Saturday, September 10, 2011

Recipe for Park Chelsea's Microparks

Recipe for Park Chelsea's Microparks

T

Take a Community Garden where community will be grown
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add
Sidewalk seating arrangements that allows for face to face conversations
and
 
shared activities
(these Upper west side neighbors are playing Travel Scrabble)


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Curb cut Inlets Storage Chambers
to store rain from overwhelming  CSO's ( Combined Sewer Outlets)

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Bollards
to protect from traffic

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Storage Area
for garden tools
and
recreational paraphernalia

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Block Bulletin Board
Will allow block residents a means of  communications

place ingredients


in Parking Lane Location for Garden
with seating on sidewalk of 



 Residental streets, not Avenues

optional

adjacent Shared Vehicle parking Spot



 Why a Park and Community Garden and not just a Park? 


At a surface level Park Chelsea is about creating more open space opportunities for the people of Chelsea. At a deeper level it's about growing community, getting to know your neighbors, seeding friendships. I have talked to people in the building in which I live who have never been in the apartments of the other people who live on their floor. I've talked to neighbors who after years of living next door to each other still don't know what their names are. I've talked to businesses who are in the business of bringing people together yet have no contact with the other businesses on their street. By designing this project in a way which will function only with the participation of people on their blocks and in their buildings, community will grow. And when it comes down to it, this is as important as the stated goal of the project 



The importance of involving communities
in the design process

The passage below by the internationally renown landscape architect Laurence Halpern presents some insight as to the importance of the participants of a community into the design of their community. 

 
Involvement and Participation
The concept of involvement and participation
underlies this whole report. It seems central to the
comments of all our consultants. Rand has
summarized the point when he says, "Designed
environments which are thought out. formalized,
and complete are usually lifeless' and
unapproachable because (a) they do not invite
interaction and modification to suit immediate
human needs; (b) they are unable to grow, develop
and become extended through human use. Human
habitation merely fulfills (for better or far worse)
the designer's conception of their potential
meaning rather than leading to the discovery
of new functions and new forms of interaction.
Oddly enough [he goes on to say] many environ-

ments which 'work' well for people meet few.

if any, aesthetic criteria ordinarily employed

by designers."

From New York, New York (1968) by Lawrence Halpern and Associates. 



Ranger Bob says: "I'd been  working on the design of the Park Chelsea concept since late 2010. It was only after I'd been given the  garden space at 8th Ave and 25th St and offered to share it with my neighbors did the true power of  organizing Park Chelsea  as a series of  constantly evolving community garden spaces come together "

 Park Chelsea is a project of:
Chelsea community gardeners -- we grow community! 

















Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Green Infrastructure


Park Chelsea is Green Infrastructure 
that can help save NYC Millions of dollars 

 At 25th  St and the Hudson River raw sewage is dumped when our combined sewer outlets (CSO's)  are overwhelmed by rainfall (Kayaking occurs within a few blocks of this point)



 "The success of the Green Infrastructure Plan depends on support from local communities to help us develop innovative ways to deal with stormwater where it falls — not after it enters the sewer system, where it can impair water quality," said Commissioner Holloway...

 "The NYC Green Infrastructure Plan will improve harbor water quality by capturing and retaining stormwater runoff before it enters the sewer system. Most green infrastructure uses natural features, like green-roofs, and adds structural designs, like porous pavement and tree pits, to absorb and retain stormwater. By replacing the current "grey" strategy with the Green Infrastructure Plan, the City will cut CSOs by more than 12 billion gallons per year by 2030 — a 40% reduction — which is two billion gallons more per year than the under the current plan. The Green Infrastructure Plan will cost New Yorkers $2.4 billion less than the tanks and tunnels that we are currently required to build. " Link

 Using Green Infrastructure to Manage Stormwater

 "To implement this Green Infrastructure Plan, the City is prepared to spend up to $1.5 billion over
20 years, including approximately $187 million in capital funds over the next four years, to build
green infrastructure." Page 11 NYC Green Infrastructure Plan


Sewers can also become overtaxed during intense rain events when the sheer volume of stormwater and wastewater entering the system fills them to capacity, leaving no space for excess water to enter. In this condition, described as a sewer being surcharged, the excess stormwater remains above ground. Unless absorbed by green spaces or channeled to a body of water, this flooding can flow off the street into below-grade areas such as driveways, patios and basements.
link



"Runoff from the street is diverted by curb cut and routed into this enhanced tree pit, where specially engineered soils and native plant species are used to absorb water and filter associated pollutants. In some enhanced tree pits, storage chambers hold additional runoff, available for plant uptake or groundwater recharge" 


One inch of rain falling on the street and sidewalk of a typical Chelsea block can produce 6,500 gallons of stormwater runoff. A Park Chelsea micropark can treat over one inch of stormwater runoff from a 1,530 square foot area of the street and sidewalk amounting to 954 gallons Link



A combination of Park Chelsea's microparks and enhanced tree pits can make a significant dent in Chelsea's CSO problem. 
 http://new-york-jfk.airports-guides.com/jfk_climate.html

As this chart shows there are roughly 120 days of precipitation per year resulting in 47 inches of rainfall.  This amounts to  approximates  4/10 of an inch of rain on days that rain. I will assume that on most days of rain our CSO system is able to handle the precipitation.  On the days that we had an inch of rain if every block in Chelsea had a combination of seven microparks/enhanced tree pits  than an inch of rain could be treated.

 the cost of installing and maintaining these seven microparks/enhanced tree pits will be a fraction of the cost of building the equivalent in mechanical sewage treatment facilities.

Columbus Avenue bioswale
The Columbus Avenue bioswale.
While the Columbus Avenue bioswale’s performance during stormy weather has yet to be assessed, the DEP said that their bioswales (they warned that the building specifications, and therefore performance, of other bioswales may vary) soak up 2,244 gallons during storms.
link