The local paper for the Upper East Side
2018
WEEK OF JANUARY
25-31 2018
P.12
NEW DETAILS ON DISPUTED ESPLANADE BRIDGE City officials unveiled plans last week to implement protected bike lanes on 26th and 29th Streets, the first protected crosstown lanes in Manhattan that would span nearly river-to-river. 26th Street (pictured), currently does not have a bike lane, while 29th Street now features a painted bike lane. Photo: Michael Garofalo
SAFER CROSSTOWN BIKE LANES EN ROUTE STREET
NYC CYCLIST FATALITIES
City plans to add protected lanes on 26th and 29th Streets BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
Manhattan cyclists looking for a safer route across town will soon have a few new options. Plans are underway to reconfigure 26th and 29th Streets to include protected bike lanes that would span almost uninterrupted from the Hudson River to the East River, the city’s Department of Transportation announced last week. As bike use has exploded in Manhattan over the last decade, protected north-south bicycle thoroughfares on the borough’s wide avenues have proliferated — First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Avenues, as well as Broadway, now feature substantial stretches of protected lanes — but similar protections for bikers on east-west streets have been slower to materialize.
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Source: NYC DOT Stretching from the Hudson River Greenway to First Avenue, the 26th and 29th Street bike lanes would be the first protected crosstown routes to span nearly the entire width of the island.
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WATERFRONT EDC presents basis for proposed 54th Street bridge location, which has stirred opposition from some Sutton Area residents BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
A plan to install a pedestrian bridge in a small park near 54th Street and Sutton Place that would provide access to a new section of the East Midtown Waterfront Esplanade has become a source of neighborhood controversy. Representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the lead agency on the project, laid out the rationale for the location of the proposed bridge at a Jan. 22 meeting of Community Board 6’s land use and waterfront committee. The “flyover,” as EDC officials have termed the proposed span, would create an access point bridging the FDR Drive to the new span of riverfront esplanade set to be built between 53rd and 60th Streets on the East River. The entrance to the bridge would occupy much of what is now the northern portion of Sutton Place Park South, a small area of green space with riverfront views along Sutton Place South between 53rd and 54th Streets. The proposed bridge is opposed by some residents, who fear that the entrance ramp would have a negative impact on the park’s character, resulting in a loss of walking space and benches, drawing additional bicycle and pedestrian traffic to Sutton Place, and potentially impacting river views from the street and lower floors of
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Sutton Place Park South is the site of the entrance to a proposed pedestrian bridge that would provide access to a new stretch of waterfront esplanade on the East River. Photo: Michael Garofalo neighboring buildings. A number of local groups and officials, including the Sutton Area Community and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, have voiced their disapproval of the planned bridge. In addition to the 54th Street site, which was identified during conceptual design planning that took place from 2009 to 2012, EDC representative Kathryn Prybylski said that EDC also examined 51st, 52nd and 54th Streets as potential sites for a new bridge. In designing the connection, EDC aims to provide access to the new esplanade at regular intervals that complies with applicable regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some residents questioned why the existing pedestrian bridge at 51st Street that currently connects Peter Detmold Park to a small seat-
ing area along the river could not be repurposed to provide access to the new esplanade. Prybylski said that the existing bridge, which has stairs on both sides, is not ADA-compliant. If 51st Street were chosen as a connection site, she said, the existing bridge would have to be demolished to make way for a new bridge featuring ramps.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, January 26 – 4:48 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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