HELFWORKS

East River Park, Part I: Before the Fall

What makes a park the best? NYC has more than 1,700. Of about the dozen I know well, I can't pick a favorite. Each is different and has its own attractions and strengths.

East River Park is where I go to jog on the athletic track or on the esplanade that overhangs the river. I go when I want a refreshing breeze and the sweeping, open vistas of the river and bridges. When the ocean tide moves the current upstream, it brings salt air and small waves that crash on rocks in the artificial coves. Amazingly, the East River is getting cleaner. A few thin and lithe, yellow-billed black ducks made their appearance some years ago. They energetically dive underwater repeatedly, surfacing many seconds later. Whatever they catch, they're competing with fishermen at the esplanade railings. I usually see them each time I'm there.

Across on the far shore, new luxury high-rises have studded industrial Williamsburg with surfaces of glass and steel. The old brick Domino Sugar Refinery property is being redeveloped for commercial and residential use.

This park runs 1.5 miles, a long 46 acres with ample width of recreation and scenery sandwiched between the FDR Drive and the river. Its landscape is varied, accommodating athletic fields for multiple sports and lawns to spread out on. There's a volunteer-run ecology center, an amphitheater, and plazas where people barbecue and socialize habitually on weekends.

Until a major $93 million renovation in 2010, I thought East River Park shabby, but the Parks Department and the ecology center volunteers made it beautiful. Now with the coronavirus, the park is even more popular than before. It is an outlet for people dislodged from their usual by the pandemic.

One day in late May I went to take snapshots. I like best the areas where plantings look wild. Although tulips were already gone and the allium past their prime, it's a dramatic and rewarding landcape. Here, then, is an exhibit of my favorite part of East River Park.

Long may it live.

< Part II: The Fall of East River Park (or Why it's unfortunately not realistic to say "Long may it live").