BY DONATHAN SALKALN | The Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) has the resilience of the rose bushes they’ve planted along the Henry Hudson Highway. During the winter, salted sludge gets dumped on the adjacent beds — yet come summer, most roses return to bloom. As of late, HRPT also had its share of being dumped on.
I recently visited HRPT’s Pier 40 offices — where, over sugary goodies from West 23rd Street’s Doughnut Plant, I spoke with Noreen Doyle, Executive VP and Nicolette Witcher, VP, Environment & Education.
Most alarming is that HRPT’s avenue of funding for the repair of Pier 40 is stalled. The source of money needed to shore up the pier’s structure (provided by NY State Assemblymember Richard Gottfried’s legislation and passed by Albany over two years ago) still sits on desks of NYC’s Department of City Planning. Meanwhile, people continue to use the ball fields, facilities and parking lots — while the sheer luck of not having any accidents continues to deteriorate along with the pier itself.
Another HRPT setback (or advance, depending on your opinion) was the unveiling of Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg’s $130 million project to transform a pier’s footprint off of W. 15th St. into an offshore grassy performing arts mecca called Pier55. The plan was received by many locals with the disdain of a nuclear plant. A lawsuit was recently filed by the City Club of New York against the HRPT and a Diller entity.
More dumping of bad news came by way of the NYC Sanitation facility on Gansevoort Peninsula. Although NYC Sanitation’s garbage trucks will be moving to their new facility on Spring St., their five-plus acres at 14th St. won’t be parkland any time soon. According to Doyle, the conversion will be a long process. “Sanitation will have to carefully remove asbestos from the buildings, then demolish them and then clean the soil.”
And yet, despite these setbacks, the Hudson River Park Trust continues to forge ahead.
Shoreline Updates: Plans for the restoration of the historic Pier 57 (at W. 15th St.) by Youngwoo & Associates and RXR Realty (owners of Starrett-Lehigh Building) move closer to reality as the public comment period might occur as soon as this fall. The project calls for two floors of intimate retail and food establishments, two floors of office space and an open park on the roof and public walkway all around. Also the long-awaited lease for The Frying Pan (530 W. 26th St.), a friendly establishment to many local civic groups, awaits additional paperwork from HRPT. They’re operating under an extension of their previous lease. In addition, the controversial plans for a Pier 62 Biergarten (at W. 22nd St.) was sent back to Merchants Hospitality for retooling. Doyle says, “We asked the prospective operator for a reduction in capacity (originally 250), and for the concept to be a more family friendly addition to the pier.”
Plantings: Working closely with Zazel Loven, President of Chelsea Waterside Park Association, HRPT’s horticultural team is recreating floral displays and tree plantings of the park at the western end of 23rd St. Crabapple trees will soon line the park’s promenade, a Japanese Maple has been planted to where one died, and two dead Sycamores have been removed. Says Loven, “Starting with the daffodil planting in late 2014, the grounds have been relentlessly weeded, overgrown foliage has been removed, the irrigation system has been repaired, and the compacted soil has been loosened and amended with nutrient rich compost.”
Educational Programs: In keeping with the original 1998 legislation that identified 400 of the 550 acres of the park as an estuarine sanctuary, HRPT continues to expand their environmental and education programs. Water sensors continue to measure the river’s salinity and temperature and tidal changes. Plankton samples are frequently taken and an oyster restoration project is well under way. A program called Sustainability Sundays enables volunteers to become part of an information-gathering process that is shared with the Department of Environmental Conservation and other research organizations.
Says Nicolette Witcher, “Every Sunday through the summer, we invite young and old to come out and work with our stewardship team and learn about compost maintenance [11 a.m., Aug. 2, Pier 66 at W. 26th St.], marine debris [Beach Clean Up, 11 a.m., July 26, Aug. 23, Pier 51 at 12th St.] and oyster restoration [11 a.m., July 12, Aug. 9, south side of Pier 40 at Houston St.].”
River science is also a big part of the Big City Fishing catch and release program — at locations including Pier 84 (44th St. & 12th Ave., Tues. & Thurs., 1–4 p.m.) and Pier 46 (Charles & West Sts., Sun., 1–5 p.m.). The program has identified over 80 different species of fish caught along the park’s shoreline, with the white perch being the most-caught. Also, a Walking Tour (Sundays through Aug., 3:30–5p.m. Pier 66 at W. 26th St.) examines Chelsea’s extensive maritime history.
Most exciting are the after-school programs. Responding to a poll that revealed a majority of Chelsea parents don’t realize that Hudson River Park is filled with free environmental activities and STEM programs (science, technology, engineering and math), students from the Hudson Guild, PS11 and PS3 were brought to activities on site. This past June, the program culminated with a Pop Up Maker celebration with the students on the lawn of Chelsea Bowl.
This summer, HRPT will continue to host a Pop Up Maker Space every Sun., 1–3 p.m. at 14th St. Park (at 10th Ave.). The themes are: Bots (building robots), July 12; Solar Cars, July 19; Bottle Cap Bike Light, July 26; Rubberband Paddleboats, Aug. 2; Wind Powered Music Box, Aug. 9; Cling Fish Mechanics, Aug. 16; and Kaleidoscopes, Aug. 23.
Wednesday’s Hudson RiverFlicks takes place on the Pier 63 Lawn (at W. 23rd St.). Movies begin at dusk, around 8:30 p.m. (free popcorn!). July 15: “Neighbors” (R); July 22: “Selma” (PG-13); July 29: “St. Vincent” (PG-13); Aug. 5: “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” (PG-13); Aug. 12: “Boyhood” (R) and Aug. 19: “Interstellar” (PG-13).
Visit hudsonriverpark.org for more info.
