Our presentation to the Public Design Commission.

Yesterday, the Public Design Commission of New York City met to consider the proposed plan for altering Riverside and Fort Washington Parks that the New York City Parks Department has been trying to push forward for some time now. As previously reported, they do not have the funds to go ahead with all aspects of the plan at this time, but it remains an aspiration to implement the entire plan, even if they can only manage small parts of it now. Having had the entire plan approved by Community Board 12, they still need approval from the PDC, which is primarily concerned with the potential aesthetic impacts of changes made to public places. The PDC voted to approve the plan as presented yesterday, but a more detailed presentation must still be made to them before the Parks Department can move forward. The PDC can, if it wishes, make its final approval contingent on changes being made to the plan.

These meetings are open to the public, but only brief statements may be made by concerned individual citizens, or groups. The following presentation was made on behalf of Friends of Fort Washington Park.

To members of the Public Design Commission:

Regarding the plan for a new asphalt path running north between the 158th Street entrance ramp and the three athletic fields:

While most of the asphalt ribbon that runs through Ft. Washington Park is adjacent to the riprap, traveling north along the path, one is confronted at 158th Street with a large expanse of green lawn between the path and the river. The immenseness of this field of green next to the blue hue of the water is as visually striking during the summer, as it is when the field is brown against the green water of the spring and as it is when the field is covered with an unsullied white blanket of snow juxtaposed to the steely white-capped winter water. The impact of this site is especially high among residents of the immediate neighborhood who would otherwise have to travel to another part of the city to see such an expanse, or visit a museum to look at a Mark Rothko or Barnett Newman painting and imagine the inspiration. The bisection and compartmentalization of this field in the plan, even with a net gain of green square footage, deadens the impact of this space.

For those who stroll or jog across the field just to feel earth instead of the city's usual concrete and asphalt beneath their feet or to escape the onslaught of bicycles and vehicles, the experiential aesthetic will be reduced to traveling along a highway divider. For the children playing in a freeing and seemingly endless space, the current plan introduces too many picnic table obstacles and too much vehicular traffic along newly dangerous boundaries. These additional constant safety considerations that must be kept in mind changes the state of mind with which one experiences the park.

Much of the same can be said regarding the plan for a new path along the west side of the athletic fields. With its expansive views of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge, even in the dead cold of winter under bare trees, a first visit by a Community Board 12 officer inspired her to agree that it was "arguably the most beautiful spot in the park." The construction of a roadway and the introduction of vehicular traffic in this particular location, known for its quiet beauty and seeming isolation is unnecessary, and would be shameful.

Finally, regarding the plan for paving the path running south along the river from the Dykman Street Marina: Ian Frazier boasted in Outdoor Magazine's Great Cities Series that "you can find uncrowded, quiet, remote-seeming landscapes within sight of the skyscrapers. For example, the strip of Hudson River shoreline below the George Washington Bridge...Any city that endures accommodates, somehow or other, the vaster world outdoors. New York City makes you feel you could be anyplace before the sun goes down." While this path does need renovation and improved access, asphalt and concrete are not appropriate materials. ADA compliant materials that will maintain the natural aesthetic of this area exist and are in use in privately-maintained public parks in Manhattan. Although aesthetic appreciation always takes a little time and is often subjective, the desire to maintain a natural aesthetic is timeless and was the number one desire of park users surveyed by Partnership for Parks in addition to being attested to by over 1200 park adjacent neighbors who submitted a petition stating as much to CB12.

Thank you.