Waterfront Dreams Abound For Long Island City, Astoria

Queens’ East River waterfront has come a long way in recent years. No longer the butt of jokes involving cement shoes, the river itself is less polluted than a generation ago, and luxury condos of steel and glass seem to be rising on its banks about once a week.
But the strip of waterfront land that stretches from Newtown Creek on the south to Ralph DeMarco Park on the north still has its rough edges. Some public parks here are strangely quiet or in need of repair. Squat, decrepit warehouses block parts of the shoreline, and it’s unclear whether people clinging to the river’s old reputation would want to get too close anyway.

That’s where the Astoria L.I.C. Waterfront Parks Alliance comes in. For the last 20 months, this broad coalition of park advocates, parents, environmentalists and nonprofit group representatives has been brainstorming on ways to improve the waterfront experience. Their work calls for nuts and bolts improvements like better playgrounds and walkways, and much more—in the hopes of forging a closer link between the river and residents.
“Our fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers, they may not have embraced the river as we are beginning to now,” said alliance member Richard Melnick. “Now it’s the place to be.”
The alliance began meeting early last year after Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of the city Parks Department and the City Parks Foundation, singled out the Long Island City and Astoria waterfront as having recreational potential yet needing more community involvement. The alliance focuses on seven locations—Queensbridge Park, Rainey Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, Hallets Cove, Whitey Ford Field, Astoria Park and Ralph DeMarco Park.
According to Emily Maxwell, the Partnerships for Parks coordinator overseeing the project, the alliance counts20 regularmembers representing10 different organizations.They speak for a wide spectrum of constituencies, such as residents, historical preservationists and social service organizations.Over 250 people and 40 organizations are involved peripherally.
Some of the changes they are proposing are very down to earth. Elizabeth McQueen, president of the Friends of Queensbridge Park, wants a dilapidated seawall that fronts the 20 acre park to be repaired more quickly. Cracks began to appear in 1999 and a complex restoration project is still in the design phase, leaving residents without waterfront access for the indefinite future. McQueen would also like to redeploy a little used park house for classes and performances.
Better facilities are also the hope of Yolanda Odio Tasso, who heads the Rainey Park Group. The nine acre park has only four swings now, and she would like more play equipment, along with a dog run, sprinklers and barbecues.
“Some people that live in this area, some of them don’t have cars to go to Jones Beach, so this is where they go,” she said. Describing the park as a “sanctuary,” Odio Tasso added: “I’d like to keep it that way for them.”
But the East River’s place in New York City’s collective mindset will depend on more than keeping nearby residents satisfied. That’s why bringing people to its banks from near and far has become Melnick’s goal. For the past two years, he has helped organize four bike tours and two walking tours, pointing out places of historical and cultural importance along the riverfront.
As a board member of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, he is also putting together a map of local highlights. “We want to enlighten people from the neighborhood and from Manhattan and other places, to come into this part of Queens, recreate in the parks and see some magnificent vistas,” Melnick added.
To that end, recreational opportunities are key. For example, the Long Island City Community Boathouse already offers free weekly kayaking on the East River from Hallets Cove, just south of the Astoria Houses. But boathouse volunteers must presently lug their equipment from a storage room nearly a mile and a half away.
“We would like a shipping container on a concrete platform in Hallets Cove,” to store boats, wet suits and life vests, said boathouse founder Erik Baard. “That way, the community can have a real, steady connection to its waterfront. They’d know it’s their boathouse and hopefully that will grow the community base for it.”
Down the road, Baard hopes his current facility—a former meat processing plant on Anable Basin just north of Queens West— will form the basis of a boating complex that will include other nonprofit organizations.
With a wide variety of goals and concerns, Astoria L.I.C. Waterfront Parks Alliance members don’t agree on everything. Whereas Baard and some environmentalists are urging increased access to the waterfront, McQueen is working with the Parks Department to put up a railing as part of the Queensbridge Park seawall restoration. The waterfront side of that project is expected to slope down to the East River as a “naturalized” area, and McQueen is worried that children may fall in.
The overarching goal, however, is unanimous. “We want to bring people down to the waterfront,” Odio Tasso said. “A lot of people think that the East River is dirty and Rainey Park is full of drug addicts. But this is our community. This is our backyard; it’s where we live.”
The largest obstacle the alliance faces will be money. There are $3.3 million in capital projects under way or scheduled to start soon in five of the waterfront parks. They include the play equipment Odio Tasso is seeking at Rainey, as well as new turf fields and courts at Queensbridge and refinished tennis courts at Astoria.
However, while noting that “use of the waterfront is a big priority,” Joshua Laird, assistant Parks commissioner for planning and natural resources, conceded that “it takes an alignment of the stars” to realize waterfront projects, which require more costly planning and construction.
In addition, proposals like a bike and walking path that would hug the shoreline from Hunters Point to the Flushing River must contend with existing warehouses and power plants that block the way. “It can be hard for the agencies, for the substantial investment of time and resources, relative to every other priority,” Laird added.
With those hurdles in mind, alliance members said they plan to lobby their elected officials as well as reach out to private foundations to accomplish as much as they can. “My optimism is not blind optimism,” said Maxwell, whose mandate as coordinator is slated to end within two years—when she expects the alliance to be self sustaining. “My hope is that, by helping them grow capacity, they will be able see those hurdles, see those challenges, and that they can get around them.”

 

by Dan Hendrick, Editor In Chief

10/05/2006

©Queens Chronicle 2006