Feed

Greensward

By Stephen Jacob Smith 11:31am

Greensward

Just imagine the dim-sum dumplings!

QueensWay: New York City’s Most Controversial Potential Park

Parks: what’s there not to dislike?

A group of parks activists in Queens have been pushing “QueensWay,” a linear park that would be built atop the old Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in the central and southern parts of the borough. As New York Times opinion writer Eleanor Randolph put it in her pro-QueensWay piece, it “has no celebrity patrons, no Diane von Furstenberg, no Barry Diller, no big-name donors to give enough seed money to turn the park into a fashion statement.”

But with a High Line-like makeover, she wrote, “QueensWay would offer both a walkway and a bike path. There could be small shops or stands featuring cheese guava buns, dim sum dumplings, pani puri or yam fufu.” Read More

By Kim Velsey 2/26 4:51pm

Greensward

Pier 41, in better times. (NYPL)

Not Quite a Continuous Ribbon Of Green Yet, But a Chunk of Pier 42 Will Open This Spring

The abandoned banana warehouse on Pier 42 isn’t going anywhere in the coming months, nor is the parking lot stretching out in front of it, but New Yorkers will be able to get a little closer to the East River starting May 4. A piece of Pier 42—about a third of the total footprint—will be open to the public for the first time ever.

The Lower East Side pier and its decaying banana warehouse are slated for better, greener things—namely, a $16 million makeover whose appearance has yet to be decided by the public and Mathews Nielson landscape architects.

But State Senator Daniel Squadron and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, who secured the funding for the redevelopment, have described the future park as being the missing section needed to create “a continuous green ribbon around Lower Manhattan, connecting the East and West Sides and providing the Lower East Side and Chinatown communities with much-needed open space.” Read More

By Kim Velsey 11/06/12 6:57pm

Greensward

You'd better get your fill of Central Park's Great Lawn on Wednesday morning.

Fearing Nor’easter, New York City Parks Will Close Again

New Yorkers have had four whole days to enjoy the city’s parks system after days trapped inside during Hurricane Sandy. We hope that was enough time to fully recover from cabin fever, because the parks department has announced that it is closing all city parks tomorrow at noon.

Worried that the approaching Nor’easter will knock down precarious branches, the Parks Department has decided to shut the public out of the parks until Thursday, Nov. 8 at noon. Of course, if the storm leaves extensive damage to the already branch and leaf-strewn parks, that re-opening time might get pushed back. Read More

By Kim Velsey 11/02/12 9:04am

Greensward

Tree damage in Prospect Park. (Prospect Park Alliance)

Nature-Deprived Scofflaws Ignore Closures for a Walk In the Park

On Sunday, it was fun to settle in at home with popcorn and movies. On Monday, the hurricane hit, a frightening and fraught time. On Tuesday, the city took stock of the devastation. On Wednesday, well, Wednesday was the beginning of many frustrations: frustrations with ongoing power outages, frustrations with being cooped up for yet another day, frustrations with working from home, school cancellations extending through the end of the week, and the difficulty of borough-to-borough travel.

In the midst of these frustrations, the many islands of green scattered across the five boroughs started to seem very, very tempting. A tantalizing emerald escape from stuffy apartments, boredom and the tedium of days stretching ahead. The only problem is that New York City parks are closed, for fear of falling branches and dangerous debris, until at least Saturday morning. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/25/12 8:30am

Greensward

Screen Shot 2012-10-25 at 8.38.36 AM

El Barrio’s Secret Gardens: East Harlem Has Some Unexpected Parks, But It Still Needs Better Ones

Standing at the corner of 125th Street and 2nd Avenue, no one would ever guess that this was the gateway to one of East Harlem’s greatest open space assets. Even on a warm fall day, with the sun shining on the intersection, it is an inhospitable place for man or beast. Sedans, delivery trucks, minivans, gypsy cabs, 18-wheelers, what seems like half the vehicles in Manhattan rush by, honking and screeching, onto the Triborough Bridge. There is no signage, no walkways, no foliage directing—certainly not inviting—pedestrians across the bridge and onto Randalls Island.

The 265-acre landmass nestled between the South Bronx, East Harlem and Astoria is a wonderland of ball fields, tennis courts, venues, picnic areas and rolling lawns. It is, after the just-as-close, just-as-far northern end of Central Park, about the best parkland available to residents of East Harlem. Yet geographic and, more importantly, infrastructural impediments have made Randalls Island all but inaccessible for a low-income community desperately in need of open space.

“Just look at this tangle of roads,” Alyson Beha, director of research planning and policy for New Yorkers for Parks, said during a recent tour of East Harlem’s open space. “There are these large recreational facilities that border East Harlem, but it can be very difficult in terms of people being able to access them. We’ve got some real wayfinding issues.” Read More

By Kit Dillon 3:22pm

Greensward

Everybody say "Promenade." (Spencer Tucker/Mayor's Office)

Olmsted Redux: Prospect Park Looks to Its Future by Restoring Its Past

In 1867, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed a formal concert area in Prospect Park and called it Music Island. It stood as a curved arena of grass around a central island where musicians would disembark from row boats to play for an expectant and enthralled audience. It was beautiful, stunning—and broken. Nobody could hear a thing.

Nearly a hundred years later, Robert Moses, would use most of the granite and iron of the surrounding esplanade as landfill when he paved over, as was his want, the pastoral and put up the practical in the form of the still popular Wollman Rink. The funds for which had been a gift by the same eponymous philanthropic family.

And now, thanks to another different wealthy family, we’re just about done putting the crazy thing back together again.  It’s a topsy-turvy world this philanthropy game. One, that has the rich keeping everyone on their toes and, at least temporarily, off the ice. The new indoor-outdoor rink is still under construction. And naturally one of the city’s wealthiest was there today to cut the ribbon. Read More

By Kit Dillon 10/01/12 5:30pm

Greensward

Pier 42.

Day-O! Squadron and Schumer Go Bananas for Pier 42

The final piece in the continuous green ribbon that has wound its way around the Lower East Side is one step closer to realization with the imminent rehabilitation of Pier 42. A once lonely pier that, along with it’s now empty behemoth of a banana warehouse, that is slated to become a waterfront park after $14 million of work.

The pier was toured yesterday by an excited State Senator Daniel Squadron and William Castro, the Manhattan Borough Commissioner of the Parks Department. Read More

By Alice Riley-Smith 9/17/12 2:44pm

Greensward

16 Photos

Lowdown on the Low Line

Inside the Low Line, Adrian Grenier’s New Favorite Hang Out

The launch of the Low Line exhibit last week previewed the potential of life in subterranean Manhattan. Here we take a look inside the surreal scenes of an underground park, fed by light from fancy new solar technology, and then hang out at as a special benefit held on Thursday night to promote the dream park. Among the guests? None other than Entourage star Adrian Grenier. Now that it’s drawing some star power, it looks like the Low Line might be able to rock some of that High Line magic all the way to reality. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/11/12 3:41pm

Greensward

5 Photos

Open Space, Now Transmitting in Greenpoint

At Transmitter Park Opening, New Commissioner Veronica White Prefers Ribbon Cutting to Information Sharing

Big, fluffy Bob Ross clouds hung over the Manhattan skyline yesterday afternoon, in full view from one of the best vantage points in the city to view them: Greenpoint’s new Transmitter Park. Almost perfectly parallel with the Empire State Building, the park provides an unparalleled panorama of Midtown and the rest of Manhattan.

Mayor Bloomberg and his Parks Commissioner Veronica White had crossed the river not only to take in the scene but also cut the ribbon on the 1.6-acre, $12 million project. It was Ms. White‘s first official public appearance after replacing Adrian Benepe, who had been in the job since 2001. It was her coming out, if a quiet one, with limited fanfare and few workers. Just another day on the job.

“Our administration has been revitalizing old infrastructure and recasting it in new ways that makes sense for New Yorkers today,” the mayor said proudly, pointing to the success of other projects like the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park as well.

But unlike those open space developments, heralded the world over, the waterfront of Williamsburg and Greenpoint has long languished. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/28/12 10:24am

Greensward

Little help? (agent j loves nyc/Flickr)

Douglas Durst Wants to Put Lofts for Techies and Galleries in Pier 40 to Keep It Afloat

The problems of Pier 40 are well documented by now. Once the golden goose of Hudson River Park, the pier is now so deteriorated, it costs more to maintain than it earns for the libertarian park. In two years, the pier might have to be shut down all together. With hopes of MLS soccer headed to Queens instead and a housing proposal on the rocks, what’s a park to do?

Well, it looks like Douglas Durst to the rescue. Read More