Our Mission
We have been working with, and will continue to work with, our partner community groups, elected officials, and private enterprises, to complement the NYC Department of Parks maintenance and repair of this public space. Our goal is to improve and enhance the quality of the running paths, boating access, fishing piers and bike paths, with our group's focus The Esplanade to the North and South of Carl Schurz Park's John Finley Walk.
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EsplanadeFriends relentlessly advocates for the expeditious repair of The Esplanade's infrastructure. We work with officials at every level of City, State and Federal government and closely with many NYC Parks officials and local Parks workers, as well as with local Community Boards. We are active participants in The East River Esplanade Task Force (led by our local City Council and Congressional representatives), and we participate in many other local leadership groups related to The Esplanade, most recently as stakeholders in the Project Advisory Committee for the Harlem River Park Greenway Link (the 11 acre waterfront park that will connect to the East River Esplanade at 125th St and run north).
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We routinely organize volunteer bulb planting and gardening through our volunteer gardening committee and we professionally landscape in the areas where this is possible using donated funds and City Council funding.
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EsplanadeFriends aims to bring spectacular public art to The Esplanade. In 2015, we commissioned the light painting artist VickiDa Silva to photograph The Esplanade and created the East River Flows public art banner, the first ever public art exhibited on the East Harlem waterfront. We followed this up in 2016 with the renowned artist Kenny Scharf's NeverEndingGOGO at 116th St and the East River, aside the formerly decrepit column he recreated as the painted TotemOH
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We present innovative and exciting music, dance and nature programming on the waterfront, often with free food sponsored by COFFEED and free ice cream from new, delicious vendors.Item description
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Moving forward, we hope to serve as a liaison between the Parks Department and other City agencies and the public users of the waterfront, updating our website with repair and other information provided to us by the City.
