire that broke out at the South Street Seaport on Saturday was caused by faulty electrical wiring, reports the Huffington Post. 

The fire started under Pier 17 and grew to engulf about 100 square feet, but was tamed in under two hours. Pictures of the blaze show onlookers photographing and gawking at immense clouds of black smoke over Lower Manhattan.

The fire could have been building under the dock for some time, according to the New York Times.

Fire Department spokesman Jim Long called the fire an averted disaster in the tourist-heavy area—no one was hurt and no shops were damaged. The pier was opened back up to activity Saturday evening, including a planned Seaport music festival.

Fire marshals looked into any possible structural damage on Sunday, reports the Huffington Post. Parts of the pier will remain closed for some time as stability in the area is assessed.

—Alissa Fleck

Still far from a continuous bikeway and walkway along the East River

“You’re better off on the West Side.”

The man in the bike shop wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, but since it had been a few years since I had ventured over to Manhattan’s East Side to ride what purports to be a riverside bike path, I figured there might be a good place to get on in the 20s, 30s or 40s.

There isn’t.

I found myself riding into the same unscenic dead ends that I used to whenever I had the urge to give the East River waterfront another try. Until I backtracked at East 35th Street and headed back to ride with the traffic last weekend, it took mere minutes to see several groups of riders forced to do the same thing.

One was a family of six German tourists, ranging in age from about 12 to 70. The father said biking in Germany was “very better.” Looking at the cars whizzing by us on the foreboding FDR Drive, he added, “New York—you can’t ride bikes, you ride cars. Germany, everyone rides bikes.” I might have explored the irony of the country’s apparent aversion to cars in light of the autobahn and Mercedes-Benz, but he had to catch up to his family, and his English probably was not up to it.

The sorry state of affairs on the East Side affects more than just bikers. People who like to stroll, jog and sunbathe would benefit from a better waterfront, as would lots of others. But however big the group of beneficiaries is, they do not make a good argument for government investment in park space during tough economic times. You have to balance it against more pressing needs such as public safety, maintaining infrastructure and education.

Squishy, tree-hugger-type arguments can never survive in austere times, but what should hold up and seldom does is the notion that parks are actually smart economic development investments. Just look at real estate prices around Central Park, Hudson River Park and even the High Line, which surprisingly, has helped spawn luxury buildings even though park visitors generate noise and get close-up views into some of the homes.

The elevated FDR hovers over and haunts the East Side waterfront, making it difficult to make improvements. Civitas, an Upper East Side nonprofit, recently organized an international design competition to “reimagine” the waterfront from East 60th to 125th streets. (The group looked at the more problematic area below 60th Street a year ago.) Most of the top designs, now on display at the Museum of the City of New York, proposed expanding the land out in the river to create enough space for real parks.

It’s easy to dismiss these design competitions as folly, but as an editor who has seen way more than my share of pretty pictures of things that will never be built—at the World Trade Center and elsewhere in Lower Manhattan—I know these efforts can be the first step to making progress eventually.

After the pictures, what you need are savvy advocates, powerful government supporters and large public use. Significant park construction did not begin on Hudson River Park or Governors Island until many people started going there to see how good they were and how great they could be.

Let the East River imagination continue. In the meantime, how about better signs to avoid the dead ends?

Ticket holders may have been skeptical when a last-minute change of location was announced last Tuesday. The show was originally supposed to take place at the Brooklyn Terminal Project, a brand new venue located on the waterfront across Governor’s Island, but organizers had to operate a last minute switch. No one however seemed too disappointed upon entering the Beekman Beach Club, a lovely slice of boardwalk located directly on the East River.

Seemingly unaffected by the occasional rain, ravers and ragers were already waiting in line at 4pm, the show’s official kick-off time. Those ‘early’ birds were able to enjoy pounding electro sets by Djs Sazon Booya, Nick Catchdubs and Alex English, while playing fussball or chilling on the sand. An impressive amount of colorful sunglasses, skimpy bikinis and fruity cocktails achieved to make the event feel like a true Californian beach party.

As the sun began to set, the night took a whole new turn and madness descended upon the crowd. Knife Party’s Aussies hit the decks around 9pm, and fans immediately left sand and sun behind, flocking towards the main tent to see the duo perform. Highly anticipated Knife Party did not disappoint, delivering a two hour set best described as a mix of heavy electro, grinding drum’n'bass and very, very angry dubstep. Meanwhile, hundreds of kids seemed to let go of all their inhibitions and entered into a raging party trance, the likes of which South Street Seaport has probably never seen.

While Knife Party’s Rob Swire and Gareth MacGrillan were busy raining down hellfire on masses of shell-shocked ravers, logistical problems due to the last minute change in location started to shine through. The main entrance quickly turned into a monstrous traffic jam, as only a narrow corridor multitasked as pathway to the show, the bar and the restroom. For over two hours, getting a beer involved risking one’s life fighting off dozens of thirsty, fist-pumping ravers, and reaching the bathroom became a trial comparable to Ulysses’ Odyssey.

Knife Party, who were mainly here to promote their latest 4 tracks E.P Rage Valley, delivered as promised. For the span of one afternoon, Manhattan’s South Street Seaport truly turned into a Rage Valley of sort, an epic summer rave in the heart of the city. The set ended at 11pm, leaving Brooklyn Dj Hellfire Machina the honor to finish off the remaining die-hard dubstep addicts. And finish them off he did, spinning a brutal and chaotic set that seemed to have been designed for one thing and one thing only: to put us all out of our misery.

Despite a few minor hiccups due to the change in venue, Sunday’s Knife Party did achieve its primary objective, to make us dance until we drop. Ravers went home that night with barely enough energy to sustain the smile on their faces, but ready to go again next weekend. New York will dance to the sound of dubstep this summer. You have been warned.

Article by Laurent Berstecher

First Place / Joseph WoodSecond Place / Takuma Ono & Darina Zlateva

Elaborate designs for East Side Esplanade now on display in museum exhibit

By Rebecca Harris

The shabby state of Manhattan’s East River esplanade, crumbling in age and plagued by awkwardly configured spaces, minimal amenities and deterioration due to a general lack of upkeep, has been a source of displeasure among East Siders for years.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin said her office receives frequent calls from residents of East Harlem and the Upper East Side complaining about the conditions of the waterfront, a continuous stretch of parkland that spans the area from about 60th Street up to 125th.

“Many of us on the East Side have been very jealous, for a long time, of what West Siders have to take advantage of when it comes to their waterfront parks,” Lappin said.

Now, city officials and community advocates have begun soliciting feedback in their mission to craft a vision for more ambitious improvement of the aesthetically sorry esplanade.

Architects from around the world are weighing in with novel, elaborate ideas for revitalizing the area. Canals weaving inland, intertwining with Manhattan’s city grid; a network of modern boardwalks spiking out into the water off the shoreline; ecologically advanced irrigation systems and dramatic landscaping are just a few examples of design proposals put forth by the winners of a recent ideas competition.

CIVITAS, a nonprofit organization that works to improve urban planning and land use policies on the Upper East Side and East Harlem, launched the contest in fall 2010, encouraging architects from around the world to submit proposals for development of the esplanade. The competition drew 90 submissions, with architects entering from 24 countries.

“We looked at other great spaces in New York City—Hudson River Park, the High Line—how did they get their start? With a comprehensive vision coming from their community with an ideas competition,” said Hunter Armstrong, Executive Director of CIVITAS.

Last night, the Museum of the City of New York unveiled an exhibition showcasing the winning designs of the ideas competition. The Reimagining the Waterfront exhibit, which opened to the public today, showcases the entries of the contest’s three winners and five honorable mentions. The designs will be on display at the museum until October 28.

First-place winner Joseph Wood, an architecture graduate student at Syracuse University, proposed extending the boundaries of the waterfront inland via canals to integrate Upper East Side and East Harlem neighborhoods adjacent to the river.

“I think different from the other projects, my idea was the thought of pulling the water into the city, bringing the waterfront to the people,” said Wood, who added that he, like many of the winners, had not actually visited the esplanade while crafting his ambitious design.

Takumo Ono and Darina Zlateva of New York City, and Matteo Rossetti of Italy, won second and third place, respectively. Runners up hailed from Virginia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Spain and Italy.

The eight proposals featured in the exhibit were chosen by a panel of judges including six architects, an attorney and William Castro, Manhattan Borough Commissioner for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Though an important step in community efforts to clean up the East Side waterfront, submissions to the ideas competition were not restricted by financial feasibility or zoning requirements. Armstrong noted that the winning designs would not necessarily be implemented in future development of the esplanade, but were rather meant to inspire community members to give feedback and to invest in the improvement of the area.

“We wish there were major dollars at the end of this to implement some of these designs, but obviously work is needed to build that political and community support. This was a creative process to…pool in the community, constituents, and stakeholders and get them to start thinking about the future of the park,” he said.