It’s been a year since the CitiStorage building went up in flames. And yet: no dice.
The city has yet to make good on its 2005 promise to turn 27 acres of Williamsburg’s waterfront into park space for the increasingly clustered residents of Glass High-Rise Central.
And because the owner of the CitiStorage property maintains an as-of-right position over the parcel, open space activists are mobilizing tomorrow to put pressure on the New York City government to purchase the land via eminent domain.
“When completed, Bushwick Inlet Park and adjacent Monitor Museum Park will become one of the crown jewels in a necklace of a growing number of parks along the city’s waterfront and help complete the City’s comprehensive open space master plan,” said activist group Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park in a statement. “Increasing the amount of open space will add billions of dollars to the city’s investment portfolio, save the city millions in yearly medical costs, and reduce storm runoff, keeping it out of an already overburdened sewage treatment system. Each day the prospect of losing the last large tract of open space on the East River looms ever larger. Friends of Bushwick Park’s mission is not over until the battle for a 27-acre waterfront park is won for the entire City of New York.”
The rally is also meant to celebrate recent accomplishments in the fight for promised park space. Mayor de Blasio recently, for instance, put the kibosh on rezoning the CitiStorage parcel for residential use.
Joining Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park will be local representatives such as Stephen Levin, Diana Reyna, Daniel Squadron, Joe Lentol, Rabbi David Niederman and Carol Maloney.
The event takes place Sunday, January 31 at 12:00 p.m. at the corner of N. 11th Street and Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. In case of rain, it will move to Greenpoint Beer & Ale (or Dirck the Norseman).