State Senator Daniel Squadron, along with Bill Castro, the Parks Department’s Manhattan borough commissioner, led the first public tour of the Lower East Side’s Pier 42 on Sunday, and announced plans for its interim use while the planning process for the pier’s redevelopment as a waterfront park gets underway. Last November, Squadron and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer secured $16 million for the redevelopment of Pier 42 and the completion of the East River waterfront park, which will help complete the “green ribbon” around Manhattan. On Sunday, Squadron and Castro announced that a Waterfront Community Day will be held on Pier 42, at South and Montgomery Sts., on Sat., Nov. 3, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., sponsored by the Hester Street Collaborative, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Lower East Side Waterfront Alliance, Squadron and Parks. The event will be the first time the pier is open for public use. Community Board 3’s next public planning meeting for Pier 42 will be held Thurs., Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. at Hamilton Fish Recreation Center, 128 Pitt St., between Houston and Stanton Sts. Clockwise from top left: Castro and Squadron out on the pier talking with constituents; Squadron, journalist Ed Litvak and others tour the old pier shed’s interior; Squadron snapping a shot of constituents out on the waterfront; the senator, along with Aixa Torres, Smith Houses Residents Association president, led the group outside to the waterfront after touring the pier shed’s interior.
