Starting this fall, NYC is planning to close and demolish the largest public open space in Lower Manhattan, East River Park. This is being done in the name of flood protection, despite the fact that many sections of the park are already higher than even the most exceptional floods, like Superstorm Sandy. In that event, way back in October 2012, floodwaters flowed into the East Village from the lowest points of the waterfront, between 14th and 23rd streets, around Stuyvesant Cove, but mostly did not cross East River Park or the FDR freeway (which is NOT being impacted by this ill-considered $1.5 billion boondoggle…)

In memory of East River Park, I am reviving this blog to post some images of a flood memorial I created back in 2016, using driftwood logs to show the heights Sandy reached, and the projected future flood height if sea level rise and global warming are allowed to continue unabated.

I also wanted to spread the word about East River Park Action, a protest movement hoping to stop this wasteful destructive plan; the protest starts this Thursday July 23rd at 7pm, at the Abrons Art Center at 466 Grand Street at Pitt Street on the Lower East Side.

 

Remembering Distinguished Professor Michael Sorkin

 

With climate change, London in 2050 could be similar to Barcelona’s current climate, with Madrid feeling more like Marrakesh, Seattle more like San Francisco, and Tokyo more like Changsha in central China.

more:  http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=3202dd35-26e6-49c5-b355-5ee622666bd0&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Place

The community-led alternative London Plan is a set of policy ideas written by 62 groups and organisations, and comes from a wealth of knowledge and expertise as well as direct experience of the issues.

Evidence and consensus have been gathered through meetings, workshops and conferences over many years, with almost total agreement on the shared common ground.

The Mayor of London is currently considering comments and taking public input — follow on Twitter at #LondonPlan

 

HT / reblog from Dissent! magazine post by  @aintacrow

more: http://designtrust.org/projects/power-in-place/  

+  https://nyccli.org/

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Activists in New York City’s storied South Bronx are turning their attention  to critical issues facing their neighborhood: environmental justice and gentrification. Last November, responding to a real estate developer’s attempt to rebrand Mott Haven “the Piano District,” South Bronx Unite members joined fellow Bronx residents for a rally at Borough President Ruben Diaz’s hearing on housing. They blasted Diaz for attending the real estate developer’s “Bronx is Burning” party, as well as for his backing of the FreshDirect relocation.

South Bronx Unite’s involvement in battles over environmental justice as well as over housing and gentrification points back to the deeper question of who controls public land, and to what end. To this twofold problem, the group has presented a novel solution: a community land trust. In 2015, the group joined with fellow community groups such as Friends of Brook Park to form the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Trust, as well as to release a statement of principles for private developers looking to build in the neighborhood. Johnson explains that the campaign against FreshDirect and the community land trust are “related because we’ve seen what’s going on with public land and it’s not really benefiting the public. . . . The leasing of that land [twenty-five] years ago to a private entity for ninety-nine years, the mass purchasing of land in our community by private developers to build with our public moneys and without zoning changes. That’s all related to the needs of our community and our efforts to control our own public land.”