Petition to Unblock East River Esplanade Gains Signatures

An eight-block stretch of the East River Esplanade, between East 71st Street and East 79th Street, remains closed due to construction—and local residents remain frustrated. A nonprofit group that does extensive advocacy work on the greenway has been circulating a petition that has won significant community support, which they hope will spur a fix. As of press time, the petition has captured more than 250 signees, with eight new additions on March 20.

The closure began in January 2022, after the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) kicked off a $200 million expansion project, otherwise known as the Kellen Tower. Now the projected completion date has been pushed back indefinitely. Friends of the East River Esplanade, the group circulating the petition, wants an immediate work-around that can functionally restore the nearly half-mile stretch to the public; HSS has claimed that creating a temporary walkway is infeasible, but this is clearly not detracting advocates.

“We demand the expedited reopening of the Esplanade, with a north-south connection restored by Spring 2025 at the latest. Our community deserves uninterrupted access to this vital public space,” the petition reads.

Friends of the East River Esplanade then single out a variety of politicians and entities that they believe should facilitate this reopening process, in addition to HSS: Parks Department Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Parks Department Manhattan Borough Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, Mayor Eric Adams, State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, and City Council members Keith Powers and Julie Menin.

At a Community Board meeting last November, Shimamura indicated that the construction process had been slowed due to sinkhole mitigation: “We are trying to time all of this at the same time, because it’s important, and we understand that one is connected to the other.” She cited the “terrifying” experience of witnessing a sinkhole open up on the East 71st Street portion of the Esplanade in 2020.

The petition also blasts the lack of proper or functional lighting on the Esplanade at night, as well as the closure of Andrew Haswell Green Park at East 61st Street. While the nonprofit thanked the city for fixing broken lights at East 62nd Street North, they said that much more needs to be done, particularly along stretches of East Harlem.

One petition signer, who asked for anonymity, shared her frustrations with Our Town. “I have not yet seen any work being done near the river pathway,” she said. “Today I stopped and peered into the interior area and saw that it seems nowhere near readiness, with only a couple of workers idly standing around.

“These projects seem to have no penalties for not adhering to stated completion timeframes,” she added. “They make promises about limited interruption of quality of life for the community, but don’t adhere to the schedules promised.’”

Jennifer Ratner, the board chair of the nonprofit, told Our Town that “the prolonged closure is mismanagement by the government—both the Parks Department and other elected officials—and also a failure on the part of HSS to step up on behalf of the community.”

The petition can be found on the homepage of Friends of the East River Esplanade’s website, www.esplanadefriends.org.