I am able to drop off my food scraps so that they will be made into compost. This compost is used as a soil amendment in the East River Park and is also given away to community groups. Because of this environmental service offered by the Lower East Side Ecology Center, my food scraps do not end up in a landfill and do not create methane, which is a very powerful heat trapping greenhouse gas.
This is a bad flood protection plan that was made in secret by the Mayor and other NYC officials and dumped on the community without our input. The previous plan was developed with community input over a few years.
The City has a bad track record in this park when it comes to completing renovations on time. When the bulkhead was previously repaired, it was supposed to take 2 years. Ha! It took 10 years and the work started to crumble within years of completion! The stainless steel railings were rusted when the project reopened.
The City says this proposed project, which is so much more complicated than the bulkhead repair, is supposed to take 5 years. Don't count on it. The City says that if more elevation is needed due to additional sea level rise, the park can be raised another 2 feet in 2050. So, they plan to destroy the park again in less than 30 years??? I wrote it above and will write it again, this is a bad flood protection plan.
Why is the City not planning to return the LESEC to East River Park? They have provided environmental stewardship, education and community services since 1987. The compost yard has been in the East River Park since 1998. Why is the City not providing the neighborhood with temporary flood protection during the construction of the bad plan?
