A group working to restore Inwood’s Sherman Creek Park has received a boost from Con Edison, which awarded a grant of $80,000 to help bring neighborhood residents in on the improvements.
Con Edison awarded a total of $15 million in New York City-area grants that will enable training for 1,800 individuals in clean energy careers, preservation of 1,900 acres of green space, and other community-led benefits.
The New York Restoration Project, which received the $80,000 grant, was founded 30 years ago by actor Bette Midler and works to ensure that Sherman Creek Park waterfront is beautiful, clean and accessible to all. Other awardees included the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) and the Randall’s Island Park Alliance.
Jason Smith, NYRP director of northern Manhattan parks, said that many green spaces in that area tend to be “neglected” and underused. In fact, the site now known as Sherman Creek Park was once cluttered with dumped trash and abandoned marinas, he said.
Over the years, staff and volunteers with Sherman Creek Stewards have managed to restore 15 acres of waterfront, including the five-acre Swindler Cove, which now features native plants, woodlands, a children’s garden and a freshwater pond.
The Con Edison grant will support the Stewards as they re-launch their cleanup work, which has been on hiatus since last year, and add more community involvement components, such as water quality training and opportunities to hear residents’ interests and concerns about the natural environment.
Because of inequities persistent throughout New York City’s blue and green spaces, some residents don’t really think about living close to the water and what it means for them, Smith said.
Even though the city is surrounded by waterways, “It’s the exception to have a neighborhood that actually has a thriving, living relationship with its waterfront in New York City,” he said.
The Stewards aim to teach people about every aspect of the water — tides, boating, fishing, flood risks and more — as they will be directly impacted by what happens with it.
NYRP is especially focused on protecting the shoreline from erosion, which threatens to raise the sea level in the surrounding area — threatening many nearby schools, businesses and homes, including NYCHA’s Dyckman Houses.
“They’re really the first neighborhood in northern Manhattan that will be experiencing the direct impacts of sea level rise,” Smith said.
Ana Traverso-Krejcarek, with Con Edison’s corporate affairs team, said the company was thrilled to support NYRP and the Stewards, especially since one of its own substations overlooks Sherman Creek Park.
The company contributes annual funding towards organizations that facilitate environmental work, social justice initiatives and clean energy and tech careers, and Con Edison has supported NYRP for at least 20 years, said Traverso-Krejcarek. “It’s an organization that we know is very legitimate and doing amazing work.”
Smith said the funding will allow more upper Manhattan residents to interact and engage with their natural environment. Unlike many other waterfront spaces, Sherman Creek Park has a path where residents can walk directly to the water, an experience that is “really profound and is uncommon,” he said. “It’s a really beautiful, thriving park, and we’d like to see more of that in the city.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
