Once-Decrepit E. 89th St. Plaza is Now Fixed After OT Exposé

A plaza on the Upper East Side that remained in a state of disturbing disrepair as recently as June has been restored, Our Town has learned.

The space at 200 E. 89th St. is known as a privately owned public space, or POPS. This means that the owners of the adjoining building—a 45-story condominium tower known as The Monarch—are obligated to make it a safe and welcoming venue for local visitors, not to mention prevent it from becoming a waste site that could attract critters.

Douglas Elliman Property Management are the owners in question, and are ostensibly behind the belated revival of the space. As Our Town contributor Otto Fritton reported back in June, the plaza had “peeling benches, empty planters, and a lack of signage.”

A visit to the plaza on Sept. 10 revealed that things had taken a turn for the better: The benches had a fresh coat of green paint, the stone paving was clean and smooth, and the plants looked watered. It is now an altogether pleasant space to stop by.

This certainly hadn’t been the case for a while, at least not on a consistent basis, before the June report in Our Town. “As of June 2025, an on-site inspection revealed that [The Monarch] . . . has a total of 137 [Department of Buildings] violations and 23 violations issued by the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH/ECB),” the report noted.

The plaza itself had received “multiple violations.” An email exchange between a community-minded local resident and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine elaborated on this: “Two enforcement summonses were issued by the DOB—one for failure to maintain the POPS as required, and another for failure to provide the proper signage.”

In June, said resident (who preferred to remain anonymous) told Our Town about the effect the broken-down plaza was having on neighborhood morale: “When the building went up, they let [the POPS] fall into disrepair, and it was just horrible, and I could see rats running around in there, and it wasn’t any kind of park where a mother would take her kids.”

Now that the plaza is in good repair, they were happy to opine again on the new state of affairs. “It is great to see NYC citizens asking for the city to take action [on] pocket parks that are sorely in need of upgrade and repair,” the local advocate said. “Building owners must be held accountable for the signage, repair, and upkeep of their pocket parks.

“This is their agreement with the city in order to obtain higher floors when building their buildings, and is their responsibility in perpetuity. We thank Our Town for writing about this issue and helping to prompt action,” they added. This is a reference to the fact that such “POPS” are often created by developers in order to secure zoning waivers for high-rises, such as the 45-story building owned by Douglas Elliman.

As for the distinct possibility that the revamping of the decrepit park was entirely spurred by Our Town’s June report, Douglas Elliman appears to be leaving all parties in the dark. They did not return a request for comment by press time, much as in June.