peninsula park
Up to Neighborhood Discussion
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From the Queens Chronicle:
[quote]
Eric Baard, the president of the Long Island City Boathouse, is one of the few brave souls who’s rowed up the polluted Newtown Creek. He’s also paddled all over the East River and has watched residential towers rise along the Hunters Point waterfront.
Last summer, he said, “there was definitely a lot of dust, lots of pounding when they (the towers) went up.” But after the construction, he saw goslings and geese, and swans near the water’s edge. Now, he says, the “putting green” of a strip park that’s been built along the water will be a great attraction for geese, who love short grass.
Unfortunately, the towers next to the grass may be a deadly attraction for smaller, migratory birds. The most dangerous buildings for migratory birds, according to the New York City Audubon Society, are the ones that are brightly lit, or have reflective surfaces, particularly if they’re next to parks.
“The deadly combination is habitat, sky, and reflective glass,” said Nicole Delacretaz from New York City Audubon. “(Birds) have the feeling that the forest continues, and it’s really not.” Birds, she explained, actually speed up before hitting the glass because to their eyes, the reflection makes it look like a tree is 60 yards away when it’s only 20.
However, Delacretaz says that residents placing an object next to an apartment window—a lamp, plant, or table—would help birds judge distances more accurately.
In addition to the windows, the lights of the condos may disturb the migratory patterns of birds flying over the city to roost in local parks. The New York City Audubon Society launched Project Safe Flight in 1997 to help migratory birds navigate the city. It recommends all tall buildings dim or turn off their lights at night during the spring and fall, but this is harder to enforce with residential towers like the Avalon on the East River than with office towers in Manhattan.
Delacretaz said generally “local birds—pigeons and house sparrows—are street savvy because they grew up here and in a way they know what windows are. Migratory birds don’t live in cities,” and so are more easily confused. Some migratory birds are also rare and are killed before they get a chance to migrate to breeding grounds.
If migrating birds were able to navigate the Queens towers last fall, they may have another challenge this year. So far, only Stage 1 of the Queens West waterfront development has been completed, and it’s just the beginning. The remaining three stages call for 120,000 square feet of retail space, 5,200 apartments, and 2 million square feet of office space, with a maximum height of 400 feet, all along the waterfront.
The plans for Queens West envision “strip parks,” as the developers call them, between those buildings accompanied by larger, community park spaces. But the green spaces will be on the water, sandwiched between the river and the buildings.
With the current Queens West plan, the East River will become a kind of canyon between Queens towers and Manhattan buildings. This may block access not only to the river, but Roosevelt Island and the numerous small islands such as U Thant (formerly Belmont) and Mill Rock that account for a large percentage of waterfowl habitats, according to the Audubon Society.
At present, Western Queens itself doesn’t have much wildlife in part because it doesn’t have many parks. Traditionally, it’s been Eastern Queens that has been a haven for wildlife. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge provides 9,155 acres for local avians and attracts numerous migrating species.
Don Riepe heads the American Littoral Society, an organization seeking to protect coastal habitats and the nature they support. His society is based out of Jamaica Bay, and he says that habitat disturbance is not just limited to the Western Queens waterfront. The rapid development of Arverne and other areas in the Rockaways may be problematic to shorebirds as well because they change the coastal landscape so quickly.
“What we’re trying to do is extend the park and reduce the development in the east,” he said. “We’d like to see more parkland with access to the beach. A lot of these areas, once they’ve developed, they reduce access.”
In addition, Riepe said, many parts of Jamaica Bay are eroding and need to be repaired to maintain the delicate ecological balance and to protect Queens from natural disasters.
“It’s been shown that by having natural buffers (such as wetlands), you reduce the effects of hurricanes,” he said. “We actually feel that we’d like a moratorium of development of any natural area in the New York City area until environmental assessments have been done.”
Already, some improvements have been made. Groups of Queens citizens have been seeking to clean up Newtown Creek, where swans have been spotted, and the Long Island City/Astoria Waterfront Catalyst Project received $200,000 from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund this year.
The money will be used to raise awareness about local flora, restore tidal wetlands, and create habitat to attract egrets and herons, though the grant did not specify how.
Silvercup Studios is taking a step in the right direction: it has created a green roof on its current facility. The studio’s 35,000-square-foot roof will be covered by plants, helping reduce pollution, absorb rainwater, retain heat, and maybe even provide a resting place for tired birds.
However, the studio is also planning “Silvercup West,” a group of three towers up to 600 feet tall along the East River.
Nicole Delacretaz from the Audubon Society says there are things developers can do too. “(Glassmakers are) making glass that has noise (specks) in it that would be visible for birds but not for humans,” she said. As an alternative, very slightly colored glass would help birds differentiate between reflections and reality. The reality is, developers are the ones who are going to choose what kind of glass they use in their buildings, not local residents.
“If we really want wildlife to return,” said Baard of the Long Island City Boathouse, “we have to have wider planning. It’s going to take lots more concerted effort than decorative strips of plants.[/quote]
[quote]
Eric Baard, the president of the Long Island City Boathouse, is one of the few brave souls who’s rowed up the polluted Newtown Creek. He’s also paddled all over the East River and has watched residential towers rise along the Hunters Point waterfront.
Last summer, he said, “there was definitely a lot of dust, lots of pounding when they (the towers) went up.” But after the construction, he saw goslings and geese, and swans near the water’s edge. Now, he says, the “putting green” of a strip park that’s been built along the water will be a great attraction for geese, who love short grass.
Unfortunately, the towers next to the grass may be a deadly attraction for smaller, migratory birds. The most dangerous buildings for migratory birds, according to the New York City Audubon Society, are the ones that are brightly lit, or have reflective surfaces, particularly if they’re next to parks.
“The deadly combination is habitat, sky, and reflective glass,” said Nicole Delacretaz from New York City Audubon. “(Birds) have the feeling that the forest continues, and it’s really not.” Birds, she explained, actually speed up before hitting the glass because to their eyes, the reflection makes it look like a tree is 60 yards away when it’s only 20.
However, Delacretaz says that residents placing an object next to an apartment window—a lamp, plant, or table—would help birds judge distances more accurately.
In addition to the windows, the lights of the condos may disturb the migratory patterns of birds flying over the city to roost in local parks. The New York City Audubon Society launched Project Safe Flight in 1997 to help migratory birds navigate the city. It recommends all tall buildings dim or turn off their lights at night during the spring and fall, but this is harder to enforce with residential towers like the Avalon on the East River than with office towers in Manhattan.
Delacretaz said generally “local birds—pigeons and house sparrows—are street savvy because they grew up here and in a way they know what windows are. Migratory birds don’t live in cities,” and so are more easily confused. Some migratory birds are also rare and are killed before they get a chance to migrate to breeding grounds.
If migrating birds were able to navigate the Queens towers last fall, they may have another challenge this year. So far, only Stage 1 of the Queens West waterfront development has been completed, and it’s just the beginning. The remaining three stages call for 120,000 square feet of retail space, 5,200 apartments, and 2 million square feet of office space, with a maximum height of 400 feet, all along the waterfront.
The plans for Queens West envision “strip parks,” as the developers call them, between those buildings accompanied by larger, community park spaces. But the green spaces will be on the water, sandwiched between the river and the buildings.
With the current Queens West plan, the East River will become a kind of canyon between Queens towers and Manhattan buildings. This may block access not only to the river, but Roosevelt Island and the numerous small islands such as U Thant (formerly Belmont) and Mill Rock that account for a large percentage of waterfowl habitats, according to the Audubon Society.
At present, Western Queens itself doesn’t have much wildlife in part because it doesn’t have many parks. Traditionally, it’s been Eastern Queens that has been a haven for wildlife. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge provides 9,155 acres for local avians and attracts numerous migrating species.
Don Riepe heads the American Littoral Society, an organization seeking to protect coastal habitats and the nature they support. His society is based out of Jamaica Bay, and he says that habitat disturbance is not just limited to the Western Queens waterfront. The rapid development of Arverne and other areas in the Rockaways may be problematic to shorebirds as well because they change the coastal landscape so quickly.
“What we’re trying to do is extend the park and reduce the development in the east,” he said. “We’d like to see more parkland with access to the beach. A lot of these areas, once they’ve developed, they reduce access.”
In addition, Riepe said, many parts of Jamaica Bay are eroding and need to be repaired to maintain the delicate ecological balance and to protect Queens from natural disasters.
“It’s been shown that by having natural buffers (such as wetlands), you reduce the effects of hurricanes,” he said. “We actually feel that we’d like a moratorium of development of any natural area in the New York City area until environmental assessments have been done.”
Already, some improvements have been made. Groups of Queens citizens have been seeking to clean up Newtown Creek, where swans have been spotted, and the Long Island City/Astoria Waterfront Catalyst Project received $200,000 from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund this year.
The money will be used to raise awareness about local flora, restore tidal wetlands, and create habitat to attract egrets and herons, though the grant did not specify how.
Silvercup Studios is taking a step in the right direction: it has created a green roof on its current facility. The studio’s 35,000-square-foot roof will be covered by plants, helping reduce pollution, absorb rainwater, retain heat, and maybe even provide a resting place for tired birds.
However, the studio is also planning “Silvercup West,” a group of three towers up to 600 feet tall along the East River.
Nicole Delacretaz from the Audubon Society says there are things developers can do too. “(Glassmakers are) making glass that has noise (specks) in it that would be visible for birds but not for humans,” she said. As an alternative, very slightly colored glass would help birds differentiate between reflections and reality. The reality is, developers are the ones who are going to choose what kind of glass they use in their buildings, not local residents.
“If we really want wildlife to return,” said Baard of the Long Island City Boathouse, “we have to have wider planning. It’s going to take lots more concerted effort than decorative strips of plants.[/quote]