Left: Parade over the Corlears Hook Park Bridge. Right: East River Park amphitheater, a work in progress. ( Photos: Friends of Corlears Hook Park; Brian Berger) That New Corlears Hook Bridge to East River Park? Wow! It might not be the yellow brick road, but the paths to and from the new Corlears Hook Park Bridge to the East River Park... News 05 Oct 2025 | 04:35
The ribbon cutting at the gazebo. Note the golden scissors! Congressman Dan Goldman arrived just after this photo was taken. ( Photo: Brian Bergrer) Renovated Washington Market Park Reopens, Tribeca Rejoices! Shout it loud and proud, New Yorkers, Washington Market Park is back! That’s the esctatic exclamation of Tribecans and visitors... News 22 Sep 2025 | 12:05
Dashing Whippets track meet, Aug. 16, 2025; runners line up for “A” heat mile. New York Lions youth football practice in background (right rear). Inset: A sign announces the closing of this section of East River Park. ( Photos: Brian Berger) East River Park Track Closes, Corlears Hook Bridge Reopens If you want to talk about the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project—involving flood control and other things—you’d best be... News 15 Sep 2025 | 08:52
One of two “Resonating Bodies” by British sculptor Tony Cragg. ( Photo: Brian Berger) Newly Raised Wagner Park Reopens, Lower Manhattanites Rejoice! More than two years after it was closed, in March 2023, as part of the Southern Battery Resiliency Project, a redesigned... News 04 Aug 2025 | 10:22
Left: Christopher Marte (left) at the music stand; Right: a dog lover and her happy, adopted partial pit bull. ( Photos: Brian Berger) New Dog Run Announced for Neglected Lower East Side Park Woof woof, lick lick: these were the sounds and gestures of gratitude offered by the canine constituents of Christopher Marte,... News 20 Jun 2025 | 11:27
Left: Our Lady of Sorrows’ Mets Little League coach. Right: Woman shooting baskets next to the highway. ( Photos: Brian Berger) East River Park Reopens to High Praise & Some Concerns It’s real, it’s beautiful, mostly, and it’s LOUD, in parts, most definitely, if not deafeningly. Say what?! Hold on, let’s... News 02 Jun 2025 | 12:30
Left: BP Mark Levine, CB1 Chair Tammy Meltzer, Council Members Keith Powers and Christopher Marte; Right: ticket vendors “guarding” the entrance to Battery Park and Castle Clinton at the Bowling Green subway stop. ( Photo: Brian Berger) City Council Members Marte & Powers Propose to Stop Tourist Ferry Ticket Scams Call it “the crackdown in Battery Park.” That’s the hope anyway, in the wake of legislation announced by Council Members... News 25 May 2025 | 08:45
Left: Council Member Marte with Tricia Shimamura, Manhattan Borough Commissioner NYC Parks, and Alice Blank. Right: with PS 124 principal, Yi Law Chan. ( Photos: Friends of Barnett Newman Park; Office of Christopher Marte) School Playgrounds & Barnett Newman Triangle Score Participitory Budget Triumphs And the votes have counted! This is the exclamation downtown residents have been waiting to hear about the 2025 Council District... News 22 May 2025 | 05:21
“Ticket agent” offers two women “assistance” near Bowling Green. March 2025. ( Photo: Brian Berger) Beware! Battery Park Tourist Scammers Persist Despite Years of Complaints & Warnings Let’s call it Anarchy in Battery Park. That’s the impression a visitor gets as they traverse this historic jewel of lower... News 28 Mar 2025 | 05:06
Sara D. Roosevelt Park, southeast gate: After (March 10, 2025) and Before (October 28, 2024). ( Photo: Brian Berger) Sara D. Roosevelt Park Revisited: Out With Homeless Camps & Drug Dens, In With Chinatown Pride Call it the little park that could. Five months after Straus News’ October 2024 expose “Anarchy in Sara D. Roosevelt Park,”... Home 11 Mar 2025 | 01:54
The youngest Little Leaguers, seen here in the pre-renovation days on Tim McGinn Field inside Murphy’s Brother’s Park, will be able to enjoy two new artificial turf baseball fields inside the newly renovated park. ( Photo: Mapquest) Murphy Brothers Park, A Fav of Youngest Baseball Players, Finally Reopens Play ball! Murphy Brothers Park–long a favorite of the youngest Little Leaguers–is finally back in business nearly a year... Home 27 Nov 2024 | 11:27
The state of the East River Esplanade Address at John John Park, E. 78th Street and Cherokee Place. ( Photo: Brian Berger) East River Greenway of the Mind: The City Dreamed It, But Dead Ends Riddle Waterfront Trail Talk about arterial blockage! That’s been the news from the East River waterfront for years now and, following a recent traversal... News 28 Oct 2024 | 11:18
Asphalt Green spearheaded a new “Wave Makers” program, teaching 2,000 second-graders throughout NYC how to swim at various facilities across the city. It’s been up and running since June. But a city wide program championed by UES Council Member Julie Menin to give free swimming lessons to all 70,000 second graders in public schools during the school year, remains unfunded. ( Photo: Asphalt Green) No Funding for Second Grade Swim Program for Second Year in Row Public youth swimming lessons across the city have been in shambles since before the pandemic. In September 2023, it seemed... News 03 Jul 2024 | 01:53
The newly restored Joan of Arc statue in all its glory, no longer weathered by a century of vandalism and environmental damage is back inside Riverside Park. ( Photo: Municipal Art Society of New York) After a $23G Overhaul, the First Statue of a Woman in a NYC Public Park Is Restored on UWS The first statue of a woman in a New York City public park was restored and unveiled on May 18 inside Riverside Park, depicting... 05 Jun 2024 | 01:45
Pier 66, transformed from desolate to refurbished. ( Photo via Hudson River Park ) Hudson River Park Celebrates 25 Years, With Desolation Transformed Into Greenery The Hudson River Park will be hosting a 25th anniversary gala on October 12, which will serve to highlight the complete transformation... News 11 Sep 2023 | 05:48
