Author: Lincoln Anderson | On Monday, four protesters were arrested as the city blocked the southern end of East River Park in preparation for full demolition and deforestation as part of a pioneering coastal resilience project.

Half an hour before sunrise, at 6:30 in the morning, about 60 people gathered in the Donghe Park Amphitheater for the final assembly. Among them are Christopher Matt and Catherine Fried, who are the new and former members of District 1; Allie Ryan, who recently ran for the city council in District 2,; and Ning, the leader of the Chinatown working group. Zishun.

The outgoing District 1 councillor Margaret Chin supports the current plan, the East District Coastal Disaster Prevention Project, as well as councillors Carlina Rivera and Keith Powers representing Districts 2 and 4. The area of ​​Rivera includes all areas of Donghe Park.

At around 7 in the morning, the protesters moved to Stanton Street, north of the dancing oval, for a press conference because workers had already begun to gather there.

Later, around 10:20 in the morning, three protesters were arrested while trying to prevent workers from starting to dig holes and install pillars to install the barbed wire fence across Stanton Street Park. A police spokesperson said that two men and a woman received criminal court summons, but did not provide more details.

After a row of metal pillars were installed, when workers began to install chain fences on the pillars, from east to west, plus metal gates on shared bicycle lanes/sidewalks, a few protesters stayed around.

At around 4 pm, Sarah Wellington was arrested when workers completed the fence and closed the southern end of the park and bike lane.

The city also plans to close the rest of the park bike path north there, but as part of a two-phase disaster prevention project, the park north of Stanton Street will remain open. This $1.45 billion plan will take at least five years to put tons of garbage in the park in the landfill and raise it by 8 to 10 feet.

Emily Johnson was one of the groups that continued to protest when the chain link fence was erected. She said she would not stop her continued activism on the controversial project.

As a member of the Yupik Natives of Alaska and a resident of the Lower East Side for the past five years, she describes herself as a protector of land and water resources.

She said the amphitheater rally is "an incredible community gathering. We have come together in energy and defense," she said. "We have come together with the hope of the community and the future.

"This is a land grab," she declared in ESCR. "This plan is not necessary," she emphasized, adding that the flood from Hurricane Sandy, which inundated the community in 2012, came from 14th Street and south of the park, not From Eastern River Park.

The six protesters still left, and then sang an original song, "Which side are you on?" At the same time, they crossed the actual line where the gate was.

Which side do you support? Are you on the side of suicide? Are you on the side of saving lives? Are you on the side of ecological extinction? Are you on the side of nature? Which side do you support?

Some passing joggers-still allowed to run along the bike lane south of Stanton Street at noon-smiled and applauded in support of the protesters. However, the safety helmet supervising the construction of the fence guarantees that once the fence is completed, the park to the south will be closed.

As the work progressed, about a dozen police officers and a park law enforcement patrol remained in the south of the demarcation line.

Before this song, one of the protesters named "Four" quickly dragged an orange plastic traffic bucket next to the tree trunk, then climbed on it and removed a small aluminum tag from the tree. The four explained that the label had marked the tree as "ethical use", such as for making benches and the like. 11 labels were deleted on four Mondays, and 50 were deleted in the past few days. Like Johnson, this activist claims to be the protector of water and land.

At the same time, residents living near the park are adapting to life without it for at least the next five years.

Two young mothers pushing their 2-year-old children in a stroller were surprised to find that the Delancey Street pedestrian bridge leading to the park had been closed.

When asked how she felt about it, one of the women who called herself Ada K said: "Stunned. It's like the only place we have. I know it's happening, but I don't know it will be so soon."

Her friend Sophie wanted to take the ferry from Corlears Hook to DUMBO so that the children could at least play on the "real grass." The city is maintaining a corridor through the park to the ferry terminal.

The park department recently touted how to use some new artificial turf space for active and passive recreation during the reconstruction of Donghe Park to compensate. But park activists mocked that fake turf was not a substitute.

Nearby, a woman wearing a black beret and pushing a trolley full of laundry bags into the Baruch house on Delancey Street said that she had been “waiting and seeing” the disaster prevention project. She admitted that what annoyed her was that the project suddenly changed from the previous plan. The plan would not raise the height of the park, but just install a berm on the eastern edge of FDR Drive.

"We need flood protection," she said, but declined to be named. "I was on the fence. They held all these community meetings and listened to their opinions, and then they made changes.

"This is our only park," she emphasized. "The people who live in this house have nowhere to go. We don't have a country house like the rich. We barbecue there, that is our holiday, that is our celebration."

The 39-year-old is a lifelong resident of Baruch Houses and currently works as a caregiver. She pointed out that during Sandy, she lived in Roosevelt, but now lives in the further inland Housing Authority building. She said that the Roosevelt area was flooded.

"The water is here," she said, putting her hand on her belly. "There are people walking in the water. I don't know what they are thinking, because there are dead rats in the water—a lot."

Although many of Baruch’s buildings are now surrounded by new concrete flood walls, she said she doesn’t know if this is enough protection if another Sandy storm surge strikes.

28-year-old Mike Estevez, another lifelong resident of Baruch, said that in the near future, if there is no East River Park, things will definitely be different. He spoke amidst the noise of subway trains roaring over the Williamsburg Bridge.

"I grew up there all my life," he said of the park. "July 4th, that's where I am going. It will be different."

Estevez had tattoos on his neck and hands, and he followed the protest earlier that morning. From his window, he saw "many police officers" in the park. He also got the latest information about the situation on the Citizen app.

As for whether he thinks the park should be built, he said that he thinks he must have confidence in the government in this case-although he usually doesn't believe it.

"All we can do is trust," he said.

When asked whether he felt that the new 6-foot-tall flood wall surrounding some of Baruch’s buildings would provide adequate protection by itself, he shrugged and said that as climate change worsened, “this may not be enough.”

Currently, three public housing development projects bordering East River Park between 14th Street and Delancey Street are undergoing extensive construction. However, on the eastern edge of Baruch Houses, the workers are not building a flood wall, but renovating the parking lot.

"There is no water in this part," a construction supervisor explained to The Village Sun at a location next to the FDR. "It's flooded over there," he said, waving to the west of the complex.

Similarly, former councillor Fried had previously told The Village Sun that the flooding at the east end of Grand Street where she lived was “from west to east”. During Sandy, the flood did not wash through the park," she said.

In the community lawsuit seeking to block ESCR, Freed is Arthur Schwartz’s co-counsel. Last week, the Appeals Division ruled against the lawsuit, but Schwartz is appealing to the State Supreme Court’s Court of Appeals, and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

In addition, the Con Ed factory on E. 14th Street was closed during Sandy, cutting off the power supply south of Midtown Manhattan. Since then, flood protection measures have been strengthened to prevent another similar disaster.

On Monday, John Frandoza, the contractor overseeing crane work on Riis Houses D Avenue, offered his views on the necessity of the park’s disaster prevention project. He lives in Baruch Houses on the other side of Houston Street.

Unlike Baruch, Riis’s flood wall is very small, only 4 feet high, and is located near the building’s entrance. In Riis, they also laid a layer of plastic around the bottom of the building and buried it under soil and rocks to prevent flooding.

"Baruch is different because Roosevelt [Houston Street] has a hill. There is a wall there," he explained. "The water comes from the 10th Street area and the Williamsburg Bridge area."

Flandosa, 43, said they are doing other flexible work in Riis, such as moving pipes and generators to the roof. But he pointed out that this cannot be done in Baruch because the roof there is neither strong nor big enough.

When asked whether the park’s disaster prevention project is still needed despite all the protective measures taken to the building, he thought for a while and said yes.

"This is necessary," he said. "It makes sense."

Thank you Lincoln for this much-needed report. I am very happy to learn about the flood protection measures FEMA provided for NYCHA along Ave D and Columbia St. Can you know the timetable? What if the felled trees will be replaced by new ones? Frankly speaking, the idea under the plastic surface is meaningless.

Come to the park today!

I am curious whether Mike and the woman who declined to be named eventually supported the project, despite the difficult trade-offs. From the last line about Mike, he did. I bet he never said that in a community committee meeting.

Emily Johnson has been here for 5 years, which is also very interesting to me, but she is not accused of being an intruder or a passer-by (or colonizer) by her fellow NIMBY.

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