E. 70s Stretch of East River Esplanade Reopens One Block

A small portion of a long-shuttered stretch of the East River Esplanade has finally reopened to the public, providing a tiny bit more maneuvering room for local residents who use the riverwalk.

The Hospital for Special Surgery first shut down a stretch of the Esplanade between East 71st Street and East 78th Street in March 2022, in order to build a new $200 million wing called the Kellen Tower, which was finally finished in March of this year.

Now, a roughly half-block portion of the riverwalk at East 71st Street—or a couple dozen feet, in a ballpark estimate—has become available again for public use. Yet pedestrians will then still need to turn around at around E. 72nd Street, as the rest of the way to E. 78th Street is still blocked by a green construction wall.

HSS recently told Community Board 8 that they expect to reopen one more block of the Esplanade, between E. 72nd St. and E. 73rd St., by next month. Further phased openings are slated to follow.

A new and sturdy ramp onto the Esplanade has also been installed at its East 71st Street entrance, replacing a shoddy and precarious metal one. Street access to the riverwalk and this new ramp could continue to confuse passersby, though, as it remains poorly marked and hidden amongst other construction scaffolding.

Some residents have expressed consistent exasperation with the ongoing closure of the E. 70s strip of the Esplanade, as Our Town has reported, which has seemed unending.

However, advocates say that the slight amount of progress that is now visible is not unwelcome. Friends of the East River Esplanade Board Chair Jennifer Ratner has long pushed for the installation of an improved ramp, at the very least; now that it has been made a reality, she told Our Town that she applauds the “small steps” and the “effort.”

Ratner also made clear that she expects far more progress. “It’s been a lot of time and a lot of advocacy behind the scenes, way more than seems like it should have been necessary,” she said. “Even in the last steps, there have been delays.”

“There’s still a really dark entrance on the East 71st Street side. There’s no welcome,” she added. “There are a lot of people that live in this area, within just a short distance, with little park space for running or biking.”

Indeed, bikers who rely on the Esplanade to head north have been especially affected by the detour at E. 71st Street, which forces them to disembark the riverwalk and make their way to First Avenue.

As of yet, it doesn’t appear that the slight re-opening of the riverwalk around E. 71st St. changes this dynamic for northbound bikers at all, given the continued obstruction between East 72nd and East 78th Streets. They’ll still need to take the ramp west into the city proper, in other words.

Ratner expects to hear more complaints from local residents in this vein, too, given that the Esplanade’s closure hasn’t been truly resolved—despite the Kellen Tower’s opening. In fact, she said it was the primary issue that people wanted to talk to her about.

“We could have Taylor Swift at our events, and I could promise you that people would come up to me and ask ‘when is the Esplanade opening up,’” she quipped. “Everyone is keeping track of the fact that there’s been a lot of construction ongoing, for a lot of springs and summers.”