Members of the Upper East Side’s community board are supporting an initiative aimed at rethinking New York’s FDR Drive, which would make the waterfront both more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists and more environmentally sustainable.
Last Thursday, members of Community Board 6 made a presentation to the Upper East Side’s Community Board 8 called “FDR Reimagined: The Future of the FDR Drive in Manhattan CB6.”
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“FDR Reimagined is a community-driven initiative to envision the future of the FDR Drive (“the FDR”) in Manhattan Community District Six (CB6), between 14th Street and 59th Street along the East river,” ” the presentation stated. “This vision reimagines what is today viewed as a disruptive urban highway as a community asset, focusing on providing safe multi-modal access to the waterfront while enhancing the neighborhood’s environmental resiliency.”
Community Board 6 commissioned a firm called WXY Architecture + Urban Design to undertake the study and presented its findings to Community Board 8.
“We undertook a study in 2023 to look at ways to reimagine the FDR and make our waterfront safe, accessible and resilient,” Community Board 6 chair Sandy McKee said during last week’s meeting. “We realized that we’re just one piece of the East River waterfront, one piece of a long coastline, and we’re looking for support from our neighbors to reimagine the East Side of Manhattan.”
Although it is not a comprehensive study, the presentation offered a new vision as to how the East River could better serve its community members. Among its goals are to increase waterfront access and public amenities, reduce dependency on the FDR Drive highway, “restitch” the FDR Drive to the city grid and “prioritize multi-modal safety and connectivity,” among other things. The study also proposes several ways in which the FDR could be utilized in the future, including building elevated parks over it and transforming portions of the boulevard at the ground level.
Community Board 6 / WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Community Board 6 / WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Community Board 6 / WXY Architecture + Urban Design
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Members of Community Board 8 were mostly on board with the proposal (though one member, Alida Camp, who is the board’s Congestion Pricing Task Force Co-Chair, voiced concern about “taking away parts of the FDR Drive or turning some of it into bike lanes”). Judy Schneider, CB8’s Parks and Waterfronts Committee Co-Chair, mentioned passing a resolution supporting CB6’s resolution on the matter.
“Manhattan Community Board 8 supports Manhattan Community Board 6’s resolution supporting the ‘FDR Reimagined’ report and endorses the visions and principles set forth to increase the amount of green and open space in Manhattan Community District 6,” Schneider said at the conclusion of the presentation.
The next steps in the process include commissioning another, more formal study on the matter and presenting the findings to both city and state government officials. East Side Feed reached out to both community boards to discuss more specific details about the project and its future, but did not hear back by press time.
The proposal is the latest effort by community organizers to bolster and reclaim green space on the Upper East Side.
A portion of the East River Esplanade between East 71st and 79th streets remains inaccessible due to ongoing construction of a huge building addition by the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), a fact which has angered residents of the neighborhoods represented by CB8 for months. Although HSS has promised to restore the section of greenery upon completion of the project, there is still no definite timeline as to when residents will be able to utilize the area again.
Additionally, a group of Upper East Side residents last summer proposed turning a condemned lot along 59th Street by the Queensboro Bridge into a new park, but has seemingly stalled on making any headway.
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“Boulevarding” the FDR in this stretch, with traffic lights like the current West Side Highway, likely would result in traffic backups in the areas to the north and south of Community Board 6. Did CB 8 confront that?