Group Proposes New Park on East 59th Street

A group of neighbors has banded together in an effort to turn a condemned lot along East 59th Street near the Queensboro Bridge into a new public greenspace–and a potential extension Honey Locust Park, which sits right next to it.

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East Side Feed spoke to Paul Krikler, a 63-year-old who’s lived on the Upper East Side for the last 17 years, about an initiative he and his friend Sean Basinkski have spearheaded. The group, which doesn’t have a formal name yet, had its first meeting last week and attracted about ten people.

The goal? To turn a vacant lot into usable public space.

“We reached out to NYCDOT [New York City Department of Transportation] initially to ask them to free the space up,” Krikler told East Side Feed on Sunday through email. “They replied that they have no plans to give this space up.”

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When asked what the group would ideally turn the space into, Kirkler said it “could be so many things.”

“Outdoor cafe seating, a small park, a dog run,” he said. “And so many more.”

The group posted to the r/uppereastside subreddit to attract more locals to attend their next meeting.

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When asked what the group wanted to name the possible park, Kirkler mentioned wanting it to be an extension of Honey Locust Park, located at the Manhattan entrance of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. In April 2023, the NYC Parks Department, DOT and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection announced a $1.67 million renovation to the park, which originally opened in 1938.

“Honey Locust Park provides much needed green space and tranquility at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, said at the time.

Given how crowded the outer roadways on the Queensboro Bridge are, the DOT just last month began work on the Queensboro Bridge’s future pedestrian roadway, Streetsblog NYC reports.

Additionally, Kirkler mentioned that Billy Joel lived nearby, so perhaps rather than an extension to Honey Locust Park, “it should be the Billy Joel Park,” he joked.

Billy Joel famously lived with then-wife Christie Brinkley in the Excelsior building on 57th St., which is likely what he was referring to.

Although it’s unclear if this lot was among the many areas of New York that were permanently impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Parks Department has been reconstructing and repairing areas that were hit hard during the storm. For instance, part of East River Park on the Lower East Side is still undergoing construction more than ten years later.

If you’d like to join or support the initiative, the group started a Change.org petition.