By Matt Chaban 12/18/12 7:53pm

on the waterfront

pier 40 - david shankbone

Parks and Wreck: The Fight for Pier 40 and the Myth of Public Parks

When Sandy swept into the town almost two months ago, Hudson River Park—as its name might suggest—was among the places inundated by the swelling sea under more than a dozen feet of water.

The surge washed over the historic piers and brand-new lawns, filling skate parks, swamping ball fields, submerging mini golf holes and surrounding the merry-go-round. Yet much of the park, in the traditional sense, came through fine.”I think we lost only five trees and a few plants,” Madelyn Wils, president and CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, said at a post-Sandy conference last Thursday.

It was the more manmade features, the development that undergirds the park and pays for its upkeep, that struggled to weather the storm.“The buildings, however, did not fare quite as well,” Ms. Wils explains. “We’re still without power, because we are on our own grid, and we’ve had to work on our own to restore that.”

This is only the latest, and in some ways the least, of the troubles on the waterfront, where a bitter disagreement between Ms. Wils and the park’s biggest backer, developer Douglas Durst, reveals cracks in the public-private model by which the city’s parks are so often built and maintained these days. These partnerships are both sustainer and straightjacket, leading to the creation of more parks in a generation, but also limited means to keep them up and running. Call them libertarian parks. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/16/12 10:00am

on the waterfront

Adrift. (HRP Trust)

Sinking Pier 40: Durst Leaves Hudson River Park Amid Mutiny Over Its Future

Even before Hurricane Sandy buried it under more than a dozen feet of water, Hudson River Park was struggling to stay afloat.

The past decade had seen substantial progress on the long-planned park, made possible by the demolition of the old West Side Highway (which provided some of the initial funding) and the realization New Yorkers actually wanted to return to the waterfront (which provided the drive). By last year, more than 70 percent of the park had been completed, including many of the piers, transformed from places of work into ones for play, and the generous esplanade connecting them all, running from the Battery all the way up to Riverside Park.

But the grass is not always greener in a new park. Like so many other open spaces created in recent years, Hudson River Park receives limited public funding. Instead, it is expected to generate its own revenue through not only fundraising but also development within the bounds of the park, everything from floating restaurants to parking garages. Everything from rock climbers at Chelsea Piers to the tourists taking Circle Line cruises contributes in its own way.

At one time, Pier 40 was the park’s biggest single source of funds, but increasingly, it has become a drag on the park, and a dispute over its future has led to the departure of one of its biggest backers. Read More

By Megan Costello 6/03/02 12:00am

Community Boards

Is Opposition to Dog Run

Symptom of Larger Problem?

In the wake of Sept. 11, residents of Battery Park City have contended with serious disruptions in their daily lives: damaged buildings, contaminated apartments and the destruction of nearby public-transportation hubs, to name just a few. They’ve had to negotiate rent abatements, residential cleanups and Read More

By Josh Benson 1/07/02 12:00am

The Air Downtown: Tests Call it Clean, But Coughs Abound

The fire where the World Trade Center once stood is extinguished;

the city has erected a viewing platform for the benefit of ground-zero

tourists; and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has already outlined his vision for

a grand monument at the site.

It has become a point of pride for leaders of the city, the Read More

By NYO Staff 4/02/01 12:00am

Oops, They Did It Again! And Carnegie Hill Still Says No

Give Citibank credit for its tenacity. It couldn’t have been easy for its representatives to stand before a packed auditorium at the March 21 meeting of Board 8, trying to convince stone-faced board members and neighbors for the second time that the bank’s proposal to rebuild its Carnegie Hill branch with a residential tower above Read More