Reclaiming Our Waterfronts
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani
New York is justly famous as a city of skyscrapers, diverse neighborhoods,
and endless entrepreneurial energy. But we are also a City that is
blessed with more than 500 miles of waterfront. Our proximity to water
and excellent natural harbors was essential to our success as an early
trading center in America. Over time, however, the overwhelming industrial
use of our waterfront caused pollution and made it difficult for many
New Yorkers to enjoy the possibilities of the rivers that run through
our City. That is changing, as extensive new parks are allowing New
Yorkers to reclaim our waterfronts for recreation.
Earlier this month, I joined with community leaders and elected officials
to break ground on the first part of Brooklyn Bridge Park, which will
ultimately span 1.3 miles of underutilized former commercial and industrial
space along the East River. This initial 1.5 acre park, built on land
owned by the City between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, will
transform a former parking lot into an extensive nautical-themed playground
that will open in the fall of 2001, and wide green space that will
be completed in the summer of 2002. In addition, we are contributing
to the Fulton Landing Streets Project, which will help to revive the
historic beauty of the area, complete with streets paved with cobblestone,
sidewalks made of bluestone, and granite curbs. For nearly two decades,
community groups in Brooklyn have pushed for this restoration of their
borough's waterfront, and I am very pleased that we were able to work
with them to make this dream a reality.
The transformation of the Brooklyn waterfront into parkland is part
of a concerted effort we have made to develop and restore parks along
our City's waterways. During the past seven-and-a-half years we've
added more than 1,800 acres of new parkland to New York City - more
than any administration since Robert Wagner's nearly 40 years ago.
We have focused our efforts on major waterfront parks such the Hudson
River Park - which will stretch from Battery Park to 59th Street along
the Hudson River - and the 7-mile Bronx River Greenway. These acquisitions
have been complemented by the restoration of East River Park and the
construction of the two waterfront minor league ballparks on Coney
Island and St. George in Staten Island. The water in New York Harbor
is cleaner than it has been in 90 years, and these developments give
New Yorkers a new opportunity to discover that our waterways are a
priceless resource.
As we improve the quality of public access to our harbors and riverbanks,
I hope that it also begins to change the way New Yorkers think about
the potential of our waterfront. In many ways, the East River is still
thought of as a dividing line between boroughs rather than as a vital
artery that runs through the heart of our City. I believe that will
change with time. In the past, our City's waterfront was primarily
seen as an asset for trade and industry. In the future, it will increasingly
be seen as an asset for improving the quality of life, where New Yorkers
from all boroughs will come to throw a baseball, ride a bike, or simply
enjoy a new perspective on our extraordinary City.
