After more than 20 years of cleanups and construction, Starlight Park is now open to the public.
Ten days ago, the city and local community groups cut the ribbon for the final sections of this waterfront green space on the Bronx River. Though just 2.7 acres in size, these new pieces of parkland are a complicated feat of engineering, and a major environmental justice victory for the Bronx.
The newly opened park spaces feature three pedestrian bridges, two small sections of restored intertidal wetland and an expansive system of rainwater retention ponds, all interwoven into a lush landscape of freshly planted lawns and hundreds of new trees. Previously, these sites were home to an auto scrap yard, construction company and car impound lot, which required the removal and replacement of 50,000 tons of contaminated soil as part of the $41 million expansion of the park, according to the city.
At two new park entrances in Soundview, residents on the east side of the Bronx River can now cross over the water to Starlight Park’s western half, where 13 acres of ballfields and playgrounds were completed in 2013. For tens of thousands of community members, direct access to the river and the park had previously been cut off by Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor train tracks.
“It’s a win for nature and a win for people. They are trying to bring back life to the river,” said Gilberto Diaz, who was visiting the new section of the park for the first time. Diaz has lived in the Bronx for 20 years, and canoed and fished in the Bronx River. , “This is for everybody.”
This past weekend, the Bronx River Alliance celebrated with its annual Bronx River Flotilla, a canoe trip along a creek that was once unnavigable due to illegal dumping. The first annual Starlight Festival will be held this coming weekend on May 13.
A recently opened pedestrian bridge over the Bronx River, connecting to the new sections of Starlight Park on the river’s east side.
Two of the new pedestrian bridges span the Bronx River and provide a link from Starlight Park to its southern neighbor, Concrete Plant Park. The third bridge was the most complicated to gain permits for and brings bicyclists and pedestrians up a series of ramps and over the busy Amtrak line. Getting permission to construct this passageway required the coordination of numerous government agencies, including planning assistance from the Obama administration and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership.
Together, these interlinked bridges and remediated industrial sites complete an essential segment of the Bronx River Greenway, a long-planned pathway along all 23 miles of the river. In this lower section of the Bronx River, it is now possible to walk and bike along almost two miles of the river’s shoreline, from the Bronx Zoo down to Hunts Point, via a series of public parks – River Park, West Farms Rapids, Starlight Park, Concrete Plant Park and Garrison Park. One small segment to the north of Starlight Park remains incomplete at East 177th Street.
“People talk about ‘building bridges’ but in Starlight Park we literally built bridges that are reconnecting communities,” said Thomas Foley, the commissioner of the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC), in a statement to Gothamist. The DDC constructed the park, in a project managed by the NYC Parks Department.
“Not only does this project beautify the area and close a link along the Bronx River Greenway, but with three new bridges spanning the river and the railroad tracks we’ve linked neighbors who had been cut off from each other decades ago by highways and train lines,” Foley said.
The new sections of Starlight Park create waterfront access for a community that was cut off by Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor train line.
The construction of Starlight Park dates back to at least 1999, when the city announced plans to invest millions of dollars into the community’s vision for a greenway. At that time, Starlight Park was largely overgrown and undeveloped, and described by the New York Times as an “inhospitable, scrub-and-weed-covered roadside” next to a river that was “a cesspool and an open sewer” choked with illegally dumped trash and thousands of abandoned tires and cars.
“This river was once so full of garbage that people didn’t know there was even a river there – there was just cars and debris,” said Maggie Greenfield, the former executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, a non-profit formed in 2001 to coordinate the efforts to restore the river. The Alliance grew out of an earlier consortium of community groups, who had been fighting to clean the river since the 1970s. “These are communities that have suffered under so many layers of environmental degradation. The air quality issues are tremendous, water quality is impaired, lack of access to open space and the waterfront.”
The southernmost portion of Starlight Park in 2017, before construction began. This site was an overgrown concrete parking lot for impounded vehicles.
The southernmost portion of Starlight Park is now a grassy field, sloping down to the edge of the Bronx River. A parking lot, contaminated soil and concrete blocks on the river were removed to create waterfront access.
Greenfield began working on the Starlight Park project on her first day with the Alliance, 18 years ago. The process has involved numerous local groups and residents, who have navigated a complicated tangle of government agencies and private landowners to secure support and funding. The first sections of Starlight Park, completed in 2013, required a lengthy cleanup of a former manufactured gas plant site, before the construction of its ball fields, boat docks, and the headquarters of the Bronx River Alliance.
The more recently completed sections of the park were initially funded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy — and received a $10 million TIGER grant from the federal government in 2015. The New York State Department of Transportation started construction and design as part of a $75 million downsizing of the Sheridan Expressway, before the city took over management of the project.
Starlight Park’s new sections include an expansive system of rainwater retention ponds, which slowly filter stormwater before releasing it back into the Bronx River.
The original Starlight Park was a privately-owned amusement park and athletic complex which opened in 1920, becoming a destination for visitors from across the city. Described as a “blue-collar country club” it included 26 rides, ballfields, a swimming pool, an ice skating rink, and a private picnic grounds. It later was home to the New York Coliseum, a 15,000 person sports arena built to rival Madison Square Garden.
Through the 1930s, Starlight Park regularly hosted audiences of up to 8,000 at its open-air operas and professional soccer matches. It closed down in the 1940s, during World War II, becoming an abandoned ruin, and access to the riverfront was subsequently cut off by the construction of the Sheridan Expressway and the Cross Bronx Expressway. By 1992, this section of the Bronx River had been long forgotten and was described by the New York Times as “an oily, littered ditch.”
Starlight Park’s new entrances, bridges and paths create a vital connection for the residents of Soundview, who were previously cut off from the river.
Looking out onto the river today from the park’s new bridges, the water is cool, clear and inviting. Reflecting on the decades of work done to restore the park and river, Greenfield said, “it's been a real collaboration, and a real series of community wins, that together have transformed the South Bronx from what was once written off in so many ways, into this real success story, and almost an environmental miracle.”
