BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | To park activists’ horror, workers began cutting down trees in East River Park again early Friday morning, just two days after the Court of Appeals had seemingly issued a stay to stop the destruction.
About five hours later, at 11:30 a.m., protesters clashed with police at the new fence blocking off the work zone in a wild video posted to Twitter. Police are seen trying to close the gate while shoving away a swarm of protesters.
Around 8:30 a.m. an incredulous Tommy Loeb, a member of East River Park ACTION, who could see the destruction playing out from his windows, fumed, “They’re in contempt of court!”
Kathryn Freed, a former judge who is a co-counsel on the community lawsuit against the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, said Mayor de Blasio’s Law Department unilaterally decided there is no stay in effect to stop them from destroying the park.
The NYPD are not enforcing a NYS court TRO. @TishJames @advocat4justice @jon309 @Ibrahim_Khan @yuhline @CarolynBMaloney @HarveyforNY @bradhoylman @BrianKavanaghNY @SenSchumer @SenGillibrand @ERPAction @1000treesNYC #weRefuseESCR #escrisecocide @GretaThunberg @ggreenwald pic.twitter.com/hKWLTzTyFw
— EastRiverPark🏆NYC’s Best Park (@AllieRyanNYC) December 10, 2021
Basically, as she explained it, the Court of Appeals itself cannot issue a stay, although, this Wednesday, it did stay the actual previous decision from Nov. 30 by the Appellate Division (a lower court) against the community lawsuit.
Friday morning, Freed and her co-counsel Arthur Schwartz, who are doing the case pro bono, were scrambling to have the Appellate Division clarify that its Nov. 30 decision against the lawsuit has been stayed by the Court of Appeals — which would mean a temporary restraining order (T.R.O.) that the Appellate Division had issued while it considered the case should still be in effect, the attorneys argue. Freed said they hoped to be in court at 9:30, virtually, to get a clarification.
She said a city attorney had called Schwartz at 6 p.m. the previous day to say the workers would be restarting the tree-cutting.
While the legal technicalities are confusing, the reality of trees being cut in the park once again on Friday was starkly clear.
Freed, speaking from her apartment on Grand Street, at one point said police were trying to stop the cutting. But Emily Johnson, one of the park activists, who was running over to the park, said the cops were actually arresting the protesters.
“Our people went in to try to give the T.R.O. to workers and contractors. They said they don’t want it,” she said. “They have two of our people in cuffs in the squad car. This is insane.”
Former City Council candidate Allie Ryan, who was also on the ground in the park at Houston Street, described a chaotic scene. She was furiously posting photos and videos on social media but took a break to give The Village Sun an update.
“There are helicopters overhead,” she said. “I think they’re news and police — it’s like military. They are still working. The paddy wagon is still here; I think the two people who were arrested are still inside.
“Oh, my God, they have chopped down a lot of trees and shrubbery today,” Ryan said. “I’m getting reports from people in apartments who can see it that they are chopping down the trees at the Seal Park and destroying the ball fields at Grand Street.”
Freed said the workers are knocking down the fencing around the ball field.
Ryan said the workers did pause the carnage when police first showed up, but only for five minutes, then started right back up again.
She said park activists are rushing over to the park, but some are leaving after an hour because it’s so cold.
Meanwhile, Freed said she has never quite seen anything like this, in terms of an administration so hell-bent on pushing through the things it wants, the opposition be damned. She stopped short, though, of calling Friday’s situation in the park illegal.
The Court of Appeals hearing is set for 10 days from now on Dec. 20 and Freed said she doesn’t understand why the city just doesn’t wait until then.
“I don’t understand why the city had to do this,” she said. “Are they trying to spark a riot and say, ‘They’re all rioters’?
“You’d think, in de Blasio’s last days in office this wouldn’t be happening,” she said. “It’s really causing polarization in this city. It’s pitting people against each other — like Soho/Noho. What responsible person does this — unless his name is Trump?”
She was referring to the contentious Soho/Noho rezoning, which is set for final approval next week.
Freed, who was the former longtime District 1 city councilmember, said she doesn’t think people fully grasp that the resiliency project is going to totally obliterate every living thing in the park.
“It’s going to be a 50-acre dead zone,” she said. “Well, it’s in two phases, so it’ll only be like a 25- or 30-acre dead zone first.”
De Blasio has run a criminal government since the beginning. As a city councilmember he sucked up to all the developers and took their donations. Sadly, people fell for the idea that he was some kind of progressive. BTW, Lander is the same. Don’t fall for all the progressive happy talk. At the Gowanus rezoning Lander’s plan is to put the so-called affordable housing and a school on toxic land in a flood zone that can never be remediated according to the EPA.
De Blasio is determined to assault the will of the people and the law itself to shove through unpopular and unneeded projects at the last moment. Bragg must investigate him. He is one of the worst mayors New York has had.
De Blasio is lower than scum. There I absolutely no reason he is going this other than some developers gave him money for his absurd campaign for governor if he gets this done. I hope Letitia James or the new DA Andy Bragg investigated all of de Blasio’s corruption.
“How 165 Words Could Make Mass Environmental Destruction An International Crime”
“Mass environmental destruction, known as ecocide, would become an international crime similar to genocide and war crimes under a proposed new legal definition.”
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/27/1010402568/ecocide-environment-destruction-international-crime-criminal-court
“What is Ecocide and can it be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court?” https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/ecocide-environmental-harm-international-crime/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ecocide-movement-pushes-new-international-crime-environmental-destruction-n1263142
Are there any Federal aspects to the East River Park Project, and the current activities, that could get this case into a Federal Court with muscle?
Trump is good for NYC. He built an ice rink for the city. He never has or never would ravage a city park.
Ms. Carter take off the blinders and wake up: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html
Trump wouldn’t decimate a city park. He built an ice rink in Central Park.
Shades of Robert Moses, who would send thugs into inhabited buildings in the Bronx to break pipes and harass people into moving out before they were required to by law, in order to build the Cross Bronx Expressway.
De Blasio overrode Stringer on East River Park. But overriding the courts is another league. Further, he was revealed to have appeared to coerce campaign contributions by an Ethics investigation — which he attempted to suppress. Running for governor is, in my opinion, just another cash grab by Dollar Bill and an attempt to gain influence.
The City and Parks Department are destroying nature from the Bronx (Putnam Nature Trail became a bike speedway) to Staten Island (Graniteville wetland razed for big-box store). Flood control or other justifications, it’s all for development/gentrification.
Direct action and appeals to politicians have never stopped the corporate steamroller. To defend nature and other basic public needs, activists MUST start mobilizing the strike-power of working people!
It’s absolutely horrific. I cannot believe a mayor, supposedly elected to represent the people and the LAW, is acting so unilaterally and IGNORING A T.R.O. to cut down trees and close a park! It is so frightening. I use the park every day and Covid is going up again. Where the hell are we supposed to go? This is so brutal. The entire plan is brutal, our elected officials are uncaring, and people’s lives and health are going to be so heavily affected by this. De Blasio is Trump in a so-called liberal suit — they are equally awful. It’s hard to find the words to describe all this — I never imagined how destructive de Blasio would be, a block from my home!