A Clash of Visions in Seaport's Peck Slip

By Andrea Appleton
POSTED OCT. 18, 2006

A battle is taking shape in the South Street Seaport, over one of the city’s most precious commodities: open space. Peck Slip, a wide-open area paved with 19th century Belgian blocks, is slated for conversion as part of the East River waterfront redevelopment project. Factions are forming as the area, currently a parking lot, heads for rehabilitation. On one side are residents clamoring for green space, a park perhaps, a place for kids to play. On the other are the “piazza” promoters. They want, well, nothing.

“It’s curious to me that the idea of an open space that is not quote-unquote ‘used’ is somehow not desirable,” said Gary Fagin, director of the Seaport Community Coalition, a local neighborhood advocacy organization, in a telephone interview. “Just the fact that we have open space is like having wilderness space out West. We don’t need to put snowmobile paths thru it.”

But on Oct. 17, Community Board 1 unanimously passed a resolution in support of an “open space that incorporates a historic harbor design with plantings as well as seating areas…”

Park proponents characterized the resolution as a compromise, but local preservationists worry that trees, benches, and other park amenities would interrupt the vista that extends from Water Street to the river. They would like to see bollards in place of curbs, but little else to interrupt the view.

“Peck Slip is so unusual,” said Lee Gruzen, co-chair of Seaport Speaks, a group advising the city on the area’s development. “And from Pearl Street to Water Street could be trees.” The slip officially runs from South Street to Pearl Street, but only the section from Water Street to the river was actually once a boat slip. It was paved over more than 150 years ago with stones brought over as ship ballast.

A number of Seaport residents showed up at CB1’s Seaport/Civic Center meeting earlier in the month, all to voice their support for park space. “The area’s booming with families,” said Jake McCabe, president of the Seaport Parent’s Association, “and we have a real desperate need. We like the historical integrity but we’re really interested in green space.”

“I’m advocating the sensible introduction of green space,” said Don Walsh, a resident of Water Street. “Piazzas are in Italy.”

Coalition and Seaport Speaks members would also like to see parking eliminated from the perimeter of Peck Slip, for aesthetic reasons. But a representative from the Department of Transportation who attended the committee meeting said that thus far DOT plans to retain parking spaces along the sidewalks, and the committee’s resolution supported this plan.

Board member Joe Morrone pointed out that it was the Seaport Community Coalition that fought for parking in Peck Slip in the first place. Fagin, who did not attend the meeting, agreed that he had put together the parking plan. But he said it was in response to the imminent departure of the Fulton Fish Market. “It was never meant to be a plan that was something around which Peck Slip was to be designed,” he said.

The “piazza” contingent has framed their plan as the preservation of a place that saw New York City’s very birth. Fagin pointed out that he has a 3-year-old son and understands the desire for park space. “But we have to think in terms of decades, if not generations,” he said. “I’d hate for something to be designed on Peck Slip based on temporal needs.”