Harvest Dome, as the artists hope it will look. Photo illustration by Bronx River Crossing

Thwarted by wind and water in their effort last fall to float a huge dome built of discarded umbrellas from Hunts Point to the Harlem River and upriver to Inwood, the artists behind Harvest Dome have launched an effort to rebuilt their sculpture.

Using the Internet fund-raisng site Kickstarter, Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi are seeking to raise $7,500 by March 10 to rebuild the dome. The first dome foundered at Rikers Island in October and was destroyed by jail personnel.

The pair intended the dome, constructed of umbrellas and floated on pontoons of soda bottles, to call attention to how much debris is found in New York City’s waterways.

Because the currents in the East River off Hunts Point were so unkind to the first project, the artists are planning to build the new dome nearer its final destination in Inwood Hill Park.

Among the rewards offered to contributors are remnants of the wrecked dome.
For more information or to make a contribution, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/481224446/harvest-dome-20.

Members of Friends of Brook Park canoe on the Harlem River, but it's not easy to get to the shore. That may change.

The Harlem River was once one of the city’s great playgrounds: colorful boathouses dotted its banks; riders on horseback promenaded and raced along the Manhattan shore; the bluffs above the river were home to an amusement park, as well as the Polo Grounds, which later became the home of the New York Giants, and, of course, to Yankee Stadium.

As the river was industrialized, though New Yorkers turned their backs on the Harlem.  Now, with much of the industry gone, Bronxites hope to reclaim the river.

For years, organizations like Friends of Brook Park and the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality have looked at the Harlem and seen a necklace of green the length of the borough. A greenway would connect existing parks, like Mill Pond and Roberto Clemente, along with new parks built on unused land.  Some of them would include fishing piers, places to launch kayaks and canoes, eco-classrooms and gardens.

Pie in the sky? Not really. To see the future, just look at the Bronx River. Not so long ago, it was an open sewer and garbage dump. Today, thanks to the hard work of volunteers whose efforts led to the formation of the Bronx River Alliance and the investment of millions of federal dollars, wildlife has returned, fish thrive, ospreys soar and egrets nest. People play in new parks, stroll and bicycle on the shore and canoe in the water.

Five years ago, Harry Bubbins of Friends of Brook Park urged the formation of a Harlem River Alliance, drawing on the experience of the Bronx River Alliance. Now the federal government has given advocates’ efforts a boost.

Last month, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar visited Roberto Clemente State Park to announce that the Harlem River would be one of a hundred projects nationwide aimed at restoring neglected rivers to the people who live near them. Rep. Jose Serrano, the chief benefactor of the Bronx River, who accompanied the secretary, pointed to the lessons of the Bronx River.

There are plenty of obstacles. Ways have to be found for a greenway to wind through or around a maze of industrial facilities. The city or state will have to seize junk yards. Thusfar, the state has not even been persuaded to designate the Harlem a sensitive area protected for recreation, turning down a request to do so from the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality in a blizzard of bureaucratic initials.

The city’s 2009 Lower Concourse rezoning, which envisions riverside promenades, has yet to attract the development that would yield them, and the boundaries of the newly-zoned area left out the southern end of Park Avenue, where Friends of Brook Park hopes to see a boat launch built.

But the pledge of federal assistance is a game-changer. The Bronx Council on Environmental Quality, which completed a comprehensive plan for a Harlem River Greenway from Highbridge to Spuyten Duyvil four years ago, has also formed a Harlem River Working Group, which has enlisted community organizations and parks groups the length of the river. Energized by Salazar’s visit, it envisions the Harlem Greenway joining the South Bronx Greenway at the bridge to Randalls Island, says its coordinator, Chauncy Young.

The effort to revive the Harlem River can bring jobs and economic development opportunities to the area, give Mott Haven residents a larger role in deciding how waterfront development will proceed once the economy improves and, above all, offer parks-starved Bronx communities a place where they can find beauty and ease at their doorstep.

Children play in display canoes at the Harlem River Festival. Photo by Lisha Arino

Ferry rides and bike and hike tours promote river access

Carlton Curry and his daughter Carleta sat on the lawn at Mill Pond Park watching a hawk displayed by the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy against a backdrop of a teepee, with the Harlem River beyond.

“We need more events like this, a lot of events,” Curry said.

As he spoke, children ran around the lawn, some playing in and around the teepee, while others found two canoes on display and climbed in, pretending to paddle. Over at the picnic area, thirsty visitors drank bottles of ice-cold water, and ate burgers fresh off the grill.

Isabel Vera was also enjoying her day in the park. As she stood under the shade of the outdoor classroom, she said, “Especially, I’m impressed with the grass.” Other parks she visits only have dirt, she said.

The first Harlem River Festival on Sept. 25 brought the Currys, Vera, and other residents to the recently-completed park at 153^rd Street and Exterior Street, across the Major Deegan Expressway from the Gateway mall.

The event was hosted by the Harlem River Working Group, “a coalition of about 40 community organizations around or working with the Harlem River,” said Chauncy Young, one of the event’s organizers. Members include: Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., the National Park Service, Partnerships for Parks, Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, Friends of Brook Park, Friends of the Woods and the Harlem River Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy.

Dart Westphal, a board member of the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality, said the group’s goals are to raise awareness about efforts to create a greenway along the river, to make the river cleaner and to increase public access to it.

In addition to the hawk talk, the day’s activities included tennis lessons, a mobile ecology museum and entertainment by local performers.

Activities were not confined to the park—built on 10 acres of an abandoned industrial site as one of the replacements for the parkland gobbled up by the new Yankee Stadium.

Festivities kicked off with two guided tours in the morning: cyclists rode from Randall’s Island to the park, while pedestrians met at Highbridge Park on the Bronx side of the High Bridge and made their way down to Mill Pond Park.

The festival was capped by an hour-long ferryboat tour of the river, courtesy of NY Waterways. A member of the Bronx Historical Society narrated the tour, giving riders the historical and geological context of various landmarks.

Jacqueline Christian said she found the festival’s events, especially the river tour, “very informative and educational.” In her 33 years in the Bronx, she said, she had never been on the Harlem river from the Bronx side.

“I’m just sorry that that they couldn’t have more of these rides,” she said.

A few local politicians also attended.

“This festival here, I think, is a wonderful celebration, not only of the Harlem River, but of the parks along the way and why we need to expand them,” said State Senator Jose M. Serrano. He was with his family, including his father, Congressman Jose E. Serrano.

Along with Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, they affirmed their commitment to creating more green spaces and increasing boating access to the river.

A version of this story appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of the Mott Haven Herald.

An artist's rendering of the development the city imagines along the Bronx Harlem River waterfront

But this may change.

The city has a plan that could bring new life – and new investment – to the lower Concourse and Harlem River waterfront.  The Department of City Planning has envisioned a new future for this 30-block area.

In the next few years the neighborhood’s first large supermarket may replace factories. The stately apartment buildings that line the Grand Concourse to the north could be mirrored in the south.

And the Harlem River Waterfront could be transformed within a decade to a Battery Park City of the North, with towering apartment buildings as high as 40 stories overlooking a waterfront promenade laced with open-air cafes and patches of green.

The government is not going to build any of this itself.  But, through a process called rezoning, it can change the rules that govern how people who own property in the area develop and use their land.

“We want to create a place where people can live, work, shop and play,” said Carol Samol, head of the city planning department’s Bronx office.

Current zoning rules keep buildings small in this area–just blocks away from Mott Haven’s towering housing projects–and prohibit their use as homes.  By changing these rules, the city hopes to encourage property owners either to convert vacant manufacturing lofts to housing, sell their land to developers or build something new themselves.

Community Board 1 unanimously approved the plan at its February meeting, though some board members voiced misgivings.

Board member Mychal Johnson said he’s worried that rising rents could eventually drive out the area’s long-time residents. The proposed new rules would encourage developers to build affordable housing in the district along with higher-rent housing.  But Johnson is concerned that that might not be enough, because the definition of “affordable” is pegged to the average income of people living in New York City as well as Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties.

“Sometimes that doesn’t help people here,” Johnson said, “because this community is on the lower end.”

Based on the most recent income calculations, a family earning as much as $55,000 would be eligible for a subsidized two-bedroom apartment, and the rent could be as high as $1,237.

“Of course we don’t want our sky blocked with skyscrapers,” Johnson said. “One of the reasons I love the Bronx is that we’re not boxed in.” But he voted to support the plan because he thinks community will benefit from a better mix of incomes.

The warehouses and parking lots of the Harlem River waterfront may be replaced within a decade by modern development

Commercial investment would also bring needed jobs, he believes, along with real estate tax payments that might help improve local schools.  In addition, he hopes that economic incentives will pressure local polluters like the waste transfer station in the Oak Point Yards to clean up their acts.

Other concerns arise because more apartment buildings would mean more riders on the subway, more cars on the road, more kids in the classrooms and more patients in the hospital.  In its environmental study of the project, the city planning department estimated the plan could bring over 10,000 new residents within 10 years.

Board member Alice Simmons said development should be an ongoing dialogue. “We’re talking about a 10-year goal,” she said.  “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Community Board 1 Chairman George Rodriguez said residents had reason to worry about such a big change, and acknowledged that he himself is worried about protecting local small businesses.  But rezoning is an important part of revitalizing the South Bronx, he said, and worries should not be an excuse to do nothing.

“You might open a Pandora’s box, but then, you might not,” Rodriguez said.

The small conference room at the community board office was overflowing with people on the evening of the vote.  The planning department showed PowerPoint slides with maps, photos of buildings in the areas that would be rezoned and renderings of potential new development.

Board members and members of the audience expressed their concerns during a question and answer period.

One board member said that Mott Haven needs a state-of-the-art public library.

Pamela Smith, the president of the Mitchel Houses tenants’ association, worried that increased traffic and taller buildings would create and trap air pollution in an area where asthma is already epidemic.
Two representatives of the community group Nos Quedamos asked about churches in the plan, and how the plan would address the influence of Sin City, a strip club on Park Avenue.

Samol said the new zoning rules would not prevent the construction of churches or libraries. She also said that car technology is becoming cleaner, and developers would plant street trees to help clean the air.

Business that are currently operating will not be forced to move, she said, but once the area has a residential zoning new adult establishments will not be allowed.

The City Planning Commission is currently reviewing the proposal.  The City Council is expected to vote on the plan sometime this summer.

Illustration of proposed Waterfront District

The first two lots, across 149th Street from the new Gateway Mall, would be zoned in a way typically used for specialty and department stores, theaters and office space. Areas to the south would be more likely to be used for apartments, offices and stores.

Towers would have a maximum height of 30 or 40 stories–as tall as the tallest buildings in the Bronx, River Park Towers in Morris Heights and Tracy Towers in Bedford Park. In other waterfront areas, tower height is limited to around 14 stories.

The city would create a 2.2 acre public park at the end of 144th Street, between the two sites zoned for the largest buildings.

Developers would be required to construct a public walkway along their portion of the riverfront, and buildings would be set back away from the water.