The city lacks the cash and has no timeline for completing the East River Greenway, officials admitted yesterday.
The de Blasio administration and the Economic Development Corporation issued a report claiming they have a path forward for the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, a bicycle and pedestrian path encircling the island first envisioned when David Dinkins was mayor [PDF]. But while some media outlets spun the report as a step forward, nothing has actually changed: The gaps in the greenway that were unaddressed before the report's release remain unaddressed today.
This winter, construction will begin on the $100-million "East Midtown Greenway" between 53rd Street and 61st Street, to be completed by 2022. Three other segments are also in the pipeline: Inwood Hill Park to Sherman Creek, set begin work in 2021 and cost $41 million; East 125th Street to East 132nd Street, set to begin in 2021 and cost $101 million; and the $5 million renovation of the Harlem Lane Playground, which will wrap up construction in 2021.
That leaves 28 blocks without a clear plan forward: the United Nations Esplanade between 41st Street and 53rd Street, and uptown segments between 145th Street and 150th Street and 154th Street and 163rd Street.
"There's a reason the Hudson River Greenway, and not the East River Greenway, is the nation's busiest multi-use path," said Transportation Alternatives spokesperson Joe Cutrufo. "If the city can fund the connections and improvements they've laid out, I think we'll see bike commuting on the East Side skyrocket from Inwood down through the East Village."
The EDC report does contain one piece of exciting news: the city now plans to upgrade the harrowing bottleneck alongside the FDR Driver between 13th Street and 15th Street, a proposal originated by Comptroller Scott Stringer when he was Manhattan borough president. Renderings in the report show a bridge over the existing path, but the proposal has neither a timeline nor funding.
Those improvements won't come in time, however, for the L train shutdown, when the area is expected to see an influx of pedestrians and cyclists coming on and off ferries to and from Brooklyn.
David was Streetsblog's do-it-all New York City beat reporter from 2015 to 2019. He returned as deputy editor in 2023 after a three-year stint at the New York Post.