Where is New York?* 

Visions at Pier 42

Monday, November 28, 2011, 6:30pm 

A People's Plan for the East River Waterfront co-authors
Jason Chan, Projects Coordinator, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
Anne Frederick, Executive Director, Hester Street Collaborative
Damaris Reyes, Executive Director and winner of Jane Jacobs Medal, GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side)

Organized by the Urban Planning Program and moderated by Kaja Kuehl, this is the third installment of the monthly series "Where is New York?*

In their 2009 community plan A People's Plan for the East River Waterfront, a collection of organizations on Manhattan's Lower East Side called the O.U.R. Waterfront Coalition offered alternative visions for a stretch of land slated for redevelopment by the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Hugging the FDR as it reaches past Piers 15, 35, 36 and 42 from the Battery Maritime Building toward the southern end of East River Park, this site touches a cross-section of New Yorkers -- traders on Wall Street, merchants at South Street Seaport, and residents of NYCHA's Vladek and La Guardia Houses. The People's Plan addresses worries around gentrification and displacement of long-standing residents, advocates for increased access and diversity of amenities on the waterfront, and proposes ongoing community input into its design. One tool for collecting this input is coalition-member organization Hester Street Collaborative's "Waterfront on Wheels," a mobile model that "engages local residents around envisioning the future for public park space on the East River waterfront" through workshops and visioning sessions.

On November 18, 2011, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and New York State Senator Daniel Squadron announced that $14 million had been secured from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the redevelopment of Pier 42 into a public park. This victory raises many urban-planning related questions: what vehicles can activate civic participation? What are the roles of community plans in urban development, and should they be oppositional or collaborative in tone? Finally, what is the future of Pier 42? #wood112811

Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, Columbia University GSAPP, 1 train to 116th Street

arch.columbia.edu/events

Free and open to the public

*Each month, one program at GSAPP will identify a site within the five boroughs that has been important to their discipline within the past year and bring designers, policymakers, developers, community activists, and other New Yorkers together to discuss the site and question where we are.