Some of the people in attendance at the meeting (Photos by Maria Rocha-Buschel)
By Maria Rocha-Buschel
Around 200 East Side residents, concerned about sudden changes to a plan that proposes rebuilding sections of the parks close to the water, packed a meeting that was held to update the community on Tuesday night. The most significant departure from the original plan, known as the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, is a de facto rebuilding of the East River Park on top of flood protection rather than building the flood protection around the existing park.
Representatives from a number of city agencies were on hand at the event, which was held at Hunter’s Brookdale Campus on East 25th Street, a day after a similar meeting about the project on the Lower East Side.
Although most of the substantial changes announced at this meeting and an event held the day before on the Lower East Side were related to the plans for East River Park farther downtown, officials scheduled the second meeting at Brookdale at the insistence of Community Board 6 representatives and local elected officials, since the entire project area stretches up to East 25th Street.