After All That, the New East River Park Is...Fucking Awesome

As a person of Lower East Side residency who looks out my window onto the East River, I've spent the last few years thinking about John V. Lindsay East River Park almost constantly. 

As the park nears the finish line of a five-year-long, $1.45 billion climate resiliency makeover designed to protect the coastline from the effects of future flood surges like Superstorm Sandy, I have gazed forlornly upon a giant Sisyphian pile of dirt that, for months, seemed like it was just being moved around from location to location. I have thought about the construction workers, who looked tiny from my vantage, and wondered how far they had to walk to go to the bathroom. I have grumbled at the mini-nursery of trees sitting in a concrete parking area on FDR Drive as they waited to be planted for what seemed like weeks, wondering how they were going to survive the combination of car exhaust and late winter air. I pondered the massive, boxy new floodgates, which are meant to protect the city against invading storm waters like a castle portcullis. One night in June of last year, I stayed up until 3 a.m. like it was Christmas Eve, so I could watch the Delancey Street Pedestrian Bridge being installed. They shut down the FDR and rolled in the $32 million structure on massive flatbed trucks before lifting it into place with the biggest crane I have ever seen. The bridge took several months to finally open up to humans (though I'm still waiting for them to finish the staircase that would provide a shortcut for those trying to access the bridge from FDR Drive), a stretch of time during which I looked longingly at its shiny Italian steel arches and wide, welcoming berth.