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Drastic steps at Pier 40
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Photo by Lincoln Anderson
Workers were constructing a temporary exterior stairway to the rooftop of Pier 40 this week. According to a spokesperson for the Hudson River Park Trust, the temporary staircase is for “emergency egress only.” It will only be in place until permanent stairs, located inside the pier, are replaced. Meanwhile, Madelyn Wils, the Trust’s president, at the state-city authority’s recent board of directors meeting, announced that the decaying W. Houston St. pier is now “in liquidation mode,” and that a phased shutdown of sections of the 14.5-acre pier will start occurring over the next five years. The Trust is pushing for legislative changes to the Hudson River Park Act that would allow for a wider range of uses on the pier, such as the addition of 600 or more units of high-end residential housing.
And our Community Board Chair (rumored) and Deb Glick's office are still saying that the city is going to come up with the money for completion and repair of Pier 40. HRPT is playing hardball and spending money (how much?) on this very public exterior tactic, essentially a high profile, high traffic public relations move. Where is the tangible response? Not the public complaint about HRPT from Glick, but the plan for Pier 40, the alternative? The solution. Where is it? HRPT is making all the plays, and there is once again no response.
If it can't be the park as it was meant to be, then sink it for the fish and save us our millions of $$$.