urban planning today: waterfront FDR Drive obstructs pedestrian access to the waterfront, and in areas where FDR Drive is above grade, pedestrian access is largely blocked by parking lots for cars, trucks and buses. This circumstance is indicative of the East River’s industrial past when pedestrian access was not a priority. Today containerization and mechanization have largely moved port activities away from the East River, so we are left with a number of
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CITY PLAN TO TRANSFORM THE WATERFRONT
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unexploited piers. The city sees the value in urban parks and the waterfront and recognizes that the East River waterfront is underutilized.
EAST RIVER RIVER EAST WATERFRONT FRONT WATER
City planners and community representatives have applied Jane Jacobs’s principles and worked together to best determine and resolve the issues surrounding the East River waterfront in order to develop it. FDR Drive was built with the goal of moving street traffic to an arterial parkway, which it succeeded in doing, but it hinders waterfront access and development. At locations where pedestrians are able to cross over or under the parkway, it is loud and dark—a potentially unpleasant and unsafe circumstance. The city program, outlined in this section, aims to reduce the negative impacts of FDR Drive, respect the importance of its infrastructure and ultimately transform and revitalize the East River waterfront.