A Dance Rally Against a Controversial Flood Control Plan

October 22, 2021

Community organizers, scientists, concerned residents, and dancers gathered to rally against the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project this Saturday at East River Park. The event, 1000 Dancers 1000 Trees, continues ongoing protests against the City’s plan to demolish East River Park in the controversial flood control project.

Protesters seek a new external review of the ESCR project, arguing that the current plan is an inadequate flood solution, and one that comes at the cost of destroying all existing biodiversity in the park. East River Park Action, an advocacy group for the park, organized Saturday’s event to raise awareness, leading dance exercises around trees set to be cut down.

The ESCR project emerged in response to Hurricane Sandy, a disaster which had a devastating impact on the Lower East Side, particularly for people living in low-lying NYCHA buildings near the shoreline. In 2013, the City received federal funding to develop a coastal protection plan for Lower Manhattan. City planners, Lower East Side community groups, and architects from Rebuild by Design worked together to create plans for a more resilient waterfront.

After four years of work, the final design featured bermed flood barriers along East River Park that bridged the FDR Drive, planted with salt-water resilient plants. Preserving the park, the design would utilize its green space as an absorbent sponge to protect surrounding neighborhoods.

Then, without warning, the City dropped the plan.

The Mayor’s Office announced an entirely new plan in October 2018. This version of the ESCR project would level the park, add to 8 to 10 feet of landfill, and rebuild a new park on top over the course of three years. Residents spoke out against the plan, arguing that it was not the project they had approved. The City made several concessions, promising new amenities and phased construction to keep the park partially open. The new plan was approved by City Council in 2019. Shortly after, East River Park Action formed.

“They changed their mind and there was no notice to us,” says Tonto Cabrera, a longtime LES resident, community board member, and frequent attendee of Parks Department meetings.

Standing under an oak tree, watching the dancers, he explains his sense of repeated betrayal by the City. Before Hurricane Sandy struck, he was also involved in the Blueway Project, another never-materialized flood control plan.

To Amy Berkov, a tropical ecologist from the City College of New York, the new project is a denial of the facts of climate change. She warns that the plan will not be sufficient by 2080, even under low emissions estimates and without taking into account rapid Antarctic melt.

Berkov wants a new comprehensive review, calling the project “the most destructive and the most expensive band-aid plan.” There has only been one external review thus far, made by a hydrologist who Berkov says did not have access to the hydrology or value engineering reports.

Katherine De La Cruz, dance student at Bates College and primary organizer of 1000 Dancers 1000 Trees, addresses the group after the dance. She recalls the privatization of waterfronts in the Dominican Republic, where she grew up, and reminds the group that the issue is larger than just the park.

“This is a class issue as well, it’s a race issue, it is all interconnected,” she says.

One of the youngest members, she fears that if the City cuts down the 90 year trees surrounding us, new saplings planted would never have the chance to grow as tall, may never protect the diverse, vital, valuable neighborhoods who depend on this plan for survival.