We here at The Observer have been fretting since the fall about what seems to be the growing privatization or semi-privatization of the city's parks. It's not that they are not open to the public, but that the park is not necessarily a public project. There are two sides to this. Read More
On May 17, Governor Paterson and several other officials and community leaders assembled on Manhattan's West Side for a ribbon cutting at Hudson River Park, the 5-mile-long strip of green space, converted piers and bike lanes along the Hudson River. They were on hand to christen the new (and growing) park's latest section, a 9-acre Read More
The late marine explorer Jacques Cousteau helped with research. At one point, a study was commissioned to study the effect of the bridge's shadow on fish. None was found.
The Observer's Eliot Brown Read More
The Friends of Hudson River Park sports deep-pocketed donors such as The Durst Organization and The Related Companies. It is usually the one that gives money and moral support to the Hudson River Park Trust, the quasi-governmental entity that is building and operating the four-mile long esplanade along the West Side. But, it Read More
Since attending the first officially sanctioned Barack Obama grassroots event in NYC, I've been wondering what other groups will pop up for him in Hillary's home state. On Long Island, get ready for Pakistani Americans for Barack Obama. They're set to meet on March 11 in West Hempstead. On May 5, another group Read More
An environmental nonprofit once heralded by Gov. George Pataki "has fallen by the wayside," according to Downtown Express, when it comes to its plans for a $5 million urban estuary museum in Hudson River Park. Paul Goldstein, Community Board One's district manager, said, "With the governor's tenure drawing closer to an end, these people Read More
The five-mile-long Hudson River Park was born from the rubble of Westway—the controversial plan to sink the West Side Highway and cover it with park, which met an ignominious end in 1985. But reclaiming the waterfront—and getting the hookers off the piers—still sounded good to pretty much everyone. So planners conceived a new ribbon of Read More
The five-mile-long Hudson River Park was born from the rubble of Westway—the controversial plan to sink the West Side Highway and cover it with park, which met an ignominious end in 1985.
But reclaiming the waterfront—and getting the hookers off the piers—still sounded good to pretty much everyone. So planners conceived a new ribbon of Read More
At 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 6, two men were shot and robbed in Prospect Park, just down the hill from the Vale of Cashmere, really just a few dozen feet from the zoo and the heavy traffic of Flatbush Avenue. “The men were engaged in a sex act,” the Daily News reported. They were shot, Read More
After first denying that the residents of the proposed luxury condos adjacent to Brooklyn Bridge Park would have their own security force, officials at today’s City Council meeting admitted that they would—sort of. It turns out that some parks have revenue streams that pay for, among other things, a security force operated by the Read More
Senator Hillary Clinton headed out to the meatpacking district today to announce she had "helped secure" $18 million in federal taxpayer money for the 6.7 acre High Line park. Not bad, considering that the transportation bill has just about $25 million for all the other greenways in New York put together, including the Hudson Read More
Our Matthew Schuerman reports: The six-foot five-inch George Pataki has been known to sink a three-pointer. But his height didn't help him when he came to town today to show off new soccer fields in Hudson River Park. (He also came to straighten out the mess at Ground Zero, but that was earlier in the Read More
Park advocates are charging that the city's Sanitation Department is unlawfully squatting on a West Side pier that should have been demolished three months ago to make way for the northern end of the Hudson River Park.
The postponement threatens to further derail the long-delayed plan to create a five-mile, 550-acre waterfront park from Battery Park Read MoreOn the very day that Governor George Pataki quite properly celebrated another step in the rehabilitation of the Hudson River, environmental officials remarked rather forcefully upon the deteriorating conditions of the city's upstate watershed. Thanks to the federal government's go-ahead, it seems all but certain that Mr. Pataki's vision of a park along the West Read More
