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Locals, With Help From Pols, Seek to Expand Honey Locust Park Under Queensboro Bridge

The park currently abuts a Department of Transportation parking depot. Spurred on by a local petition, three politicians–Council Member Julie Menin, State Senator Liz Krueger, and State Assembly Member Alex Bores–have requested that the DOT transfer the parcel to the Parks Department, which could turn it into green space.

| 12 Oct 2024 | 12:25
    A DOT equipment depo next to Honey Locust Park, which sits under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Locals want to replace the depot with expanded park space.
    A DOT equipment depo next to Honey Locust Park, which sits under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Locals want to replace the depot with expanded park space. ( Photo: Google Maps )
    NYC’s Parks Department spent $1.67 million renovating E. 59th St.’s Honey Locusts Park, which is nestled under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
    NYC’s Parks Department spent $1.67 million renovating E. 59th St.’s Honey Locusts Park, which is nestled under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. ( Photo: NYC Parks Dept. )

A group of local residents, with some help from a neighborhood nonprofit called Sutton Area Community, are pushing to expand Honey Locust Park on E. 59th St. Three politicians–Council Member Julie Menin, State Senator Liz Krueger, and State Assembly Member Alex Bores–have joined their cause.

The space is tucked under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and owned by the city’s Department of Transportation. It gave a portion of the space to the Parks Department, which embarked on a $1.67 million renovation that created a pleasant vest pocket park. However, part of the park is still dedicated to DOT storage, which the SAC deems an “eyesore.”

A petition sponsored by SAC led to a Sept. 30 letter by the politicos, which was addressed to DOT Commissioner Ydannis Rodriguez.

“Local residents of the Lenox Hill and Sutton Place neighborhoods are asking to create a Honey Locust Park Extension to serve as a public plaza consisting of a garden, eatery, tables, seating, a dog park, or other amenities. The upcoming conversion of the Queensboro Bridge South Outer Roadway into a pedestrian path presents a prime opportunity to repurpose the space and provide convenient access to the new pedestrian route,” the letter reads. “The East Side of Manhattan ranks as one of the densest in New York City and nearly last in green space.”

The letter proposes expanding this public space in a simple way: by transferring the rest of the parcel to the Parks Department. “We respectfully request that you consider the feasibility of relocating current storage and vehicles for bridge maintenance so that this request can be realized,” the politicians write.

SAC President Charles Coutinho, Ph. D., told Our Town that he hopes the letter influences the DOT. Considering that the park opened to the public just last year, he noted that the idea for expanding it already is a rather new one.

“It’s a recent development. It’s not something, as far as I’m aware of, that’s been brought to public attention. It’s just a coalescing of different people, most of who live on the south side of E. 59th St., who have all of the sudden decided to join hands and endeavor to remedy this issue,” he said.

As for why it’s an eyesore? “It’s basically in front of the 59th St. Bridge, which is a very majestic-looking edifice. The [storage] area detracts from the positive aesthetics of the bridge,” Coutinho explained.

If the petition and the letter don’t immediately spark success, Coutinho is optimistic that the park will eventually be widened. “Small steps, if you’re advantageous enough and diligent enough, lead to larger steps,” he said. “We regard this a small step, hopefully in the right direction, presuming that the DOT is cooperative. If that’s the case, we would anticipate similar or greater efforts to beautify the Sutton Place area.”