There’s a 89 foot long piece of East River walk which has been fenced off for as long as anyone can remember. We explore what’s up with that.
It’s our Bermuda Triangle Sidewalk because it spans City and State-controlled parkland, owned by a series of State entities. It took a few weeks to get confirmation on who owns what. Either way, people can’t use it, and we were wondering why.
Who owns what?
The tangled weave of city and state parkland confuses…almost everyone. This piece of park spans both the City-owned Hunters Point South Park and NY State-controlled Gantry Plaza State Park. The latter park sits on land owned by the Queens West Development Corporation which is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, the state entity that took over the industrial land, remediated it, and began the Queens West Development in 1989. ESD says day-to-day control, not ownership, passed to NYC Parks: “We transferred control of this parcel to NYC Parks,” said Emily Mijatovic, ESD’s Downstate Communications Director. This happened in May 2009 when portions of the original Queens West territory were transferred to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) for the separate city-backed creation of Hunters Point South Park.
So, what’s up?
A many-headed hydra of control
It’s not just this stretch of walkway which confuses both people but also our reporting systems. Since 2021, NYC 311 has logged 22 separate complaints at a single address on Parks’ own land, 52-10 Center Boulevard, closed out with a version of the same line: not our jurisdiction. The same thing happens up and down Center Boulevard where 311 service requests are closed because it isn’t NYC Parks jurisdiction. Which is true, but also frustrating since it would be better for everyone if the State could be given those requests.
When reached for comment, the NY State Parks said that this sidewalk was under NYC Parks jurisdiction, while NYC Parks describes the area as shared between city and state. Press Officer Judd Faulkner from NYC Parks & Recreation had this to say, “The section was closed out of an abundance of caution following an inspection in 2024 which revealed a small section of seawall underneath the walkway was breached. The area is between city and state jurisdiction, but funding for its repair will be incorporated into an existing design and repair project, slated to begin construction in 2028.”
So there you have it: a plot of land which is under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks, disclaimed by NY State Parks, and has an ownership structure of at least two different entities (Queens West Development Corporation, and its parent, Empire State Development), will be fixed sometime in 2028.
CM Won’s office is out on holiday and if they offer a comment when they get back, we’ll append it to this story.
Places
Randy Plemel
Publisher
✉️
The founder and publisher of the Hunters Point Ledger, a newsletter covering Hunters Point South and Long Island City. He serves on Queens Community Board 2, and all views are his own.
