New York’s waterfront is being transformed. From Brooklyn Bridge Park to Throg’s Neck on the East River alone, over 1000 acres of redevelopment is slated to occur over the upcoming years. This scale of development is an enormous opportunity - and a risk. Too much waterfront development in recent years has created sterile, privatized places that don’t do justice to New York.
Now is the time to set an agenda to ensure we create an East River waterfront that reflects the diversity, vibrancy and future sustainability of New York. Responding to the Mayor’s bold plan to reclaim 90% of New York’s waterways for recreational use, the Municipal Art Society and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance are part of a coalition of over 40 groups that is launching the East River Agenda on next Thursday, June 21st on East River Day.
The Agenda sets out a road map to ensure that we create a waterfront that is not only cleaner and more sustainable than ever before, but also creates more access and public space while addressing community needs. The Agenda contains a set of proven principles for redeveloping the waterfront, as well as site-specific recommendations for how to implement them along the East River shoreline.
Please join us in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn on East River Day to launch the Agenda. There will be four presentations, four narrated boat tours, and the premiere of the new documentary City of Water about the future of New York City’s waterfront. (click here to read more about the waterfront).
East River Day Schedule:
Locations:
Manhattan
- 9:00 a.m. - Press conference at South Street Seaport, Pier 17
- 10:00 a.m. - Depart South Street Seaport for Water Taxi tour of Manhattan
Bronx
- 10:45 a.m. - Water Taxi tour of the Bronx waterfront
- 11:45 p.m. - Press event at Fort Schuyler, lunch
Queens
- 12:45 p.m. - Water Taxi tour of Queens waterfront
- 1.45 p.m. - Press event at Water Taxi Beach, Long Island City
Brooklyn
- 2:45 p.m. - Water Taxi tour of Brooklyn waterfront
- 3:30 p.m. - Press event at Barge Music, Fulton Ferry
- 6:30 p.m. - Film screening, Pier 2 at Furman Street, Brooklyn. [Click here for a map.]
The East River Agenda is sponsored by the following groups:
Astoria/LIC Waterfront Parks Alliance
Barge Park Pals
Bayside Anglers Group
Bronx River Alliance
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
East River Apprenticeship
East River CREW
Eugene Lang College Outdoors Program
Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial - Four Freedoms Park
Friends of Brook Park
Friends of Gantry Neighborhood Parks at Hunters Point
Greater Astoria Historical Society
Green Map System
Greenpoint Video Project
GWAPP
Harlem River Boat Club
LIC Community Boathouse
Lower East Side Ecology Center
Manhattan Community Board One
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
The Municipal Art Society
NewtownCreekAlliance.org
New York Audubon
New Yorkers for Parks
Newyorkharborbeaches.org
New York Harbor School
New York Rowing Association
NYC Soil & Water Conservation District
The Rainey Park Group
Rocking the Boat
Roosevelt Island Resident's Association
SeaportSpeaks
Sebago Canoe Club
Society for Industrial Archeology, Roebling Chapter
Solar One
South Street Seaport Museum
Stuyvesant Cove Park Association
Sustainable South Bronx
The Point CDC
Transportation Alternatives
Two Bridges Neighborhood Corp.
Urban Drivers
West Indian American Progressive Action Council
