Join us for a live virtual talk with Tom Fox as he discusses his new book Creating the Hudson River Park: Environmental and Community Activism, Politics, and Greed.

​​​​​​After the defeat of the $2.4 billion Westway plan to fill 234 acres of the Hudson in 1985, the stage was set for the revitalization of Manhattan’s West Side waterfront. Between 1986 and 1998 the process focused on the basics like designing an appropriate roadway, removing noncompliant municipal and commercial activities from the waterfront, implementing temporary improvements, developing the Park’s first revenue-producing commercial area at Chelsea Piers, completing the public planning and environmental review processes, and negotiating the 1998 Hudson River Park Act that officially created the Park. From 1999 to 2009 planning and construction were funded with public money and focused on creating active and passive recreation opportunities on the Tribeca, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen waterfronts.

However, initial recommendations to secure long-term financial support for the Park from the increase in adjacent real estate values that resulted from the Park’s creation were ignored. City and state politicians had other priorities and public funding for the Park dwindled. The recent phase of the project, from 2010 to 2021, focused on “development” both in and adjacent to the Park. Fox’s first-person perspective helps to document the history of the Hudson River Park, recognizes those who made it happen and those who made it difficult, and provides lessons that may help private citizens and public servants expand and protect the public parks and natural systems that are so critical to urban well-being.

About the Author:

​​​​​​Tom Fox has spent a lifetime developing innovative projects, facilitating public-private partnerships, shaping public policy, and spearheading efforts to revitalize abandoned waterfronts, protect nature and reclaim vacant land in the city.

He has received numerous awards from professional, civic, and environmental organizations, a BS in Biology from Brooklyn College, and a Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. 

Date
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Time
6:00 pm
Details

Zoom Webinar

Free

Pre-registration required 

Click here to watch the recording of this past program