April 24, 2024 • 36 mins
Just 30 years ago, Manhattan’s west side shoreline was marked by decaying piers and dilapidated buildings left when the shipping industry moved out of the city. Today, the Hudson River Park stretches four miles along New York City and the piers have become playgrounds, paths, concert venues, and places to bike, walk, kayak and play volleyball. Listen to the story of this unique park, and how a partnership between the city and state of New York, along with residents and donors, transformed the prized waterfront space. Martha interviews Connie Fishman, Executive Director of Hudson River Park Friends and Carrie Roble, Vice President Estuary and Education for the Hudson River Park Trust, in this enlightening conversation about preserving our public spaces.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think that it created a model at the time that,
as far as I know, didn't exist previously, and we
didn't know if it would really work, and so now
more than twenty years later, we can see that it
was successful.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
For many years, my offices were at the Star at
Lehigh Building on the west side of Manhattan on twenty
sixth Street. My windows looked down on the growing park
along the Hudson River. In twenty twelve, I joined the
board of Hudson River Park Friends to help them in
their mission of caring for and expanding the great green
(00:41):
space along the Hudson River. The park is doing so
many things to beautify and improve the shoreline. Joining me
today are Connie Fishman, the executive director of Hudson River
Park Friends, and Carrie Roebole, the vice president Estuary and
Education for the Hudson River Park Trust. They're going to
(01:02):
talk about how the park has grown and all of
the resources it offers. Welcome to my podcasts, both of you,
Connie and Carrie. The park stretches from fifty ninth Street
on the west side of Manhattan all the way down
to Battery Park, and I have driven that road the
West Side Highway for so many years. I hate to
(01:24):
tell you, but recently, for the last twenty one years
from Bedford, New York, so I drive all the way
down almost almost both to twenty sixth Street, and I
have watched so much transformation. And then being a member
of your board, Connie, I have witnessed even more transformation.
It is incredible what a small group of people can
(01:46):
do to a very vast piece of property if they
are right minded. So talk about the expansion and the
improvement of the West Side, maybe even for a little
bit of the history, because people don't know what we're
talking about when we say Hudson River Park. Oh there's
a park there, you know, it's kind of a strange,
fabulous place.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, thank you so much for having us here today.
We love talking about Hudson River Park. It's our favorite subject.
The Hudson River itself is a little over three hundred
miles going all the way from the Adirondacks down to
the Battery in New York Harbor, and the Hudson River
Park is the last four miles, so from fifty ninth
(02:28):
Street down to Battery Park City. It used to be
all maritime industry and shipping piers before that before industrialization,
it was mostly transportation for goods on smaller ships and
for people coming to New York, and until about the
(02:49):
nineteen seventies the predominant uses were shipping an industry, and
then the shipping technology changed and the kind of piers
and land that were available for the new shipping containerization
just didn't exist on the West side of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
The ships were really too big to come up.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
The ships were too big, the cargo was something they
used to call break bulk instead of containers when they
containerized it. There was no place for the trucks and
the huge empty fields of container storage. And it moved
to New Jersey and that left the waterfront down on
this part of Manhattan basically empty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Empty, and deteriorating.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, and without private businesses occupying the piers, there was
nobody taking care of it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And yet prime prime real estate, so beautiful. When you
see what some companies have been able to do, like
Google taking Peer fifty seven taking that and turning that
into a corporate headquarters jutting out into the Hudson River,
it is quite an astonishing, astonishing site and an astonishing place.
(03:59):
So talk about I mean the piers first, of all,
they deteriorated a lot, didn't they.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, piers, they did. They were made of wood, and ironically,
as the water got cleaner, they deteriorated faster.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Oh how come.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Because the water cleanliness encouraged more marine life, including something
called shipworms, and they bite into the wood and they
eat little holes in it, and ultimately the piles fail
and the piers fall down.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So those piers jutted out. How far? What was the
longest pier?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think the longest pier was close to one thousand feet.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Out into the water. And how wide is the Hudson River.
It's widest here in New.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
York, probably close to over a quarter mile.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, it looks like to me farther than when you
walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which is about three quarters
of a mile. And it's definitely its widest down here
near the harbor.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the piers were made out of the piles. They're
called piles, aren't they pilings that are driven down into
the fl of the river.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yes, they hold the.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Superstructure of the pier. Those were made out of what
kind of wood?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I don't actually know. I think a lot of them
were probably pine, because it's cheap and easy to find.
They were all built probably more than one hundred years ago,
and then rebuilt again because there were many fires over
the years. Oh, the piers would burn down, the pier
sheds would burn down, then they would get replaced, and
finally when we started working on it, we rebuilt them
(05:30):
in concrete because there's really just no way to maintain.
I wouldn't peer like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So you drove, you drove pilings and filled them with concrete.
That's really better for the river too.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I don't know if it's better for the river, but
not having to work in the river as often is
certainly better for the creatures that are in the river, right.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And concrete is a hard material that a lot of
these encrusting organisms like to settle on and.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Grow off of.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So we see a lot of wildlife on these concrete piles.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
With like snails and muscles and things like that. Yeah, exactly.
And since I've been on the board, the reports of
the wildlife that is inhabiting the river is so encouraging.
It's so nice to know that the river is clean
enough now to allow for this kind of habitation.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And improving all the time. Some of the work that
Carrie is doing at the park specifically targets certain kinds
of animals so that even more of them are coming
all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
We have over eighty five species of fish that we've
documented using this section of the Hudson River, and our
habitat enhancement projects are building quarters and habitat for these
fish to find protection in and to.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Feed off of.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So in the last three years we've installed over thirty
five million oysters, and that's just part of this effort
to help improve the water quality, but also the habitat
for the wide range of fish that call the park home.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Now that said would you eat a fish from the
West side of Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So our partners at Department of Health advised that women
who are of child there and age should not eat fish. Unfortunately,
we're still dealing with the impacts of these historical pollutants.
So from the time that Connie was referencing, there's so
much industry on the river, and before the Clean Water Act,
(07:34):
there weren't regulations regulating point sources or companies dumping into
our waterways. So we're still dealing with the impacts of
PCBs are polychorinated by funnels and those accumulating fish tissues
and should not be eaten by young people or people
(07:56):
that want to have babies.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, let's good to clarify, but Kande, you represent all
The two of you represent two specific entities, the Hudson
River Park Trusts and the Friends of the Hudson River Park.
Why are two different organizations required to manage this park
which is an independent of New York State New York
City and it is totally reliant on contribution for maintenance
(08:21):
and rebuilding.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
It's a complicated structure. It comes from a strange history
of the property before the park existed, belonging two thirds
to the State of New York and one third to
the City of New York. And they eventually agreed on
legislation called the Hudson River Park Act, and that created
the Hudson River Park Trust to build, operate, and maintain
(08:44):
the park, and the Friends was formed at the same
time to raise private funds to be their philanthropic partner.
So the Trust has within it the properties like Google,
which you referenced at Peer fifty seven. It also has
Chelsea Piers up at seventeenth and eighteenth Streets and the
(09:05):
Circle Line up in Midtown and then some smaller concessions
up and down for food and beverages, and those create
income that goes directly to the park, and then the
Friends raises private money and grants philanthropically to add to that.
But the board of the Trust is actually controlled fifty
(09:27):
to fifty by the governor and the mayor, and it's
a complete partnership. Unless they agree on something, it doesn't happen.
So essentially everything that has been built, designed, and opened
since it started back in nineteen ninety eight is one
hundred percent unanimously agreed to by both the city and
(09:47):
the state. But the Trust itself and the Friends are
independently run and not part of the city or state
operating departments.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, at four miles in length, the park it's is
one of the largest parks in New York, is it?
How does a compared in size really to Central Park?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It's the second largest park in Manhattan, Oh, it is,
and after Central Park. And so it's one hundred and
fifty acres of land in this case really piers and upland,
and four hundred acres of a protected estuarine sanctuary because
the river itself is part of not just the Hudson
(10:30):
River Estuary, but the Hudson River Park.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I'd see.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, So the river is such an important space for
migrating fish and for wildlife in general as they're moving
up and down state. We see a really exciting monarch
butterfly migration come through the park each September. But that
estuary is this important piece of our mission that influences
(10:56):
our programming. We have this River Project department that teaches
field trips and public programs so people can learn about
the river, be community scientists and get their hands wet.
And then also it influences our operations, so when we
actually do construction is influenced by, for instance, the overwintering
(11:18):
of strip bass. We are thoughtful of these wildlife rhythms
and are always responding to to ensure the health and
protection of this es Stream sanctuary.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, how many projects have been built in the park
since its inception.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I believe there are now sixteen new public park peers
and a park pier is one that is primarily open space, plantings, sunbathing, recreations,
sports things. Really for all of the communities that are
(11:55):
next door to us, and for the city as a whole.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, I have an apartment on street, so right on
the river, and it is so much fun to look
out at the view late in the afternoon because on
that particular pier it's a lot of grass and there
are yoga classes, dancing classes, strollers, dog walkers, bicycle riders,
(12:20):
people pushing baby carriages. Of course, it is so active
that park, and it's so much fun to see how
many people are enjoying. How many people a day do
you think stroll or use the park?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know a day, but the most recent count
that we had, and it's quite difficult because at four
miles you have so many places that people can come
in and out. But our best guess was that annually
we have seventeen million visits a year. Now, that's not
unique visitors, because somebody with a dog might be there
(12:52):
four times a day. But it is a very very
busy place with lots and lots to do. And one
of the things that we did when we were designing
the park is to meet with each of the neighborhoods
to figure out what they felt was missing in their
community and put those things into their section of the park.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So how many playgrounds for children are there now along the.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Park there are four open and one which will be
open in the spring. One is at fifty seventh Street,
one is at twenty third Street, one is that Jane Street,
one is at Peer twenty six at Northmoor, and another
at Peer twenty five right next door.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And they're really fabulous playgrounds. If any of you have
a chance to visit, it's so much fun. And you know,
parallel to this beautiful park is the highline for part
of the park, and that has been just a boom
to New Yorkers because they have a nice elevated park
to stroll and visit and see, I'm looking at it
(13:54):
right now. We're at the Samsung headquarters here in the
West Village, and it's so much fun to look at
that beautiful, beautiful highline. But that that park started way
best part did start a little bit before the Hudson
River Park, didn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think it started a little bit after after. But
they were successful in becoming one hundred percent complete faster
than we were.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, well you're much bigger.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We're much bigger. And also they have only one parent,
which is the City of New York, and so the
city got to decide the pace of the money that
went into building it. Whereas we have two parents and
sometimes they have different sized pocketbooks.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Always the problem. Some of you listeners may recognize the
Hudson River because of the Miracle on the Hudson. Describe
how big this river really is and how it flows.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
One of the interesting things about the Hudson River is
down here it's part of the estuary where right near
the harbor, and so it's tidal, and I think the
tide keeps changing all the way up until a little
past Poughkeepsie. So the farther north you go, the more
fresh water is in it. But in our section, every
(15:16):
six hours there's a change in tide and it's a
significant change, and so it is really noticeable, and a
very high tide looks totally different in the park than
a very low tide. It's also a home to ferry
boats and cargo boats and the sanitation and water quality
(15:37):
boats that are up and down, so it's a really
busy river, pleasure boats and pleasure boats, things like the
Circle Line and the world Yachts and the Statue of
Liberty Fair.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
There are a lot of sports boats there are there
are all kinds of There are kayaks, canoes, jet skis
water skiers. I saw a water skier the.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Other day that I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Oh yeah, water that's up the river, up the river.
But boy, it is really getting more and more and
more used.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It is very busy. We have I think it's for
boat houses, for human powered boating, so kayaks, canoes, Hawaiian outriggers.
There is a group that builds what are called Whitehall gigs,
which is like the boat that George Washington crossed the
Delaware in. So that there is so much activity in
(16:26):
the water.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So the newest initiative is the science Playground. Why was
sturgeon suggested for the theme of that beautiful, beautiful playground?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I think sturgeon it's a fish that of course is
native to the Hudson River, and then it's such an
interesting fish. They're a prehistoric fish. They were around the
time that the dinosaurs were here, and they're really large.
Yet because of human impacts, their population significantly declined. We
(16:59):
would fish them for their caviar, their eggs, and there's
been a lot of effort to help to restore their
population because we have to think about the entirety of
the Lower Hudson Estuary. They come in from the ocean
and this is their spawning ground. And so we put
the sturgeon, two different types of sturgeon there, because I
(17:22):
think it just evokes so much curiosity people can't believe
that they are in the Hudson. And then we were
able to play on a lot of their different elements
like barbles and scoots, and students can climb on them
and swing from them and actually go inside them, pretend
(17:42):
like they're a crab that was just eaten by a
sturgeon and literally slide through their digestive track. So it
allowed us to build a Hudson River environment on land
and through play learn a lot about local wildlife.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Who designed the park? Was there one lens escape designer
or one scientists who actually sort of like conceived of
the look and feel of this beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
There are four actually now five main design teams that
worked on the park, in part because when we started
building there were very few large landscape architecture firms located
in New York. There just wasn't that much open space
development or open.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Space after Olmsted and Central.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Park, That's right, and so this was an opportunity for
a lot of smaller firms to work together and what
we did was we had a master planning team that
helped design the elements that run through the park from
start to finish, like the paving on the esplanade and
the railing at the water and the light pools, and
(18:52):
we wanted people to feel like they understood they were
in the same place as they moved from neighborhood to neighborhood.
But then separately, there was a landscape architect team led
by Susake Associates and Matthews Nielsen down in Tribeca. There
was a team in Greenwich Village led by Abel Bainson Buttz.
(19:13):
There was a team at Gansport which just opened last year,
which was the James Corner Field Operations team. There was
a Chelsea team of Michael van Valkenberg and associates. And
then there was an architect who led the team up
in the North where there are many more buildings, and
that was Richard Dattner. And it took many years for
(19:35):
all of them to finish and get their sections built,
but finally we are almost one hundred percent done, which
is for me a huge achievement.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
It really is is amazing. And the Hudson River Park
also has a very robust group of tenants, the tenants
that live on or near the park. How does that
help the park?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
The income the tenants is the primary income that supports
the operations invest the big parking garage, the big parking
garage at Peer forty, which fits probably about fifteen hundred
to two thousand cars.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
My droughter keeps your car in there and walks twenty
blocks to get there and climbs up to the fourth floor.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's very Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
It is very Manhattan. But it's a safe, lovely place
to keep a car.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's safe. It just was rehabilitated a couple of years ago.
All those three thousand piles needed to be fixed to
keep it standing. But one of the unique things about
the arrangement for creating the trust was, unlike most New
York City parks, we get to keep the income that's
generated within the park itself, and that is what keeps
(20:49):
the lights on and the pavers fixed, and the piles repaired,
and all of the kind of maintenance that you don't
really see. You just see a beautiful park.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
How many peers actually jut out into the river.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Now, the total besides the sixteen that are.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
The park piers.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
There are I believe four piers that are part of
Chelsea Piers. Then there are three up at Circle Line,
there's one in the north for Kaned, there's one at
the Intrepid. So all together it's probably close to about
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So twenty five out of the probably one hundreds. When
the river was the bustling port that it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Was, absolutely I think there at one point not only
was there appier at the end of every street, but
on both sides of it there were pier sheds and
ships in the water, and back in those days you
couldn't see the water. It was completely blocked by the
commerce that was going on.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
How unusual is it for a park to have such
a mix of commercial entities and parkland.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think it was an experiment in New York when
we first started. I wouldn't be surprised if it's happening
more and more across the country because this issue of
the de industrialized waterfront is not unique to New York,
and many older cities in particular who were built on
(22:15):
rivers have the same issue, and they're all dealing with
how do you make it nice for people to come
to the water, how do you make it a recreational
access and bringing more nature into urban areas, but also
then how do you support it?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
How do you do you compete with the East River
here in New York with the Gin Building and those
places or is it a complementary kind of sharing of ideas.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I think it's really complementary. We speak to our peer
groups from other parks all the time. We're actually part
of a group called the Parks and Open Space Partners
in New York that form during the pandemic when we
all were struggling with figuring out how to raise money.
And it's probably got forty or more organizations in it now,
(23:03):
and we all work with each other to give advice,
to find out how some of them have succeeded when
others haven't, and really share the brain power of the
people who are working in these places.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Carrie, you're so knowledgeable about the wildlife on this great estuary?
Is that raychel Cole the river an estuary? Yes, of
course it is. So who's really responsible for all the
science that's going on in the research? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So our River Project team we're now a team of
nine individuals. We have science staff as well as environmental educators.
They're translating our research to programs that are then being
taught to students and families and just the general public.
But our science team thoughtfully part with local universities so
(24:02):
scientists throughout New York City can do research in the park,
and we facilitate that through a visiting scholars program. We've
been building a partnership with CUNEI, so the City of
New York University to help local scientists and faculty at
those universities bring their research and their students into the park.
(24:22):
With the Designated Estering Sanctuary, we have this management plan
that has goals around conservation and restoration and really to
conduct research on water quality, on wildlife, on climate impacts.
We need to do that collectively and with many hands.
(24:42):
So with that plan, it guides us in our partners
and building a really rich roster of research so that
we're looking at the river over time comprehensively.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's so much fun to talk to people who are
involved with some of your and I've met quite a
few of them, and they're so excited. They're so excited
about not only educating the use of New York City,
but also just all of us, the inhabitants here because
we should know what's going on in our river. What
about the little park? How did that happen? That's a
(25:18):
little island island. I go at Little Park, but it's
a little island that was built by Barry Diller and
his wife, Diane von Furstenberg, I guess, and with the
English architect who designed that park, jutting out just south
of the Google Pier.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So the project at Little Island was completely unique to
what all of the rest of Husson River Park had
been doing up to that point. And I think in
part it was triggered by the fact that at that moment,
it was probably a few years after the financial crisis,
and so there was a slow down in construction of
(25:55):
the park. And one of the designated park piers that
had been built was the pure at fourteenth Street, and
that just happened to be sort of across the street
and a block over to where Barry Diller's office was
at the IC Building, and so he looked at this
every day, and I was probably aware that the building
(26:16):
had sort of come to a standstill at that point
because there was no private money and there was no
public money, and they started discussing with the former president
the trust and the former board chair also what could
be done with that space in the meantime since it
wasn't being built by the public sector, And he hired
(26:38):
Thomas Heatherwick and they dreamed up what at the time
seemed like this totally insane design and it was really
unlike anything else, not just in our park but anywhere.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
It's like a little hilly park jutting out into the
up out of the Hudson River.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yes, it's sitting on I don't know, I've forgotten the
number of We refer to them as like flower pots,
because that's what they look like. They're sort of tulips.
But when they those got floated down the Hudson and
when they started to install them, just it attracted so
much attention. It's really wild and the landscape architecture there
(27:18):
was Matthews Nielsen who also did our Tribeca section, and
it's just so interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
And everything seems to be thriving out there in the river.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And they were so careful to make sure that every
season of the year had something blooming. So the spring,
the summer, the fall, the winter, they all look very different,
but they're all beautiful.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
So for those of you coming into New York City
from out of town, it's certainly worth a visit to
see Little Park.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Absolutely every time we have visitors. It used to be
they wanted to see the highline that was first, and
now they want to see Little Island.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So the plantings along the park are quite beautiful. They're
so many trees and so many plants. Who takes care
of these all of this and who plants all of this?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Sure, we have an amazing horticulture team. So that team's
let up by a matt post and they're out there
rain or shine in ninety degree weather and below thirty
degree weather to take care of all of these plants.
As Connie was just saying about Little Island, we're really
(28:29):
thoughtful about having plants that are blooming at different points
of the year, to have cedars and hemlocks, and supporting
some of the deciduous trees so there's habitat and food
also for all of the different birds and insects that inhabit.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
The park respect the plantings like they should.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yes, oh good, certainly.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I sometimes worried when I saw something so beautiful that
somebody who's going to come and dig it up in
the middle of the night, but they're respectful.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
They are and they see the hard work. I think
of our horticulture team as well as our volunteers. So
our Friends group leads an entire a huge volunteer arm
and we work with community volunteers, We work with corporate
groups to help us to keep the park looking beautiful,
and that takes many hours. So groups are removing plants
(29:23):
that shouldn't be there, so invasive plants that like fragmighties
or mugwart and they're helping us to plant the flowers,
the bulbs, the trees and shrubs that we all appreciate.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
What's the biggest success of the park? Would you say, Connie,
the biggest success in the park.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
That's hard for me because I love it all, but
I think that it created a model at the time that,
as far as I know, didn't exist previously for how
you could do this and not be dependent on the
support of the budgets of the city and state parks,
(30:01):
because not only are they stretched very thin all the time,
but in really bad times. It means you're not dependent
on them and you can allocate your own resources in
a way to keep it clean, to keep it safe,
to keep it beautiful, and I think before we started
(30:22):
that was just an idea and we didn't know if
it would really work. And so now more than twenty
years later, we can see that it was successful. And
the people who live across from us on the West side,
in all those different neighborhoods, they can see it too.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Now with a building of Hudson Yards, which is a
gigantic real estate development, how did that affect the park
or didn't it?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
On the Friend's side, it certainly has affected the park.
It means that we have thousands of neighbors where we
didn't before. And our volunteer program that Carrie was just
referencing now has more than three thousand volunteers a year
and I think probably at least a dozen, at most
(31:11):
maybe twenty new businesses that are occupants of Hudson Yards.
Good yeah, and very supportive.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Hudson Yards was once the railroad yards of New York
City and all the railroad that's where all the trains
ended up and took off from, and it's now transformed
into this most amazing modernistic city of itself.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It really is incredible. That area, in fact, right across
from where your office is is where we have the
last Hudson River float bridge, which brought the goods over
on barges from New Jersey and then put them on
rails that eventually wound up on the high Line. So
there's just so much history in the sites that are
(31:56):
across the street from the park and in the park itself.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Well, I'm so excited to see the continued progress of
the park. I just want you to describe the gala,
which I attend every year, and it's so much fun.
And what are you doing this year with this gala?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
This year is still in the planning stage. We're currently
working with one of our park tenants for one of
our honorees. I'm not going to divulge that yet because
that hasn't been publicizing, but looking for our other one.
And one of the things I love about our gala
is that it is so full of friends and neighbors
(32:35):
from you know, all the would be.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Really nice about it. It really is a friendly gathering
of how many people like.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It used to be almost a thousand. It's gotten smaller
since COVID because there used to be like no room
to get up from your table, but it's now still
about seven seven fifteen.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Oh, I know, it's so many people and every everybody
talking to everybody.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's like a giant block party is and.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Just bring the neighborhood totally together. And last year you
raised quite a bit of money.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
We did. I think we raised nearly three million dollars. Uh.
And then we just had our second biggest event last Friday,
which is our Playground Committee Lunch. Yes, so those two
are our biggest events, but they're also it's just amazing
to see people come to something like that, not because
(33:27):
their company sent them, like as a chore and definitely
not a rubber chicken dinner.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
No, because they're because they're neighbors.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
They are their neighbors and they love the park.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And they love the park, and they use the park,
which is the nicest thing.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
They probably use it more than I do.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
What can one do in the Hudson River.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Park, Well, there are so many things to do in
Hudson River Park. You can jog, you can cycle, you
can play tennis, you can use the skate parks, you
can go to the playgrounds, you can play soccer, baseball, football,
and almost any other field sport.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
And I know you can do yoga, and I know
you can exercise and I know you can dance. I've
seen dancing classes.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
You can listen to music. We have jazz, we have
Afro Caribbean, we have Bollywood and Bangra. You can bring
your dog to our amazing dog parks, which is so
important for New Yorkers with their tiny apartments. You can
take a cruise ship. You can learn about World War
(34:34):
Two at the Intrepid Museum. You can go to a
fine dining restaurant. You can go to a place like
City Winery and listen to music. You can go to
the rooftop park at the top of the Google Pier.
You can visit a place like Little Island with your
out of town friends.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'm getting tired.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Or you can just walk and look at the beauty nature.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And you can walk four miles down and four miles
back and get all your cardio in in a day.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's right. And if you run the perimeter of each
and every pier, you can add another three miles to that.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
And I'll just add you can also see some of
these Hudson River fish up close in the park's wet lab.
We have a flow through aquarium at Peer forty. It's
one of a kind, and you can actually see stripe bass, oyster, toadfish,
oysters growing and learn a lot about our local wildlife.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
There.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
What street is that Peer that's at Houston Street.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
At Houston Street Peer forty here.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Forty and you can go to the Discovery Tank, Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And then up at Peer fifty seven, which is that
building that we were talking about with Google, we have
a Discovery Tank. It's a gallery and a classroom. There's
interactive games. You can dive deep into the Hudson and
learn about what's growing in and around our piles. You
can spend a day as an oyster toadfish in a
game a tabletop game, or build plankton and learn about
(36:01):
the role that plankton play in helping to keep our
river healthy.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So you see, there's plenty to do in the Hudson
River Park. I hope all New Yorkers and all visitors
to New York will take advantage of it. Follow at
Hudson River Park to see their events and programs. Thank you,
Connie so very much for taking time out of your busy,
busy day. And Carrie, thank you. It's really nice to
(36:24):
talk to both of you and to learn more about
one of New York's finest, finest attractions. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's been a plange to thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Mark, thank you.
I think that it created a model at the time that,
as far as I know, didn't exist previously, and we
didn't know if it would really work, and so now
more than twenty years later, we can see that it
was successful.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
For many years, my offices were at the Star at
Lehigh Building on the west side of Manhattan on twenty
sixth Street. My windows looked down on the growing park
along the Hudson River. In twenty twelve, I joined the
board of Hudson River Park Friends to help them in
their mission of caring for and expanding the great green
(00:41):
space along the Hudson River. The park is doing so
many things to beautify and improve the shoreline. Joining me
today are Connie Fishman, the executive director of Hudson River
Park Friends, and Carrie Roebole, the vice president Estuary and
Education for the Hudson River Park Trust. They're going to
(01:02):
talk about how the park has grown and all of
the resources it offers. Welcome to my podcasts, both of you,
Connie and Carrie. The park stretches from fifty ninth Street
on the west side of Manhattan all the way down
to Battery Park, and I have driven that road the
West Side Highway for so many years. I hate to
(01:24):
tell you, but recently, for the last twenty one years
from Bedford, New York, so I drive all the way
down almost almost both to twenty sixth Street, and I
have watched so much transformation. And then being a member
of your board, Connie, I have witnessed even more transformation.
It is incredible what a small group of people can
(01:46):
do to a very vast piece of property if they
are right minded. So talk about the expansion and the
improvement of the West Side, maybe even for a little
bit of the history, because people don't know what we're
talking about when we say Hudson River Park. Oh there's
a park there, you know, it's kind of a strange,
fabulous place.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yes, thank you so much for having us here today.
We love talking about Hudson River Park. It's our favorite subject.
The Hudson River itself is a little over three hundred
miles going all the way from the Adirondacks down to
the Battery in New York Harbor, and the Hudson River
Park is the last four miles, so from fifty ninth
(02:28):
Street down to Battery Park City. It used to be
all maritime industry and shipping piers before that before industrialization,
it was mostly transportation for goods on smaller ships and
for people coming to New York, and until about the
(02:49):
nineteen seventies the predominant uses were shipping an industry, and
then the shipping technology changed and the kind of piers
and land that were available for the new shipping containerization
just didn't exist on the West side of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
The ships were really too big to come up.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
The ships were too big, the cargo was something they
used to call break bulk instead of containers when they
containerized it. There was no place for the trucks and
the huge empty fields of container storage. And it moved
to New Jersey and that left the waterfront down on
this part of Manhattan basically empty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Empty, and deteriorating.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, and without private businesses occupying the piers, there was
nobody taking care of it.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And yet prime prime real estate, so beautiful. When you
see what some companies have been able to do, like
Google taking Peer fifty seven taking that and turning that
into a corporate headquarters jutting out into the Hudson River,
it is quite an astonishing, astonishing site and an astonishing place.
(03:59):
So talk about I mean the piers first, of all,
they deteriorated a lot, didn't they.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, piers, they did. They were made of wood, and ironically,
as the water got cleaner, they deteriorated faster.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Oh how come.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Because the water cleanliness encouraged more marine life, including something
called shipworms, and they bite into the wood and they
eat little holes in it, and ultimately the piles fail
and the piers fall down.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So those piers jutted out. How far? What was the
longest pier?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think the longest pier was close to one thousand feet.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Out into the water. And how wide is the Hudson River.
It's widest here in New.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
York, probably close to over a quarter mile.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, it looks like to me farther than when you
walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which is about three quarters
of a mile. And it's definitely its widest down here
near the harbor.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the piers were made out of the piles. They're
called piles, aren't they pilings that are driven down into
the fl of the river.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yes, they hold the.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Superstructure of the pier. Those were made out of what
kind of wood?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I don't actually know. I think a lot of them
were probably pine, because it's cheap and easy to find.
They were all built probably more than one hundred years ago,
and then rebuilt again because there were many fires over
the years. Oh, the piers would burn down, the pier
sheds would burn down, then they would get replaced, and
finally when we started working on it, we rebuilt them
(05:30):
in concrete because there's really just no way to maintain.
I wouldn't peer like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So you drove, you drove pilings and filled them with concrete.
That's really better for the river too.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I don't know if it's better for the river, but
not having to work in the river as often is
certainly better for the creatures that are in the river, right.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And concrete is a hard material that a lot of
these encrusting organisms like to settle on and.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Grow off of.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
So we see a lot of wildlife on these concrete piles.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
With like snails and muscles and things like that. Yeah, exactly.
And since I've been on the board, the reports of
the wildlife that is inhabiting the river is so encouraging.
It's so nice to know that the river is clean
enough now to allow for this kind of habitation.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And improving all the time. Some of the work that
Carrie is doing at the park specifically targets certain kinds
of animals so that even more of them are coming
all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
We have over eighty five species of fish that we've
documented using this section of the Hudson River, and our
habitat enhancement projects are building quarters and habitat for these
fish to find protection in and to.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Feed off of.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So in the last three years we've installed over thirty
five million oysters, and that's just part of this effort
to help improve the water quality, but also the habitat
for the wide range of fish that call the park home.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Now that said would you eat a fish from the
West side of Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So our partners at Department of Health advised that women
who are of child there and age should not eat fish. Unfortunately,
we're still dealing with the impacts of these historical pollutants.
So from the time that Connie was referencing, there's so
much industry on the river, and before the Clean Water Act,
(07:34):
there weren't regulations regulating point sources or companies dumping into
our waterways. So we're still dealing with the impacts of
PCBs are polychorinated by funnels and those accumulating fish tissues
and should not be eaten by young people or people
(07:56):
that want to have babies.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, let's good to clarify, but Kande, you represent all
The two of you represent two specific entities, the Hudson
River Park Trusts and the Friends of the Hudson River Park.
Why are two different organizations required to manage this park
which is an independent of New York State New York
City and it is totally reliant on contribution for maintenance
(08:21):
and rebuilding.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
It's a complicated structure. It comes from a strange history
of the property before the park existed, belonging two thirds
to the State of New York and one third to
the City of New York. And they eventually agreed on
legislation called the Hudson River Park Act, and that created
the Hudson River Park Trust to build, operate, and maintain
(08:44):
the park, and the Friends was formed at the same
time to raise private funds to be their philanthropic partner.
So the Trust has within it the properties like Google,
which you referenced at Peer fifty seven. It also has
Chelsea Piers up at seventeenth and eighteenth Streets and the
(09:05):
Circle Line up in Midtown and then some smaller concessions
up and down for food and beverages, and those create
income that goes directly to the park, and then the
Friends raises private money and grants philanthropically to add to that.
But the board of the Trust is actually controlled fifty
(09:27):
to fifty by the governor and the mayor, and it's
a complete partnership. Unless they agree on something, it doesn't happen.
So essentially everything that has been built, designed, and opened
since it started back in nineteen ninety eight is one
hundred percent unanimously agreed to by both the city and
(09:47):
the state. But the Trust itself and the Friends are
independently run and not part of the city or state
operating departments.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, at four miles in length, the park it's is
one of the largest parks in New York, is it?
How does a compared in size really to Central Park?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It's the second largest park in Manhattan, Oh, it is,
and after Central Park. And so it's one hundred and
fifty acres of land in this case really piers and upland,
and four hundred acres of a protected estuarine sanctuary because
the river itself is part of not just the Hudson
(10:30):
River Estuary, but the Hudson River Park.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I'd see.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, So the river is such an important space for
migrating fish and for wildlife in general as they're moving
up and down state. We see a really exciting monarch
butterfly migration come through the park each September. But that
estuary is this important piece of our mission that influences
(10:56):
our programming. We have this River Project department that teaches
field trips and public programs so people can learn about
the river, be community scientists and get their hands wet.
And then also it influences our operations, so when we
actually do construction is influenced by, for instance, the overwintering
(11:18):
of strip bass. We are thoughtful of these wildlife rhythms
and are always responding to to ensure the health and
protection of this es Stream sanctuary.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, how many projects have been built in the park
since its inception.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I believe there are now sixteen new public park peers
and a park pier is one that is primarily open space, plantings, sunbathing, recreations,
sports things. Really for all of the communities that are
(11:55):
next door to us, and for the city as a whole.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, I have an apartment on street, so right on
the river, and it is so much fun to look
out at the view late in the afternoon because on
that particular pier it's a lot of grass and there
are yoga classes, dancing classes, strollers, dog walkers, bicycle riders,
(12:20):
people pushing baby carriages. Of course, it is so active
that park, and it's so much fun to see how
many people are enjoying. How many people a day do
you think stroll or use the park?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know a day, but the most recent count
that we had, and it's quite difficult because at four
miles you have so many places that people can come
in and out. But our best guess was that annually
we have seventeen million visits a year. Now, that's not
unique visitors, because somebody with a dog might be there
(12:52):
four times a day. But it is a very very
busy place with lots and lots to do. And one
of the things that we did when we were designing
the park is to meet with each of the neighborhoods
to figure out what they felt was missing in their
community and put those things into their section of the park.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So how many playgrounds for children are there now along the.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Park there are four open and one which will be
open in the spring. One is at fifty seventh Street,
one is at twenty third Street, one is that Jane Street,
one is at Peer twenty six at Northmoor, and another
at Peer twenty five right next door.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And they're really fabulous playgrounds. If any of you have
a chance to visit, it's so much fun. And you know,
parallel to this beautiful park is the highline for part
of the park, and that has been just a boom
to New Yorkers because they have a nice elevated park
to stroll and visit and see, I'm looking at it
(13:54):
right now. We're at the Samsung headquarters here in the
West Village, and it's so much fun to look at
that beautiful, beautiful highline. But that that park started way
best part did start a little bit before the Hudson
River Park, didn't it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think it started a little bit after after. But
they were successful in becoming one hundred percent complete faster
than we were.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, well you're much bigger.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
We're much bigger. And also they have only one parent,
which is the City of New York, and so the
city got to decide the pace of the money that
went into building it. Whereas we have two parents and
sometimes they have different sized pocketbooks.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Always the problem. Some of you listeners may recognize the
Hudson River because of the Miracle on the Hudson. Describe
how big this river really is and how it flows.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
One of the interesting things about the Hudson River is
down here it's part of the estuary where right near
the harbor, and so it's tidal, and I think the
tide keeps changing all the way up until a little
past Poughkeepsie. So the farther north you go, the more
fresh water is in it. But in our section, every
(15:16):
six hours there's a change in tide and it's a
significant change, and so it is really noticeable, and a
very high tide looks totally different in the park than
a very low tide. It's also a home to ferry
boats and cargo boats and the sanitation and water quality
(15:37):
boats that are up and down, so it's a really
busy river, pleasure boats and pleasure boats, things like the
Circle Line and the world Yachts and the Statue of
Liberty Fair.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
There are a lot of sports boats there are there
are all kinds of There are kayaks, canoes, jet skis
water skiers. I saw a water skier the.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Other day that I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Oh yeah, water that's up the river, up the river.
But boy, it is really getting more and more and
more used.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It is very busy. We have I think it's for
boat houses, for human powered boating, so kayaks, canoes, Hawaiian outriggers.
There is a group that builds what are called Whitehall gigs,
which is like the boat that George Washington crossed the
Delaware in. So that there is so much activity in
(16:26):
the water.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So the newest initiative is the science Playground. Why was
sturgeon suggested for the theme of that beautiful, beautiful playground?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I think sturgeon it's a fish that of course is
native to the Hudson River, and then it's such an
interesting fish. They're a prehistoric fish. They were around the
time that the dinosaurs were here, and they're really large.
Yet because of human impacts, their population significantly declined. We
(16:59):
would fish them for their caviar, their eggs, and there's
been a lot of effort to help to restore their
population because we have to think about the entirety of
the Lower Hudson Estuary. They come in from the ocean
and this is their spawning ground. And so we put
the sturgeon, two different types of sturgeon there, because I
(17:22):
think it just evokes so much curiosity people can't believe
that they are in the Hudson. And then we were
able to play on a lot of their different elements
like barbles and scoots, and students can climb on them
and swing from them and actually go inside them, pretend
(17:42):
like they're a crab that was just eaten by a
sturgeon and literally slide through their digestive track. So it
allowed us to build a Hudson River environment on land
and through play learn a lot about local wildlife.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Who designed the park? Was there one lens escape designer
or one scientists who actually sort of like conceived of
the look and feel of this beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
There are four actually now five main design teams that
worked on the park, in part because when we started
building there were very few large landscape architecture firms located
in New York. There just wasn't that much open space
development or open.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Space after Olmsted and Central.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Park, That's right, and so this was an opportunity for
a lot of smaller firms to work together and what
we did was we had a master planning team that
helped design the elements that run through the park from
start to finish, like the paving on the esplanade and
the railing at the water and the light pools, and
(18:52):
we wanted people to feel like they understood they were
in the same place as they moved from neighborhood to neighborhood.
But then separately, there was a landscape architect team led
by Susake Associates and Matthews Nielsen down in Tribeca. There
was a team in Greenwich Village led by Abel Bainson Buttz.
(19:13):
There was a team at Gansport which just opened last year,
which was the James Corner Field Operations team. There was
a Chelsea team of Michael van Valkenberg and associates. And
then there was an architect who led the team up
in the North where there are many more buildings, and
that was Richard Dattner. And it took many years for
(19:35):
all of them to finish and get their sections built,
but finally we are almost one hundred percent done, which
is for me a huge achievement.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
It really is is amazing. And the Hudson River Park
also has a very robust group of tenants, the tenants
that live on or near the park. How does that
help the park?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
The income the tenants is the primary income that supports
the operations invest the big parking garage, the big parking
garage at Peer forty, which fits probably about fifteen hundred
to two thousand cars.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
My droughter keeps your car in there and walks twenty
blocks to get there and climbs up to the fourth floor.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's very Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
It is very Manhattan. But it's a safe, lovely place
to keep a car.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's safe. It just was rehabilitated a couple of years ago.
All those three thousand piles needed to be fixed to
keep it standing. But one of the unique things about
the arrangement for creating the trust was, unlike most New
York City parks, we get to keep the income that's
generated within the park itself, and that is what keeps
(20:49):
the lights on and the pavers fixed, and the piles repaired,
and all of the kind of maintenance that you don't
really see. You just see a beautiful park.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
How many peers actually jut out into the river.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Now, the total besides the sixteen that are.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
The park piers.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
There are I believe four piers that are part of
Chelsea Piers. Then there are three up at Circle Line,
there's one in the north for Kaned, there's one at
the Intrepid. So all together it's probably close to about
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So twenty five out of the probably one hundreds. When
the river was the bustling port that it.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Was, absolutely I think there at one point not only
was there appier at the end of every street, but
on both sides of it there were pier sheds and
ships in the water, and back in those days you
couldn't see the water. It was completely blocked by the
commerce that was going on.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
How unusual is it for a park to have such
a mix of commercial entities and parkland.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think it was an experiment in New York when
we first started. I wouldn't be surprised if it's happening
more and more across the country because this issue of
the de industrialized waterfront is not unique to New York,
and many older cities in particular who were built on
(22:15):
rivers have the same issue, and they're all dealing with
how do you make it nice for people to come
to the water, how do you make it a recreational
access and bringing more nature into urban areas, but also
then how do you support it?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
How do you do you compete with the East River
here in New York with the Gin Building and those
places or is it a complementary kind of sharing of ideas.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I think it's really complementary. We speak to our peer
groups from other parks all the time. We're actually part
of a group called the Parks and Open Space Partners
in New York that form during the pandemic when we
all were struggling with figuring out how to raise money.
And it's probably got forty or more organizations in it now,
(23:03):
and we all work with each other to give advice,
to find out how some of them have succeeded when
others haven't, and really share the brain power of the
people who are working in these places.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Carrie, you're so knowledgeable about the wildlife on this great estuary?
Is that raychel Cole the river an estuary? Yes, of
course it is. So who's really responsible for all the
science that's going on in the research? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So our River Project team we're now a team of
nine individuals. We have science staff as well as environmental educators.
They're translating our research to programs that are then being
taught to students and families and just the general public.
But our science team thoughtfully part with local universities so
(24:02):
scientists throughout New York City can do research in the park,
and we facilitate that through a visiting scholars program. We've
been building a partnership with CUNEI, so the City of
New York University to help local scientists and faculty at
those universities bring their research and their students into the park.
(24:22):
With the Designated Estering Sanctuary, we have this management plan
that has goals around conservation and restoration and really to
conduct research on water quality, on wildlife, on climate impacts.
We need to do that collectively and with many hands.
(24:42):
So with that plan, it guides us in our partners
and building a really rich roster of research so that
we're looking at the river over time comprehensively.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's so much fun to talk to people who are
involved with some of your and I've met quite a
few of them, and they're so excited. They're so excited
about not only educating the use of New York City,
but also just all of us, the inhabitants here because
we should know what's going on in our river. What
about the little park? How did that happen? That's a
(25:18):
little island island. I go at Little Park, but it's
a little island that was built by Barry Diller and
his wife, Diane von Furstenberg, I guess, and with the
English architect who designed that park, jutting out just south
of the Google Pier.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So the project at Little Island was completely unique to
what all of the rest of Husson River Park had
been doing up to that point. And I think in
part it was triggered by the fact that at that moment,
it was probably a few years after the financial crisis,
and so there was a slow down in construction of
(25:55):
the park. And one of the designated park piers that
had been built was the pure at fourteenth Street, and
that just happened to be sort of across the street
and a block over to where Barry Diller's office was
at the IC Building, and so he looked at this
every day, and I was probably aware that the building
(26:16):
had sort of come to a standstill at that point
because there was no private money and there was no
public money, and they started discussing with the former president
the trust and the former board chair also what could
be done with that space in the meantime since it
wasn't being built by the public sector, And he hired
(26:38):
Thomas Heatherwick and they dreamed up what at the time
seemed like this totally insane design and it was really
unlike anything else, not just in our park but anywhere.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
It's like a little hilly park jutting out into the
up out of the Hudson River.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yes, it's sitting on I don't know, I've forgotten the
number of We refer to them as like flower pots,
because that's what they look like. They're sort of tulips.
But when they those got floated down the Hudson and
when they started to install them, just it attracted so
much attention. It's really wild and the landscape architecture there
(27:18):
was Matthews Nielsen who also did our Tribeca section, and
it's just so interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
And everything seems to be thriving out there in the river.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And they were so careful to make sure that every
season of the year had something blooming. So the spring,
the summer, the fall, the winter, they all look very different,
but they're all beautiful.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
So for those of you coming into New York City
from out of town, it's certainly worth a visit to
see Little Park.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Absolutely every time we have visitors. It used to be
they wanted to see the highline that was first, and
now they want to see Little Island.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So the plantings along the park are quite beautiful. They're
so many trees and so many plants. Who takes care
of these all of this and who plants all of this?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Sure, we have an amazing horticulture team. So that team's
let up by a matt post and they're out there
rain or shine in ninety degree weather and below thirty
degree weather to take care of all of these plants.
As Connie was just saying about Little Island, we're really
(28:29):
thoughtful about having plants that are blooming at different points
of the year, to have cedars and hemlocks, and supporting
some of the deciduous trees so there's habitat and food
also for all of the different birds and insects that inhabit.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
The park respect the plantings like they should.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yes, oh good, certainly.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
I sometimes worried when I saw something so beautiful that
somebody who's going to come and dig it up in
the middle of the night, but they're respectful.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
They are and they see the hard work. I think
of our horticulture team as well as our volunteers. So
our Friends group leads an entire a huge volunteer arm
and we work with community volunteers, We work with corporate
groups to help us to keep the park looking beautiful,
and that takes many hours. So groups are removing plants
(29:23):
that shouldn't be there, so invasive plants that like fragmighties
or mugwart and they're helping us to plant the flowers,
the bulbs, the trees and shrubs that we all appreciate.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
What's the biggest success of the park? Would you say, Connie,
the biggest success in the park.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
That's hard for me because I love it all, but
I think that it created a model at the time that,
as far as I know, didn't exist previously for how
you could do this and not be dependent on the
support of the budgets of the city and state parks,
(30:01):
because not only are they stretched very thin all the time,
but in really bad times. It means you're not dependent
on them and you can allocate your own resources in
a way to keep it clean, to keep it safe,
to keep it beautiful, and I think before we started
(30:22):
that was just an idea and we didn't know if
it would really work. And so now more than twenty
years later, we can see that it was successful. And
the people who live across from us on the West side,
in all those different neighborhoods, they can see it too.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Now with a building of Hudson Yards, which is a
gigantic real estate development, how did that affect the park
or didn't it?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
On the Friend's side, it certainly has affected the park.
It means that we have thousands of neighbors where we
didn't before. And our volunteer program that Carrie was just
referencing now has more than three thousand volunteers a year
and I think probably at least a dozen, at most
(31:11):
maybe twenty new businesses that are occupants of Hudson Yards.
Good yeah, and very supportive.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Hudson Yards was once the railroad yards of New York
City and all the railroad that's where all the trains
ended up and took off from, and it's now transformed
into this most amazing modernistic city of itself.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It really is incredible. That area, in fact, right across
from where your office is is where we have the
last Hudson River float bridge, which brought the goods over
on barges from New Jersey and then put them on
rails that eventually wound up on the high Line. So
there's just so much history in the sites that are
(31:56):
across the street from the park and in the park itself.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Well, I'm so excited to see the continued progress of
the park. I just want you to describe the gala,
which I attend every year, and it's so much fun.
And what are you doing this year with this gala?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
This year is still in the planning stage. We're currently
working with one of our park tenants for one of
our honorees. I'm not going to divulge that yet because
that hasn't been publicizing, but looking for our other one.
And one of the things I love about our gala
is that it is so full of friends and neighbors
(32:35):
from you know, all the would be.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Really nice about it. It really is a friendly gathering
of how many people like.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It used to be almost a thousand. It's gotten smaller
since COVID because there used to be like no room
to get up from your table, but it's now still
about seven seven fifteen.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Oh, I know, it's so many people and every everybody
talking to everybody.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's like a giant block party is and.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Just bring the neighborhood totally together. And last year you
raised quite a bit of money.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
We did. I think we raised nearly three million dollars. Uh.
And then we just had our second biggest event last Friday,
which is our Playground Committee Lunch. Yes, so those two
are our biggest events, but they're also it's just amazing
to see people come to something like that, not because
(33:27):
their company sent them, like as a chore and definitely
not a rubber chicken dinner.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
No, because they're because they're neighbors.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
They are their neighbors and they love the park.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And they love the park, and they use the park,
which is the nicest thing.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
They probably use it more than I do.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
What can one do in the Hudson River.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Park, Well, there are so many things to do in
Hudson River Park. You can jog, you can cycle, you
can play tennis, you can use the skate parks, you
can go to the playgrounds, you can play soccer, baseball, football,
and almost any other field sport.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
And I know you can do yoga, and I know
you can exercise and I know you can dance. I've
seen dancing classes.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
You can listen to music. We have jazz, we have
Afro Caribbean, we have Bollywood and Bangra. You can bring
your dog to our amazing dog parks, which is so
important for New Yorkers with their tiny apartments. You can
take a cruise ship. You can learn about World War
(34:34):
Two at the Intrepid Museum. You can go to a
fine dining restaurant. You can go to a place like
City Winery and listen to music. You can go to
the rooftop park at the top of the Google Pier.
You can visit a place like Little Island with your
out of town friends.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'm getting tired.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Or you can just walk and look at the beauty nature.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
And you can walk four miles down and four miles
back and get all your cardio in in a day.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's right. And if you run the perimeter of each
and every pier, you can add another three miles to that.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
And I'll just add you can also see some of
these Hudson River fish up close in the park's wet lab.
We have a flow through aquarium at Peer forty. It's
one of a kind, and you can actually see stripe bass, oyster, toadfish,
oysters growing and learn a lot about our local wildlife.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
There.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
What street is that Peer that's at Houston Street.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
At Houston Street Peer forty here.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Forty and you can go to the Discovery Tank, Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And then up at Peer fifty seven, which is that
building that we were talking about with Google, we have
a Discovery Tank. It's a gallery and a classroom. There's
interactive games. You can dive deep into the Hudson and
learn about what's growing in and around our piles. You
can spend a day as an oyster toadfish in a
game a tabletop game, or build plankton and learn about
(36:01):
the role that plankton play in helping to keep our
river healthy.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So you see, there's plenty to do in the Hudson
River Park. I hope all New Yorkers and all visitors
to New York will take advantage of it. Follow at
Hudson River Park to see their events and programs. Thank you,
Connie so very much for taking time out of your busy,
busy day. And Carrie, thank you. It's really nice to
(36:24):
talk to both of you and to learn more about
one of New York's finest, finest attractions. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's been a plange to thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Mark, thank you.
Host
Martha Stewart
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