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The East River ebbs and flows
past many of New York City’s most fascinating neighborhoods, and always has. But
the relationship of those neighborhoods to the water has changed dramatically
along with the economy and the environment.
The earliest colonial
settlements, like Flushing and others, stood in the footprints of Native
American villages. They also assumed much of their lifestyle, thriving on
fishing, hunting, and trading. In time they brought over cattle, which fed on
nutritious marsh grasses. When the Dutch governors of New Amsterdam found that
quaint waterside villages were havens for smugglers and pirates, they tried to
push new colonists onto farms further inland. The British had their share of
this problem too, with the legendary Captain Kidd, who often put in at
Cripplebush, now Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But the attraction of the waterway for
fishing, trading, and other vital activities of small town life was too great to
shift the population’s center of gravity inland by government fiat. Even after
the age of sailing ships had passed, wealthy merchants slept near where their
money was made, filling tawny “Steamship Row” on State Street.
But the economic dynamo of the
harbor spawned massive industrialization. Factories, refineries, commercial
shipping piers, and power plants mushroomed along the shoreline, pushing
downtown Manhattan residential communities along the East River inland after
all. Only gang-infested tenement slums remained, where the poor were stacked
atop one another in rat holes. Oddly enough, these conditions gave rise to a
brief new era of piracy. “Sadie the Goat,” a small-time Lower East Side mugger
known for head-butting her victims in the gut, led her gang to new riches
commandeering ships carrying rum. Perhaps the clearest example of the low regard
in which Manhattanites held the East River was the construction of elegant Tudor
City in 1928. The complex has windowless rear walls to block out the view of
slaughterhouses, shanties, and filthy water where the United Nations stands
today astride a glittering waterway. Robert Moses, New York City’s most
influential Parks Commissioner, nearly severed Manhattan’s relationship with the
East River when he filled in coves and paved over the shoreline for the FDR
Drive.
Wealthy New Yorkers who wanted
to enjoy the river throughout the 19th century and early 20th century instead
carved out exclusive waterfront communities further and further from the
grittiness of the wharfs, seeking quietude in places like Brooklyn Heights,
Ravenswood, Astoria, Malba, College Point, and the Bronx. In the heart of New
York City, however, the only major residential developments on the East River
for decades were public housing projects - some of which are the largest in
North America. The physical conditions for those living in the new buildings
were certainly an improvement over the old slums, but crime was rampant for
several decades before ebbing in the 1990s. But the projects were also powerful
engines of cultural development, including rap music.
Developers, in league with
urban planners and politicians, now dream about adding tens of thousands
apartments on the river. Their plans are running into scrutiny by adjoining
communities concerned about the impact this would have on their quality of life.
Text by Erik Baard |
