L.E.S. residents mutiny over Pier 42 kayak plan

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Pier 42 plans presented at a recent Community Board 3 meeting roused anger from Lower East Side residents who want a pool and not a proposed area for kayaking.

After Noriko Maeda of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects gave her presentation of the trees, shrubs and plants that may populate the waterfront for the projects phase one, residents expressed their unhappiness with a proposed kayak area.

We are a community that is tired of being disengaged, disenfranchised by everyone else and being ignored, Nancy Ortiz, president of the Vladeck Houses Resident Association declared at C.B. 3s Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks & Waterfront Committee on Oct. 21.

This is the first time we are seeing this, she said. Kayaking does not fit the demographics of our community.

Pier 42, between Gouverneur and Jackson Sts., received more than $10 million in funding from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in March 2012. Lawrence Mauro, the Parks Departments program manager for Lower Manhattan projects, said there has been extensive community outreach.

Weve handled this progressively, step by step, Mauro said. There have been several meetings with C.B. 3 for both direction and approval, he said.

Ortiz said later in a phone interview that with all the projects and meetings going on in the Lower East Side, including about Pier 42, the Big U, and the general waterfront plan, it is hard to keep track. But one thing is clear: The community does not want a kayaking area.

One of the reasons Parks wants a protected area for teaching kids to kayak, Mauro said, is to expose them to the water during educational programs.

They could learn about the river, learn about the ecology, learn about whats in the river in a supervised way, he said.

C.B. 3 has already approved the Pier 42 master plan. Mauro said that the committee was only voting on phase one, which currently does not include any of the proposed amenities, such as a playground, concession stand, an area where residents could watch movies, roller-skating rink and the kayaking area.

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L.E.S. residents mutiny over Pier 42 kayak plan