Saving Pier 40: The Power of Community Activism

Almost nine months ago, over 1500 people of all ages came to PS 41 in Greenwich Village to hear about plans for repairing and rebuilding Pier 40. And tomorrow, hundreds of people are going to show up on a winter day to celebrate Pier 40 and rally around a cause that has served to further bond an already tightly-knit community, keeping Pier 40 as a park - forever.

The Event

This rally will be held at the Pier 40 courtyard fields from 12-12:45pm, with speakers ranging from Assembly Member Deborah Glick and State Senator Marty Connor to the master chef and all-around cool dude Mario Batali (a fellow downtown denizen whose kids go to the same school as my children). Hot chocolate, bagels and other surprises are in store for all attendees. If you are in town I urge you to stop by.

The Background

Pier 40 is a 15-acre jewel on the Hudson River that currently serves as a place for affordable parking and, more importantly, a place where children and adults can play and relax safely. It is used by both child and adult sports leagues, schools, boaters and others who simply want to be close to the water and chill out. Park space is rapidly being eroded in Manhattan as real estate prices skyrocket, and the West Village, in particular, has been plagued by this phenomenon. It ranks 47th out of 51 districts in New York using the metric of park space per person, and without Pier 40 this already awful ranking would drop further. As some of you know, more and more families are joining the downtown community, attracted by the high-quality public and independent schools, the low-key atmosphere, less population density and shorter buildings that let you see the sky from wherever you are. In short, we could use another Pier 40 - not lose the one we’ve got to yet more commercial development.

The Problem

But the fact is that Pier 40 has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect. It needs help - big help - to the tune of around $125 million. And this is just to fix it. Toss in another $150 million or so to make it ready for additional uses that fit with the mission and guidelines established by the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) and you’ve got one big bill that needs to be paid - yes, around $275 million. Now where is this money going to come from? The HRPT Act of 1998 clearly established the ways in which Pier 40 could and should be used, and to this end ran an RFP (request for proposal) to get ideas for fixing and developing the space. The RFP yielded overly-commercial uses that caused huge backlash in the community, and the RFP was terminated and the proposals tossed out. Fast forward to today - a second RFP was initiated with two formal proposals submitted, one of which was essentially discredited (pretty unfairly, I might add) at the beginning of the process and the second from one of the titans of commercial development, The Related Companies.

The Wrong Answer

The Related Proposal would turn Pier 40 into an entertainment complex. A permanent installation of Cirque du Soleil. A giant movie complex. A banquet hall. A music hall. A Disneyland-esque extension of Houston Street onto Pier 40, with big and small retail shops, restaurants and the like. Oh, and their will be fields, too. On the roof. So, rather than Pier 40 being a park with some alternative uses, it would become an entertainment center with a park on the roof. Now, for those who know and use Pier 40, it is a safe, relaxing place to go. It needs to be fixed and it would benefit from additional uses that support the community, but can you imagine sending your children into a crowded entertainment complex slated to attract 2.7 million visitors to play ball? Oh, and what about the increase in traffic volume in an area that is already choked with cars? And what about the joggers, cyclists, bladers, and walkers who stroll along the water? Can you imagine cars cutting across this in order to park in the complex? Clearly this construct would turn Pier 40 into a destination location and not a park. Yet another mall, not really what we need. The Related folks aren’t bad people, they are just trying to apply a private market solution that requires private returns on capital to a situation that is better suited to a not-for-profit construct. And this is just what a group of which I am a member has suggested to the HRPT and the entire community.

The Right Answer

And now we get to the punch line of my story. After the outpouring of community support following the May gathering, a group of us got together to figure out how to channel this energy, passion and enthusiasm in a way that could help alter the dialog around the Pier 40 issue. Since the RFP was formally closed, and therefore no new proposals were being accepted, our group, the Pier 40 Partnership (Partnership), needed to figure out another way to influence the process and to ensure that the community’s voice was being heard. So we started with the grass-roots approach of setting meetings with every elected official, every appointed official, every community board, block association and community constituency that wanted to figure out a community-centric plan of use that was bankable. Remember, we need $275 million, remember? But we didn’t have that data point at the time. We just knew that we wanted to get involved, get smart and figure out how to effect the outcome of the RFP process.

At the end of the day the Partnership’s solution was to hire a top consulting firm, HR&A (the group that worked on the High Line project), to conduct a feasibility that took into account our community-driven uses and establish a “third way” forward. And the HRPT only gave us five weeks to do this. And we did it. And we came up with a conservancy-based approach that eliminates the friction of returns on private capital and creates a bankable entity for which to raise financing against the cash flows of parking revenues. The plan also includes private donations, and only asks the state and city for a measure of tax capacity to issue tax-exempt bonds. Ours in an innovative solution that has garnered the support of entire community - community boards, block associations, public and independent schools, buildings, and myriad downtown affinity groups. Our study was basically like the Doug Flutie-to-Gerald Phelan “Hail Mary” pass at the end of the BC/Miami game, coming up with a viable solution that arose from the energy and creativity of the community as catalyzed by the Partnership. It is a model for community involvement and how enormous, seemingly intractable problems can be solved.

The Reality

But even with all of this work and near-unanimous support for our plan, politics and short-sightedness might work to quash the voice of the community. And this is why we are having the rally on Sunday, a mere four days before the HPRT is likely to vote on the Pier 40 issue. Click here for more information. I hope to see you there on Sunday. The future of our park depends on it.

Read Fred Wilson’s recent post on Pier 40.

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COMMENT:

AUTHOR: PRoales

EMAIL: proales@proales.com

URL: 

DATE: 01/26/2008 01:31:19 PM

How the hell do you sink $275M into 15 acres?  I know the economics are a little different in NYC, but wow…

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2 years ago | view comments |  Current Affairs