HISTORY
The Stuyvesant Cove Park Association (SCPA) grew out of a community effort in the mid-1980s to defeat a plan to build a mega-complex on platforms extending into the East River. The proposed site, formerly a cement plant, was a bleak and uninviting brownfield where Related Companies proposed to build 1,888 luxury residential units, a 245-room hotel, a 200-slip marina, and 220,000 square feet of commercial space, including offices, restaurants, and theaters.
City Reports Accord with Developer for East River Complex, The New York Times, November 4, 1983
A Community Responds
When news of the planned development became known, area residents, fearing they would lose access to the waterfront, rallied against the developments and advocated for much needed green space in the area. Over the next decade, the Citizens United Against Riverwalk (CUAR) movement also argued that the proposed plan would overwhelm the area’s infrastructure and be detrimental to aquatic life in the river.
The plan was finally defeated in 1992, and in 1997 the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) announced a new effort, spearheaded by local elected representatives including the late Senator Roy M. Goodman, former Assembly Member Steven Sanders, and former Council Member Andrew S. Eristoff. Over the next several years, a plan took shape that reflected their input and that of CUAR, Manhattan Community Board 6, and countless concerned area residents.
The Stuyvesant Cove Park Association Forms
With the Riverwalk development no longer a threat, SCPA was established in 1997 to carry the success of CUAR through the next phase and beyond.
A Park Rises
Stuyvesant Cove Park, stretching from 18th Street to 23rd Street along the East River, was dedicated in June 2003 with funding from state, city, and federal sources. Today, it stands as a testament to the strength of community and the power of commitment.
East Side Story, Landscape Architecture, August 2003
More Work to Do
In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy roared into New York City leaving a trail of destruction throughout the region and the city. In Stuyvesant Cove Park, plant beds were destroyed, soil and mulch were washed away, and the performance stage was reduced to a pile of rubble.
The strength of Sandy’s storm surge was on clear display when cars parked along 20th Street between the East River and First Avenue were washed from their parking spots and hit with flotsam washed up from as far away as Brooklyn.
Thanks in part to funds from SCPA, the team at Solar One, joined by dedicated Park Angels and other members of our caring community were able to restore the park.
Hurricane Sandy, with all its devastation, gave birth to The East Side Coastal Resiliency project. Using a combination of flood walls, deployable barriers, raised parkland and berms, the project is redesigning both the landscape and hardscape of waterfront locations so that they are better situated to prevent, or at least better survive, the effects of a future storm surge. Click here for the most recent plan update.
