0:00

I think that it created

0:02

a model at the time that, as

0:05

far as I know, didn't exist

0:07

previously, and we didn't know if it would

0:09

really work, and so now more than twenty years

0:12

later, we can see that it was

0:14

successful.

0:20

For many years, my offices were at

0:22

the Star at Lehigh Building on the west side

0:24

of Manhattan on twenty sixth Street. My

0:27

windows looked down on the growing park

0:29

along the Hudson River. In twenty

0:32

twelve, I joined the board of Hudson

0:34

River Park Friends to help

0:36

them in their mission of caring for

0:38

and expanding the great green

0:41

space along the Hudson River. The

0:44

park is doing so many things to beautify

0:47

and improve the shoreline. Joining

0:49

me today are Connie Fishman, the

0:51

executive director of Hudson River Park

0:53

Friends, and Carrie Roebole, the

0:56

vice president Estuary and Education

0:58

for the Hudson River Park Trust. They're

1:01

going to talk about how the park has grown and

1:04

all of the resources it offers. Welcome

1:06

to my podcasts, both of you, Connie

1:09

and Carrie. The park stretches

1:12

from fifty ninth Street on the

1:14

west side of Manhattan all the

1:16

way down to Battery Park, and

1:19

I have driven that road the West Side

1:21

Highway for so many years.

1:23

I hate to tell you, but recently, for the

1:25

last twenty one years from Bedford,

1:28

New York, so I drive all the way

1:30

down almost almost both to twenty

1:32

sixth Street, and I have watched

1:35

so much transformation. And

1:37

then being a member of your board, Connie, I

1:39

have witnessed even more transformation.

1:42

It is incredible what a small

1:45

group of people can do to a

1:47

very vast piece of property

1:49

if they are right minded.

1:52

So talk about the expansion and the improvement

1:54

of the West Side, maybe even

1:56

for a little bit of the history, because people

1:59

don't know what we're talking about when we say Hudson

2:01

River Park. Oh there's a park there,

2:03

you know, it's kind of a strange, fabulous

2:06

place.

2:07

Yes, thank you so much for having us

2:09

here today. We love talking about Hudson

2:12

River Park. It's our favorite subject. The

2:14

Hudson River itself is a

2:16

little over three hundred miles going

2:18

all the way from the Adirondacks down

2:21

to the Battery in New York Harbor,

2:23

and the Hudson River Park is the

2:26

last four miles, so from

2:28

fifty ninth Street down to Battery

2:30

Park City. It used to be all

2:33

maritime industry and shipping

2:35

piers before that before

2:38

industrialization, it was mostly

2:41

transportation for goods

2:43

on smaller ships and for people

2:45

coming to New York, and until

2:48

about the nineteen seventies the

2:50

predominant uses were shipping

2:53

an industry, and then the

2:55

shipping technology changed

2:57

and the kind of piers and

2:59

land that were available for the

3:02

new shipping containerization just

3:04

didn't exist on the West side of Manhattan.

3:06

The ships were really too big to come up.

3:08

The ships were too big, the cargo

3:10

was something they used to call break bulk

3:13

instead of containers when they containerized

3:16

it. There was no place for the trucks and

3:18

the huge empty fields

3:20

of container storage. And it moved

3:22

to New Jersey and that left the waterfront

3:25

down on this part of Manhattan basically

3:28

empty.

3:29

Empty, and deteriorating.

3:30

Yes, and without private

3:33

businesses occupying the piers, there was nobody

3:35

taking care of it.

3:37

And yet prime prime

3:40

real estate, so beautiful.

3:42

When you see what some companies have been

3:44

able to do, like Google taking

3:46

Peer fifty seven taking that

3:49

and turning that into a corporate

3:51

headquarters jutting out into the Hudson

3:53

River, it is quite an astonishing, astonishing

3:56

site and an astonishing place.

3:59

So talk about I mean the piers

4:01

first, of all, they deteriorated a lot, didn't

4:03

they.

4:04

Yeah, piers, they did. They were made of

4:06

wood, and ironically, as the water

4:08

got cleaner, they deteriorated

4:10

faster.

4:11

Oh how come.

4:12

Because the water cleanliness

4:14

encouraged more marine life, including

4:17

something called shipworms, and

4:19

they bite into the wood and

4:21

they eat little holes in it, and ultimately

4:24

the piles fail and the piers fall down.

4:26

So those piers jutted out. How far? What was

4:28

the longest pier?

4:29

I think the longest pier was close to one

4:31

thousand feet.

4:32

Out into the water. And how wide is the Hudson

4:35

River. It's widest here in New.

4:36

York, probably close

4:39

to over a quarter mile.

4:40

Yeah, it looks like to me farther

4:43

than when you walk across

4:45

the Brooklyn Bridge, which is about

4:47

three quarters of a mile. And it's

4:50

definitely its widest down here

4:52

near the harbor.

4:54

And the piers were made out of the piles.

4:56

They're called piles, aren't they pilings that are

4:58

driven down into the fl of the river.

5:01

Yes, they hold the.

5:03

Superstructure of the pier. Those were made

5:05

out of what kind of wood?

5:06

I don't actually know. I think a lot of them were

5:09

probably pine, because it's

5:11

cheap and easy to find. They

5:14

were all built probably more

5:16

than one hundred years ago, and then rebuilt

5:18

again because there were many fires over

5:20

the years. Oh, the piers would

5:22

burn down, the pier sheds would burn

5:24

down, then they would get replaced, and

5:26

finally when we started working on it, we

5:29

rebuilt them in concrete because

5:32

there's really just no way to maintain. I wouldn't

5:34

peer like that anymore.

5:35

So you drove, you drove pilings

5:38

and filled them with concrete. That's really

5:40

better for the river too.

5:42

I don't know if it's better for the river, but not

5:44

having to work in the river as often is

5:46

certainly better for the creatures that are

5:49

in the river, right.

5:50

And concrete is a

5:52

hard material that a lot of

5:54

these encrusting organisms like

5:56

to settle on and.

5:57

Grow off of.

5:58

So we see a lot of wildlife

6:01

on these concrete piles.

6:03

With like snails and muscles and

6:05

things like that. Yeah, exactly. And since

6:07

I've been on the board, the reports of

6:10

the wildlife that is inhabiting the river

6:13

is so encouraging.

6:16

It's so nice to know that the river

6:18

is clean enough now to allow for this

6:21

kind of habitation.

6:22

And improving all the time. Some

6:25

of the work that Carrie is doing

6:27

at the park specifically targets

6:29

certain kinds of animals so that

6:32

even more of them are coming all the time.

6:34

We have over eighty five species

6:36

of fish that we've documented using

6:39

this section of the Hudson River, and

6:42

our habitat enhancement projects are

6:44

building quarters and habitat

6:47

for these fish to find protection

6:49

in and to.

6:50

Feed off of.

6:51

So in the last three years

6:53

we've installed over thirty five million

6:56

oysters, and that's just

6:58

part of this effort to help

7:00

improve the water quality, but also

7:03

the habitat for the wide

7:05

range of fish that call the park home.

7:07

Now that said would you eat a fish

7:09

from the West side

7:11

of Manhattan.

7:13

So our partners at Department of Health

7:15

advised that women

7:18

who are of child there and age should

7:21

not eat fish. Unfortunately, we're

7:23

still dealing with the impacts

7:25

of these historical pollutants. So from

7:29

the time that Connie was referencing,

7:31

there's so much industry on the river, and

7:33

before the Clean Water Act, there weren't regulations

7:37

regulating point sources

7:39

or companies dumping into

7:41

our waterways. So we're still dealing

7:43

with the impacts of PCBs

7:46

are polychorinated by funnels

7:49

and those accumulating fish

7:51

tissues and should not be eaten

7:54

by young people or people

7:56

that want to have babies.

7:58

Well, let's good to clarify, but Kande, you represent

8:01

all The two of you represent two specific

8:03

entities, the Hudson River Park Trusts

8:06

and the Friends of the Hudson River Park. Why

8:08

are two different organizations required

8:10

to manage this park which is an

8:13

independent of New York

8:15

State New York City and it is totally

8:18

reliant on contribution for

8:20

maintenance and rebuilding.

8:22

It's a complicated structure. It

8:25

comes from a strange

8:27

history of the property

8:29

before the park existed, belonging

8:32

two thirds to the State of New York and one

8:34

third to the City of New York. And

8:36

they eventually agreed on legislation

8:38

called the Hudson River Park Act, and

8:40

that created the Hudson River Park Trust to

8:43

build, operate, and maintain the park,

8:45

and the Friends was formed at the same

8:47

time to raise private funds

8:50

to be their philanthropic partner. So

8:53

the Trust has within it

8:55

the properties like Google, which

8:58

you referenced at Peer fifty seven.

9:00

It also has Chelsea Piers up

9:03

at seventeenth and eighteenth Streets

9:05

and the Circle Line up in Midtown

9:08

and then some smaller concessions

9:10

up and down for food and beverages, and

9:13

those create income that goes

9:16

directly to the park, and then the

9:18

Friends raises private money and

9:20

grants philanthropically to add

9:22

to that. But the board of

9:24

the Trust is actually controlled

9:27

fifty to fifty by the governor and the mayor, and

9:29

it's a complete partnership. Unless

9:31

they agree on something, it

9:33

doesn't happen. So essentially

9:36

everything that has been built, designed,

9:38

and opened since it started

9:41

back in nineteen ninety eight is

9:44

one hundred percent unanimously

9:46

agreed to by both the city and the state. But

9:48

the Trust itself and the Friends

9:50

are independently run

9:53

and not part of the city or state

9:55

operating departments.

9:57

Well, at four miles in length, the

9:59

park it's is one of the largest

10:01

parks in New York, is

10:04

it? How does a compared in size really

10:06

to Central Park?

10:07

It's the second largest park in Manhattan,

10:10

Oh, it is, and after Central

10:12

Park. And so it's one hundred

10:14

and fifty acres of land in

10:16

this case really piers and

10:19

upland, and four hundred

10:21

acres of a protected estuarine

10:24

sanctuary because the

10:27

river itself is part of not

10:29

just the Hudson River Estuary, but the Hudson

10:32

River Park.

10:33

I'd see.

10:34

Yeah, So the river is such

10:36

an important space for

10:39

migrating fish and for

10:41

wildlife in general as they're moving up

10:43

and down state. We see a really

10:46

exciting monarch butterfly migration

10:48

come through the park each September.

10:51

But that estuary is this

10:53

important piece of our mission that influences

10:56

our programming. We have this River Project

10:59

department that teaches field

11:01

trips and public programs so people

11:03

can learn about the river, be community

11:06

scientists and get their hands wet. And

11:08

then also it influences our operations,

11:11

so when we actually do

11:14

construction is influenced

11:16

by, for instance, the overwintering

11:18

of strip bass. We are thoughtful

11:21

of these wildlife rhythms

11:23

and are always responding to to ensure

11:26

the health and protection of this es Stream

11:28

sanctuary.

11:29

Well, how many projects have been built in

11:31

the park since its inception.

11:33

I believe there are now sixteen

11:37

new public park peers

11:40

and a park pier is one

11:42

that is primarily open

11:45

space, plantings,

11:48

sunbathing, recreations,

11:51

sports things. Really for

11:53

all of the communities that are next

11:55

door to us, and for the city as a whole.

11:58

Well, I have an apartment on street,

12:00

so right on the river, and

12:03

it is so much fun to look out at the

12:05

view late in the afternoon because

12:08

on that particular pier it's a

12:10

lot of grass and there are yoga

12:12

classes, dancing classes,

12:16

strollers, dog walkers,

12:18

bicycle riders, people

12:21

pushing baby carriages. Of course, it is so

12:23

active that park, and it's so much

12:25

fun to see how many people are enjoying. How

12:27

many people a day do you think stroll or

12:30

use the park?

12:31

I don't know a day, but the

12:33

most recent count that we had,

12:36

and it's quite difficult because at four miles

12:38

you have so many places that people can come

12:41

in and out. But our best guess was

12:43

that annually we have seventeen

12:45

million visits a year.

12:47

Now, that's not unique visitors,

12:50

because somebody with a dog might be

12:52

there four times a day. But

12:54

it is a very very busy

12:56

place with lots and lots to do.

12:59

And one of the things that we did when

13:01

we were designing the park is to

13:03

meet with each of the neighborhoods to

13:05

figure out what they felt was missing

13:07

in their community and put

13:09

those things into their section of the park.

13:11

So how many playgrounds for children are

13:13

there now along the.

13:15

Park there are four

13:17

open and one which will be open

13:19

in the spring. One is

13:21

at fifty seventh Street, one

13:23

is at twenty third Street,

13:26

one is that Jane Street,

13:28

one is at Peer twenty six at

13:30

Northmoor, and another at Peer twenty five

13:33

right next door.

13:34

And they're really fabulous

13:36

playgrounds. If any of you have a chance

13:38

to visit, it's so much fun. And

13:41

you know, parallel to this beautiful park is

13:43

the highline for part of the park, and

13:45

that has been just a boom to New

13:48

Yorkers because they have a nice elevated

13:50

park to stroll and

13:52

visit and see, I'm looking at it

13:54

right now. We're at the Samsung headquarters

13:57

here in the West Village, and it's

13:59

so much fun to look at that beautiful,

14:01

beautiful highline. But that that

14:04

park started way best part did

14:06

start a little bit before the Hudson River Park,

14:08

didn't it.

14:09

I think it started a little bit after after.

14:11

But they were successful

14:14

in becoming one

14:16

hundred percent complete faster

14:18

than we were.

14:19

Yeah, well you're much bigger.

14:20

We're much bigger. And also they have only

14:23

one parent, which is the City of

14:25

New York, and so the city got to

14:27

decide the pace of the money

14:29

that went into building it. Whereas we have

14:31

two parents and sometimes they have

14:34

different sized pocketbooks.

14:36

Always the problem.

14:45

Some of you listeners may recognize the Hudson River

14:47

because of the Miracle on the Hudson.

14:50

Describe how big this river really is and

14:52

how it flows.

14:54

One of the interesting things about the Hudson River

14:57

is down here it's part of the

14:59

estuary where right near the harbor, and so

15:01

it's tidal, and I think the

15:03

tide keeps changing all

15:06

the way up until a little past

15:08

Poughkeepsie. So the

15:11

farther north you go, the more fresh

15:13

water is in it. But in our section, every

15:16

six hours there's a change in tide

15:19

and it's a significant change, and so it

15:22

is really noticeable, and a

15:24

very high tide looks totally

15:27

different in the park than a very low tide.

15:29

It's also a home

15:31

to ferry boats and cargo

15:33

boats and the sanitation

15:36

and water quality boats that are up

15:38

and down, so it's a really busy river, pleasure

15:41

boats and pleasure boats, things like the

15:43

Circle Line and the world Yachts and the

15:45

Statue of Liberty Fair.

15:47

There are a lot of sports boats there are

15:49

there are all kinds of There

15:51

are kayaks, canoes, jet

15:54

skis water skiers. I

15:56

saw a water skier the.

15:57

Other day that I haven't seen.

15:58

Oh yeah, water that's up the river,

16:01

up the river. But boy, it is really

16:03

getting more and more and more used.

16:05

It is very busy. We have I

16:08

think it's for boat houses,

16:10

for human powered boating, so kayaks,

16:13

canoes, Hawaiian outriggers.

16:16

There is a group that builds what

16:18

are called Whitehall gigs, which is

16:20

like the boat that George Washington

16:23

crossed the Delaware in. So

16:25

that there is so much activity in the water.

16:28

So the newest initiative is the

16:30

science Playground. Why

16:32

was sturgeon suggested for the theme

16:34

of that beautiful, beautiful playground?

16:37

I think sturgeon it's a fish

16:39

that of course is native

16:41

to the Hudson River, and then it's

16:44

such an interesting fish. They're a prehistoric

16:46

fish. They were around the time that the

16:49

dinosaurs were here, and they're

16:51

really large. Yet because

16:54

of human impacts, their population

16:56

significantly declined. We

16:59

would fish them for their caviar,

17:01

their eggs, and there's been

17:03

a lot of effort to help to restore

17:06

their population because we have to think

17:08

about the entirety of the Lower

17:10

Hudson Estuary. They come in

17:12

from the ocean and this is their spawning

17:15

ground. And so we put

17:18

the sturgeon, two different types of

17:20

sturgeon there, because I

17:22

think it just evokes so much

17:24

curiosity people can't

17:26

believe that they are in the Hudson.

17:29

And then we were able to play on

17:31

a lot of their different elements

17:34

like barbles and scoots, and

17:37

students can climb on them and swing

17:39

from them and actually go inside them, pretend

17:42

like they're a crab that was just eaten by a sturgeon

17:45

and literally slide through their digestive

17:47

track. So it allowed us to

17:49

build a Hudson River environment on land

17:52

and through play learn

17:54

a lot about local wildlife.

17:57

Who designed the park? Was there one lens

18:00

escape designer or one

18:02

scientists who actually sort

18:04

of like conceived of the look and feel

18:06

of this beautiful place.

18:08

There are four actually

18:11

now five main design teams that

18:13

worked on the park, in part

18:15

because when we started building there

18:18

were very few large

18:20

landscape architecture firms

18:23

located in New York. There just

18:25

wasn't that much open space

18:27

development or open.

18:28

Space after Olmsted and Central.

18:30

Park, That's right, and so this

18:33

was an opportunity for a lot

18:35

of smaller firms to work together

18:37

and what we did was we had a

18:39

master planning team that helped design

18:43

the elements that run through

18:45

the park from start to finish, like

18:47

the paving on the esplanade and

18:49

the railing at the water and the light

18:51

pools, and we wanted people to feel

18:54

like they understood they were in the

18:56

same place as they moved from neighborhood to

18:58

neighborhood. But then separately,

19:01

there was a landscape architect

19:03

team led by Susake Associates

19:06

and Matthews Nielsen down in Tribeca.

19:08

There was a team in Greenwich Village

19:11

led by Abel Bainson Buttz. There

19:13

was a team at Gansport which

19:15

just opened last year, which was the James

19:18

Corner Field Operations team. There

19:21

was a Chelsea team of Michael

19:23

van Valkenberg and associates. And

19:25

then there was an architect

19:28

who led the team up in the North where there

19:30

are many more buildings, and that was Richard

19:32

Dattner. And it took many

19:35

years for all of them to finish

19:37

and get their sections built, but finally

19:40

we are almost one hundred percent done, which

19:42

is for me a huge achievement.

19:44

It really is is amazing. And

19:47

the Hudson River Park also

19:49

has a very robust group of

19:51

tenants, the tenants

19:54

that live on or near the

19:56

park. How does that help the park?

19:59

The income the tenants is the primary

20:01

income that supports the operations invest

20:04

the big parking garage, the big parking

20:06

garage at Peer forty, which

20:08

fits probably about fifteen

20:11

hundred to two thousand cars.

20:13

My droughter keeps your car in there and walks

20:16

twenty blocks to get there and

20:19

climbs up to the fourth floor.

20:21

It's very Manhattan.

20:22

It is very Manhattan. But it's a safe,

20:25

lovely place to keep a car.

20:26

It's safe. It just was rehabilitated

20:29

a couple of years ago. All those three thousand

20:31

piles needed to be fixed to keep it standing.

20:34

But one of the unique things about the

20:37

arrangement for creating the trust

20:39

was, unlike most New York City

20:42

parks, we get to keep

20:44

the income that's generated within the park

20:46

itself, and that is what

20:48

keeps the lights on and

20:50

the pavers fixed, and the piles repaired,

20:53

and all of the kind of maintenance that you

20:55

don't really see. You just see a

20:57

beautiful park.

20:58

How many peers actually jut out

21:00

into the river.

21:01

Now, the total

21:03

besides the sixteen that are.

21:05

The park piers.

21:06

There are I believe

21:09

four piers that are part of Chelsea Piers.

21:11

Then there are three

21:14

up at Circle Line, there's one

21:16

in the north for Kaned, there's one

21:18

at the Intrepid. So all together

21:21

it's probably close to about twenty five.

21:24

So twenty five out of the probably one

21:26

hundreds. When the river was

21:28

the bustling port that it.

21:30

Was, absolutely I think there

21:33

at one point not only was there

21:35

appier at the end of every street, but

21:37

on both sides of it there were pier

21:40

sheds and ships in the water,

21:42

and back in those days you couldn't

21:44

see the water. It was completely blocked

21:47

by the commerce that was going on.

21:49

How unusual is it for a park to

21:51

have such a mix of commercial entities

21:53

and parkland.

21:55

I think it was an

21:57

experiment in New York when we first

21:59

started. I wouldn't be surprised

22:01

if it's happening more and more across

22:03

the country because this issue

22:06

of the de industrialized

22:09

waterfront is not unique to New

22:11

York, and many older cities

22:13

in particular who were built on rivers

22:16

have the same issue, and

22:18

they're all dealing with how

22:20

do you make it nice for people

22:22

to come to the water, how do you make it a recreational

22:25

access and bringing more nature

22:28

into urban areas, but also then how

22:30

do you support it?

22:32

How do you do you compete with the East River

22:34

here in New York with the Gin Building and those

22:36

places or is it a complementary

22:39

kind of sharing of ideas.

22:40

I think it's really complementary. We

22:43

speak to our peer groups

22:45

from other parks all the time. We're actually

22:48

part of a group

22:50

called the Parks and Open Space

22:52

Partners in New York that form during the pandemic

22:55

when we all were struggling with figuring

22:57

out how to raise money. And it's

23:00

probably got forty or more organizations

23:02

in it now, and we all work with

23:04

each other to give advice, to

23:07

find out how some of them have

23:09

succeeded when others haven't, and

23:11

really share the

23:14

brain power of the people who are working

23:16

in these places.

23:26

Carrie, you're so knowledgeable about

23:28

the wildlife on this great

23:30

estuary? Is that raychel Cole the river an

23:33

estuary? Yes, of course it is. So

23:35

who's really responsible for all the science

23:37

that's going on in the research? Yeah?

23:40

So our River Project team we're

23:42

now a team of nine individuals. We

23:44

have science staff as well as environmental

23:47

educators. They're translating

23:49

our research to programs

23:51

that are then being taught to students

23:54

and families and just the general public.

23:56

But our science team thoughtfully

23:59

part with local universities so

24:02

scientists throughout New York City can

24:04

do research in the park, and we facilitate

24:07

that through a visiting scholars program.

24:10

We've been building a partnership with CUNEI,

24:12

so the City of New York University to

24:15

help local scientists and faculty

24:17

at those universities bring their research

24:19

and their students into the park. With

24:22

the Designated Estering Sanctuary,

24:25

we have this management plan that

24:28

has goals around conservation

24:30

and restoration and really

24:33

to conduct research on

24:35

water quality, on wildlife,

24:37

on climate impacts. We need

24:40

to do that collectively and with many hands.

24:42

So with that plan, it

24:45

guides us in our partners and

24:47

building a really rich roster

24:50

of research so that we're

24:52

looking at the river over time

24:55

comprehensively.

24:57

It's so much fun to talk to people who are involved

24:59

with some of your and I've met quite

25:01

a few of them, and they're so excited. They're

25:03

so excited about not only educating

25:06

the use of New York City, but also

25:09

just all of us, the inhabitants here because

25:12

we should know what's going on in our river.

25:14

What about the little park? How

25:16

did that happen? That's a little island island.

25:20

I go at Little Park, but it's a little island

25:22

that was built by Barry Diller and his wife,

25:24

Diane von Furstenberg, I guess, and with

25:26

the English architect who designed

25:28

that park, jutting out just south of the Google

25:31

Pier.

25:33

So the project at Little Island was

25:36

completely unique to what all

25:39

of the rest of Husson River Park had been doing

25:41

up to that point. And I think

25:43

in part it was triggered

25:46

by the fact that at that moment,

25:49

it was probably a few years after

25:51

the financial crisis, and so there

25:53

was a slow down in construction of the

25:56

park. And one of the

25:58

designated park piers that had been

26:00

built was the pure at fourteenth Street,

26:02

and that just happened to be sort

26:05

of across the street and a block

26:07

over to where Barry Diller's

26:09

office was at the IC Building, and

26:12

so he looked at this every day, and I was

26:14

probably aware that the building had

26:17

sort of come to a standstill at that point

26:19

because there was no private

26:21

money and there was no public money, and

26:24

they started discussing with the

26:26

former president the trust and the former

26:29

board chair also

26:32

what could be done with that space in the meantime

26:34

since it wasn't being built by the public

26:36

sector, And he hired Thomas Heatherwick

26:39

and they dreamed up what at

26:41

the time seemed like this totally

26:44

insane design and

26:46

it was really unlike anything

26:48

else, not just in our park but anywhere.

26:50

It's like a little hilly park jutting out

26:53

into the up out of

26:55

the Hudson River.

26:56

Yes, it's sitting on I don't know, I've

26:58

forgotten the number of We

27:00

refer to them as like flower pots,

27:02

because that's what they look like. They're sort of

27:05

tulips. But when

27:08

they those got floated down the Hudson and when they

27:10

started to install them, just it

27:13

attracted so much attention. It's

27:15

really wild and the landscape

27:17

architecture there was Matthews Nielsen

27:19

who also did our Tribeca section, and

27:22

it's just so interesting.

27:26

And everything seems to be thriving out there in the river.

27:28

And they were so careful to

27:31

make sure that every season of the year had

27:33

something blooming. So the spring,

27:35

the summer, the fall, the winter, they all look very

27:37

different, but they're all beautiful.

27:39

So for those of you coming into New York City from

27:41

out of town, it's certainly worth

27:44

a visit to see Little

27:46

Park.

27:47

Absolutely every time we have

27:49

visitors. It used to be they wanted

27:51

to see the highline that was first, and now they want to

27:53

see Little Island.

27:55

So the plantings along the park are quite

27:57

beautiful. They're so many

28:00

trees and so many plants.

28:03

Who takes care of these all

28:05

of this and who

28:07

plants all of this?

28:08

Sure, we have an amazing

28:11

horticulture team. So that

28:13

team's let up by a matt post

28:16

and they're out there rain

28:18

or shine in ninety degree weather

28:20

and below thirty degree weather to

28:23

take care of all of these plants. As

28:26

Connie was just saying about Little Island, we're

28:28

really thoughtful about having plants

28:31

that are blooming at different points of the year,

28:33

to have cedars and

28:35

hemlocks, and supporting some

28:38

of the deciduous trees so there's habitat

28:40

and food also for all of the different

28:42

birds and insects that

28:45

inhabit.

28:45

The park respect

28:47

the plantings like they should.

28:50

Yes, oh good, certainly.

28:52

I sometimes worried when I saw something

28:55

so beautiful that somebody who's going to come

28:57

and dig it up in the middle of the night, but they're respectful.

29:00

They are and they see the hard work. I

29:02

think of our horticulture team as well as

29:04

our volunteers. So our

29:07

Friends group leads an entire

29:09

a huge volunteer arm

29:12

and we work with community volunteers,

29:14

We work with corporate groups to help

29:16

us to keep the park looking beautiful,

29:18

and that takes many hours.

29:21

So groups are removing plants

29:23

that shouldn't be there, so invasive

29:26

plants that like fragmighties

29:28

or mugwart and they're helping us to plant

29:31

the flowers, the bulbs, the trees

29:33

and shrubs that we all appreciate.

29:36

What's the biggest success of the park? Would you

29:38

say, Connie, the biggest success

29:40

in the park.

29:40

That's hard for me because I love

29:42

it all, but I think that

29:45

it created a model at the time

29:48

that, as far as I know, didn't

29:50

exist previously for

29:53

how you could do this and not

29:56

be dependent on the support

29:58

of the budgets of the city and state parks,

30:01

because not only are

30:03

they stretched very thin all

30:05

the time, but in really bad

30:07

times. It means you're not dependent

30:10

on them and you can

30:12

allocate your own resources in a way

30:15

to keep it clean, to keep it

30:17

safe, to keep it beautiful, and

30:19

I think before we started

30:22

that was just an idea and

30:24

we didn't know if it would really work. And so now

30:26

more than twenty years later, we

30:29

can see that it was successful.

30:31

And the people who live across from

30:33

us on the West side, in all those

30:35

different neighborhoods, they can

30:37

see it too.

30:39

Now with a building of Hudson

30:42

Yards, which is a gigantic

30:44

real estate development, how did

30:46

that affect the park or didn't it?

30:48

On the Friend's side, it certainly has affected

30:50

the park. It means that we have thousands

30:53

of neighbors where we didn't before. And

30:56

our volunteer program that Carrie

30:58

was just referencing now has

31:01

more than three thousand volunteers a year

31:04

and I think probably at

31:06

least a dozen,

31:09

at most maybe

31:12

twenty new businesses

31:14

that are occupants of Hudson

31:16

Yards. Good yeah, and very

31:18

supportive.

31:19

Hudson Yards was once the

31:22

railroad yards of New York

31:24

City and all the railroad that's where

31:26

all the trains ended up and took off

31:28

from, and it's now transformed

31:31

into this most amazing

31:33

modernistic city of itself.

31:35

It really is incredible. That area,

31:37

in fact, right across from where your

31:40

office is is where we have

31:42

the last Hudson River

31:44

float bridge, which brought

31:46

the goods over on barges from New

31:48

Jersey and then put them

31:51

on rails that eventually wound up on the high

31:53

Line. So there's just so much history

31:55

in the sites that are across the street from

31:57

the park and in the park itself.

32:00

Well, I'm so excited to see the continued

32:02

progress of the park. I just want you to

32:04

describe the gala, which I attend every

32:06

year, and it's so much fun. And what are

32:09

you doing this year with this gala?

32:11

This year is still in the planning

32:13

stage. We're currently

32:16

working with one of our park

32:19

tenants for one of our

32:21

honorees. I'm not going to divulge that yet

32:23

because that hasn't been publicizing, but looking for

32:25

our other one. And one of the

32:28

things I love about our gala is that

32:30

it is so full

32:32

of friends and neighbors

32:35

from you know, all the would

32:37

be.

32:37

Really nice about it. It really is a friendly

32:39

gathering of how many people like.

32:41

It used to be almost a thousand. It's

32:43

gotten smaller since COVID because

32:46

there used to be like no room to

32:48

get up from your table, but it's now

32:50

still about seven seven fifteen.

32:52

Oh, I know, it's so many people and

32:54

every everybody talking to everybody.

32:57

It's like a giant block party

33:00

is and.

33:02

Just bring the neighborhood totally together.

33:04

And last year you raised quite a bit of money.

33:06

We did. I think we raised

33:08

nearly three million dollars. Uh.

33:11

And then we just had our second

33:13

biggest event last Friday, which is our Playground

33:16

Committee Lunch. Yes, so those

33:18

two are our biggest

33:20

events, but they're also it's

33:22

just amazing to see people come to something

33:25

like that, not because their

33:27

company sent them,

33:29

like as a chore and definitely

33:32

not a rubber chicken dinner.

33:34

No, because they're because they're neighbors.

33:36

They are their neighbors and they love the park.

33:38

And they love the park, and they use the park, which

33:40

is the nicest thing.

33:41

They probably use it more than I do.

33:44

What can one do in the

33:46

Hudson River.

33:47

Park, Well, there are so

33:49

many things to do in Hudson River Park. You

33:51

can jog, you can cycle,

33:54

you can play tennis, you can use

33:56

the skate parks, you can go to

33:58

the playgrounds, you can play soccer,

34:02

baseball, football, and almost

34:04

any other field sport.

34:06

And I know you can do yoga, and I know

34:08

you can exercise and I know you

34:10

can dance. I've seen dancing classes.

34:13

You can listen to

34:15

music. We have jazz, we have Afro

34:17

Caribbean, we have Bollywood and Bangra.

34:20

You can bring your dog to our amazing

34:23

dog parks, which is so important for New

34:25

Yorkers with their tiny apartments. You

34:28

can take a cruise ship.

34:31

You can learn about

34:33

World War Two at the Intrepid

34:35

Museum. You can

34:38

go to a fine

34:40

dining restaurant. You can

34:42

go to a place like City Winery and listen

34:45

to music. You can go to

34:47

the rooftop park at the top of the

34:49

Google Pier. You can visit a

34:51

place like Little Island with your

34:53

out of town friends.

34:54

I'm getting tired.

34:58

Or you can just walk and look at the beauty nature.

35:00

And you can walk four miles down and

35:02

four miles back and get all

35:05

your cardio in in a day.

35:07

That's right. And if you run the perimeter

35:09

of each and every pier, you can add another

35:11

three miles to that.

35:13

Wow.

35:14

And I'll just add you can also see

35:16

some of these Hudson River fish up close

35:19

in the park's wet lab. We have a flow through aquarium

35:21

at Peer forty. It's one of a kind,

35:24

and you can actually see stripe bass,

35:26

oyster, toadfish, oysters

35:28

growing and learn a lot about our

35:30

local wildlife.

35:31

There.

35:31

What street is that Peer that's at Houston Street.

35:34

At Houston Street Peer forty here.

35:36

Forty and you can go to the Discovery Tank,

35:38

Yes.

35:38

And then up at Peer fifty seven, which

35:41

is that building that we were talking about with Google,

35:43

we have a Discovery Tank. It's a

35:45

gallery and a classroom. There's interactive

35:48

games. You can dive deep into the

35:50

Hudson and learn about what's growing

35:52

in and around our piles. You can

35:54

spend a day as an oyster

35:56

toadfish in a game a tabletop

35:59

game, or build plankton and learn

36:01

about the role that plankton play in helping

36:03

to keep our river healthy.

36:04

So you see, there's plenty to do in the

36:06

Hudson River Park. I hope all

36:09

New Yorkers and all visitors to

36:11

New York will take advantage of it. Follow

36:13

at Hudson River Park to see

36:16

their events and programs. Thank

36:18

you, Connie so very much for taking time

36:20

out of your busy, busy day. And Carrie, thank

36:23

you. It's really nice to talk to both

36:25

of you and to learn more about one

36:27

of New York's finest, finest

36:29

attractions. Thank you.

36:31

It's been a plange to thank you. Thank you so much.

36:33

Mark, thank you.