Neighbors Want To Turn Queensboro Bridge Lots Into New Pocket Parks

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two fenced-off city-owned lots alongside the Queensboro Bridge could become the Upper East Side's next pocket parks if a growing neighborhood campaign gets its way.

Residents from both the Upper East Side and Midtown East are urging the city to transform the two parcels along East 59th Street between First and Second avenues into public plazas and green space, arguing the lots divide the two neighborhoods instead of connecting them.

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The proposal drew support during the public session of Community Board 8's June meeting, where residents and neighborhood advocates urged the city to study turning the lots into an expansion of nearby Honey Locust Park.

Susan Blackwell, founder of the volunteer group Green Park Gardeners, said the lot closer to Second Avenue "could be a spectacular little pocket park" at the meeting.

Upper East Sider Sean Basinski began the campaign with a small fenced-in triangle beneath the bridge near Second Avenue that stores highway equipment, back in 2024.

Then, the effort expanded to include a second city-owned lot at First Avenue and East 59th Street across from Trader Joe's this June.

The First Avenue lot is largely vacant except for several above-ground pipes used by the Department of Environmental Protection to access and maintain a major city water main.

"If you start at First Avenue, there's the grass-and-weed‑filled lot — the pigeons love it," Basinski said of the DEP-operated lot. "Then next to that is actually a little parking lot that the DOT does use, and then Honey Locust Park, and then the fenced-in triangle."

Residents say they were initially told the water-main access points made public use of the lot impossible. But they later found similar DEP sites incorporated into public plazas elsewhere in Manhattan, including Rapkin-Gayle Plaza in SoHo and Lorraine Hansberry Plaza in Hell's Kitchen.

City officials point to Honey Locust Park, which opened in 2023 between the two lots, as a recent investment in neighborhood open space.

"In 2023, DEP partnered with NYC Parks and NYC DOT to provide land and $750,000 to fund the refurbishment of Honey Locust Park, which is adjacent to this location," Rob Wolejsza, the press secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, told Patch.

Still, DEP said it remains open to creating additional public space where operational needs allow.

"DEP is always looking for ways we can create new open space while still supporting DEP’s operational needs. In fact, we recently joined with Parks, HPD and Douglaston Development for such an announcement concerning Lorraine Hansberry Plaza," Wolejsza said.

Community Board 8 member and transit advocate Paul Krickler, who emphasized he was speaking as an individual rather than on behalf of the board, said the area still feels unfinished.

"Right now, it's a patchwork street with a nice little bit in the middle, and then sort of dumps and things elsewhere," Krickler said. "It's not attractive, and it's not nice for people who live there or walk through there a lot."

The supporters have gathered signatures, started an Instagram account, and are raising awareness for their cause, which they're framing as an extension of Honey Locust Park and a way to reconnect the neighborhoods.

"It just strikes me as being so obvious that this should become a better-used space for the people," Krickler told Patch. "It's the only bit left after that wonderful Honey Locust Park that was transformed that street in that stretch, and it's an obvious bit that needs to be fixed."

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.