Create Opportunity through Development of the East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project

Testimony last updated April 12, 2007

Testimony to Manhattan Community Board 3

Mercedes Narciso, R.A.
Senior Planner, Pratt Center for Community Development
April 12, 2007

Good evening to everybody. Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony today. My name is Mercedes Narciso and I am a Senior Planner with the Pratt Center for Community Development, a university- based organization that works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by helping communities to plan for and realize their future. One of those communities is the Lower East Side, and in partnership with the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), we are currently working on a community assessment and planning initiative in the area.

I am here today to express our support for East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project proposed by the Department of City Planning, a project full of vision and creativity, which would provide the diverse nearby community and the city at large the opportunity to access and enjoy the waterfront.

While we acknowledge the City's and State's initiatives to create a number of waterfront parks and public spaces, we would like to highlight three areas in which the development of this Waterfront park could better address the needs of the affected communities, leverage the project to create opportunity for local residents, and provide for the sustainability of the esplanade.

As the New York City's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) develops the model for the RFPs for the development of specific sites or “pavilions” under the FDR drive (which are targeted to be developed as commercial or community facilities), we hope they will incorporate these recommendations.

Jobs and businesses for local residents

In an effort to maximize the economic opportunity created by the project, we support GOLES' recommendation as follows:

• Require that developers, construction contractors, firms with building maintenance contracts, and retail and office tenants create "first source" hiring systems intended to maximize employment opportunities for CBs 1 and 3 residents, particularly the 30,000 public housing residents who live along the project area's northern half.
• Require that construction contractors pay prevailing wages and benefits, and require their tenants to abide by a wage and benefits floor governing positions such as security guards, parking attendants, building construction, maintenance and operations, and restaurant and retail workers.

Community facilities for a diverse community

The new Waterfront Esplanade will have as yet undetermined space for retail, cultural, and community facilities. We also support GOLES' recommendation that the City and State work closely with community groups in order to create facilities and programming that meet the diverse needs of neighborhood residents and visitors. Rather than leaving these decisions up to developers, there should be a public planning process that identifies the type of facilities that will meet the needs of the diverse communities who live and work nearby.

Park's management

The New York City Parks Department's operations budget has not kept pace with its growing inventory or public needs. There are deficits in services throughout the Parks system; however, these are more noticeable in neighborhoods where there are limited private financial resources and community access to budgetary decision making processes.

The lack of government funding for maintenance of public parks has resulted in the creation of public-private management partnerships, since state and city agencies have been reluctant to take on responsibility for new parks without identifying site-specific sources of management funding.

We propose the following:

• Consider supporting park management and maintenance from revenue received from leases on adjoining public property. An example of this is Stuyvesant Cove, which receives from the city's Economic Development Corporation 1 million dollars per year from lease revenue from a nearby parking lot.
• Consider establishing a Waterfront Park Improvement District. Park development stands to bring increased customer traffic to businesses in the vicinity. The business improvement districts that exist around the City are a proven mechanism for capturing that windfall and delivering it for park maintenance activities. The Bryant Park and Union Square Business Improvement Districts provide substantial revenue for parks management.
• Consider partnering with community-based organizations in order to enable public agencies, such as EDC as well as the Parks Department, to share management responsibilities with non profit partners. There are opportunities to improve service delivery by these non-profit partners by clarifying and appropriately allocating responsibilities for management.