YONKERS WATERFRONT SERVES RESIDENTS
The City of Yonkers in southern Westchester County has been one of the most impoverished and challenged urban areas in the state. In spite of its plight, the city sits on one of the most spectacular locations on the Hudson River, with 4.5 miles of riverfront facing the towering Palisades, as well as a view down river of the George Washington Bridge and Manhattan skyline.
Yonkers started as a small farm town, but manufacturing has always played a role in its history. In the late 1640s Adrian Van der Donck built one of the first sawmills in the New World where Nepperhan River emptied into the Hudson. As the years passed, sawmills, gristmills and blacksmith shops added value to local products. Sloops, steamboats and stagecoaches converged on the waterfront and technological innovations in travel fostered the development of the industrial era in Yonkers.
Hats, elevators, sugar, carpets and textiles were among the products manufactured during Yonkers' industrial era. Although manufacturing and high tech industries are making a rebound here, during the mid 20th century industries fleeing the waterfront for sites closer to highway access left much of the city's shoreline abandoned and blighted.
Liz Sanzalone's life had always been intimately tied to the Hudson River. Her father and grandfather were members of the Corinthian Yacht Club on the city waterfront. After their wedding, her father and mother honeymooned for a full month, stopping to camp in a tent on the Hudson River shore wherever the mood struck. Ms. Sanzalone fondly recalls taking Day Line trips with her family to Bear Mountain. It comes as no surprise that someone living 80 years in the same Yonkers riverfront neighborhood would pick up the gauntlet to challenge the city's plan to construct high-rise buildings on urban renewal riverfront sites.
Ms. Sanzalone opposed the project, which would have blocked both views of the Palisades as well as residents' access to the waterfront. She read an article in Smithsonian magazine reporting on the ill effects of high-rise buildings in urban environments. Because she had legal "standing" as a city resident, she agreed to join in a lawsuit against the city in an effort with Scenic Hudson to stop the project.
Her friend, Bob Walters, who recently retired as president of the Beczak Environmental Center, located on the Yonkers waterfront, agreed.
"It was just the wrong idea down there," said Mr. Walters. "At the time, I was surprised that you would put your name on the suit, but admired you for it. I thought that was great."
Ms. Sanzalone wondered about the repercussions of filing suit against the city of her birth and the place where she had lived her entire life, but her strong opposition inspired her to act accordingly. "I really thought my name would be mud," she recalled.
But thanks to Ms. Sanzalone's bold decision, and with the help of Scenic Hudson, the development was never built. As part of the settlement, a conservation easement was granted to Scenic Hudson on 25 acres along the Yonkers waterfront, limiting the extent of future development on the site. With the conservation easement in place, in the mid-1990s the city asked Scenic Hudson to assist in the creation of a waterfront master plan with a mixed-use development that includes a meadow and public esplanade. |
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During that planning process and in the decade since, Mr. Walters has brought an inspiring and unique blend of activism and bridge building to the Yonkers waterfront. A founding board member of the Beczak Environmental Center along with Ms. Sanzalone, Mr. Walters took the helm as the Beczak's Executive Director in 1996 where out of an old county-owned Quonset hut on the Hudson he led environmental education programs for thousands of underserved kids from Yonkers, the Bronx, Manhattan and the surrounding area.
It was, as Bob described, "the most humble circumstances in that old building, but we had the beach - that was the key, so we could bring the kids right down to the river. It was an old rusted building, but we had an aquarium. When you opened the double doors to the splash of color, the gurgling of water, the fish in the tanks and the giant picture of the sturgeon, kids would say 'wow'!"
He saw the Yonkers waterfront transformed by a new library, the adaptive reuse of old industrial buildings into productive commercial uses, the building of a new mixed-use development and the Yonkers waterfront esplanade park. Most recently he shepherded Beczak through its move to a new headquarters in a redesigned building where a new beachfront park is nearing completion. "Our new home is the kind of space that is totally different from any in Yonkers. People look out the back windows and feel that they can touch the river!" |
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While at Beczak's helm, he participated in countless meetings and often delivered impassioned testimony to ensure that the waterfront would be a place for the community and that the health of the river would be protected and enhanced. But the love of the river and his fundamental commitment to sharing that love with children and the community are what define Bob Walters, "the focus is always on community and the neighborhood, but at some point we saw the Beczak as the regional place to go to learn about the Hudson River. And I think it will become that."
The first phase of the Yonkers waterfront redevelopment is nearing completion. The new mixed-use development and the Beczak relocation, along with the rehabilitation of the nearby Recreation Pier, Yonkers (train) Station, Trolley Barn and new public library, signal a new day on the Yonkers waterfront.
However, future phases of development are yet to be determined. Scenic Hudson stands vigilant with Yonkers citizenry to ensure that future waterfront development considers the needs of local residents, provides a way to reach the shoreline for fishing, boating, environmental education or just relaxing, and protects the views and natural resources that Liz Sanzalone and Bob Walters have always valued, but that we sometime stake for granted. |
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