Cy A Adler (b. Cyrus Adler, Brooklyn, NY, [1] 1927-September 27, 2018) [2] was an author, organizer and conservationist, known for his work over the course of several decades in raising awareness for shoreline issues in and around New York City, United States, and especially for his early work on the initiative that would result in the creation of The Great Saunter, an annual walk which goes through Hudson River Park, Riverside Park, East River Park, and some 20 other parks around the island of Manhattan. For his efforts to see to completion a park stretching almost the entire circumference of the Hudson River shore of the island of Manhattan, Adler was recognized by mayors of New York City including Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg, and Borough Presidents of Manhattan including Scott Stringer, Ruth Messinger, and Gale Brewer, as well New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, and former US Senator Hillary Clinton. [3] [4]
Trained as a Mathematician and Oceanographer, Adler taught physics at the City College of New York and oceanography at SUNY Maritime and Long Island University. He contributed to several scholarly publications in his field in the 1960s and 1970s, but his environmental advocacy work began in earnest after the 1973 publication of his first book, Ecological Fantasies - Death From Falling Watermelons: A Defense of Innovation, Science, and Rational Approaches to Environmental Problems, [5] which had grown out of a series of somewhat contentious debates on environmental policy published in Science and The Village Voice in May and November 1972. [6] [7] By the late-1970s Adler's articles on shoreline issues had appeared in The Village Voice, as well as other local papers including The New York Times and Newsday. His science-based letters and articles appeared in the American Journal of Physics (January 1958), Undersea Technology (August 1968), Journal of Ocean Technology V.2 No.1 (1967), Science and Technology (October 1969), The Wall Street Journal (February 1971), Marine Engineering Log (March 1971), American Fish Farmer (August 1972), Science (November 1972), etc.
In early December, 1982, Adler placed an ad in the Voice announcing a public walk along the Hudson River from Battery Park to Riverside Park, which at the time consisted largely of docking facilities abandoned due to Containerization. The walk, which served to raise awareness of the disused and inaccessible shoreline, became an annual event, and came to become known as The Great Saunter, eventually constituting a complete shoreline circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan. This walk developed into a non-profit group, Shorewalkers. Established in 1982 the organization was incorporated in 1984. Cy A was president of Shorewalkers until October 2017, when he resigned to devote more time to his civic, literary and municipal projects.
In 1984 Adler wrote an article published in The New York Times , advocating a public shoreline path from the river's mouth at Battery Park to the river's source, Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains. [14] Adler's book, Walking The Hudson, Batt to Bear (From the Battery to Bear Mountain) detailed the route, as of 1997, as far as Bear Mountain (Hudson Highlands). A second edition, published by W. W. Norton & Company updated the route for 2012. The book contains an introduction by folksinger Pete Seeger, a member of Shorewalkers and friend of Adler. [15] [16]
Adler organized several New York State corporations. In 1972, he organized and was CEO of Offshore Sea Development Corp. He and his associates developed systems for offloading oil tankers and bi-valve aquaculture techniques. He earned several patents, including one for a Single-Point Mooring, U. S. patent number 3.756.293.
Under various pseudonyms, Adler wrote and produced several other works. One of these was "Wholly Mother Jones," a play with music about the extraordinary labor organizer, Mary Harris Jones. It has been produced at least three times at the Brecht Forum and the People's Voice Cafe. Another book was "The Queer Dutchman - Castaway on Ascension," which went through two editions at Greeneagle Press. He also wrote "Crazy to go to Sea," a memoir of his time working in the Norwegian Merchant Marine in the 1950s.
With Pete Seeger, Adler wrote lyrics to several songs, including "Hurrah, Hurray for the NRA," a song related to gun violence, and the Shorewalkers Saunter song. He also developed the album, "No Job, No Bread? Sing a Jolly Song!"
His humanist cantata The Turtles Mass [17] premiered on Earth Day, 22 April 2018.
The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York, United States. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York at Henderson Lake in the town of Newcomb, and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New York City and Jersey City, eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Upper New York Bay. The river serves as a physical boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Farther north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet that formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Even as far north as the city of Troy, the flow of the river changes direction with the tides.
Peter Seeger was an American folk singer and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, and had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene," which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes.
North River is an alternative name for the southernmost portion of the Hudson River in the vicinity of New York City and northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
Bear Mountain State Park is a 5,205-acre (21.06 km2) state park located on the west bank of the Hudson River in Rockland and Orange counties, New York. The park offers biking, hiking, boating, picnicking, swimming, cross-country skiing, cross-country running, sledding and ice skating. It also includes several facilities such as the Perkins Memorial Tower, the Trailside Museum and Zoo, the Bear Mountain Inn, a merry-go-round, a pool, and a skating rink. It also hosts the Bear Mountain Circle, where the historic Palisades Interstate Parkway and Bear Mountain Bridge meet. It is managed by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which is overseen by the State of New York.
The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a 5.42-mile-long (8.72 km) mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. It replaced the West Side Elevated Highway, built between 1929 and 1951, was shut down in 1973 due to neglect and lack of maintenance, and was dismantled by 1989. North of 72nd Street, the roadway continues as the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Hudson Highlands State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the U.S. state of New York, located on the east side of the Hudson River. The park runs from Peekskill in Westchester County, through Putnam County, to Beacon in Dutchess County, in the eastern section of the Hudson Highlands.
Thirteenth Avenue was a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1837 along the Hudson River. The avenue was later removed in the early 20th century to make way for the Chelsea Piers.
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. Founded by folk singer Pete Seeger with his wife Toshi Seeger in 1966, the organization is known for its sailing vessel, the sloop Clearwater, and for its annual music and environmental festival, the Great Hudson River Revival.
The Clearwater Festival is a music and environmental summer festival and America's oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June for more than three decades. All proceeds benefit Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization.
Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches 4.5 miles (7.2 km) and comprises 550 acres (220 ha), making it the second-largest park in Manhattan after the 843-acre (341 ha) Central Park.
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a waterfront greenway for walking or cycling, 32 miles (51 km) long, around the island of Manhattan, in New York City. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists. There are three principal parts — the East, Harlem and Hudson River Greenways.
The 79th Street Boat Basin is a marina located in the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, within Riverside Park at the western end of 79th Street. Maintained and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is the only facility in the city that allows year-round residency in boats, so it's known as a hub for houseboat living in NYC.
Toshi Seeger was an American filmmaker, producer and environmental activist. A filmmaker who specialized in the subject of folk music, Toshi's credits include the 1966 film Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison and the Emmy Award-winning documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, released through PBS in 2007. In 1966, Seeger and her husband, folk-singer Pete Seeger, co-founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands. Additionally, they co-founded the Clearwater Festival, a major music festival held annually at Croton Point Park in Westchester County, New York.
Hudson Square is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, Varick Street to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. To the north of the neighborhood is Greenwich Village, to the south is TriBeCa, and to the east are the South Village and SoHo. The area, once the site of the colonial property named Richmond Hill, became known in the 20th century as the Printing District, and into the 21st century it remains a center of media-related activity, including in advertising, design, communications, and the arts.
The Great Saunter is a daylong hike that explores Manhattan’s 32-mile shoreline, visiting more than 20 parks and promenades of Manhattan. Manhattan's waterfront rim has evolved since Shorewalkers Inc., a nonprofit environmental and walking group, began fighting for a public shoreline walkway in 1982. Now the path is nearly contiguous. The Saunter takes place on the first Saturday in May, recognized by the Council of the City of New York as The Great Saunter Day.
The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a 25-acre (10 ha) public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling Green to the northeast, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. The park contains attractions such as an early 19th-century fort named Castle Clinton; multiple monuments; and the SeaGlass Carousel. The surrounding area, known as South Ferry, contains multiple ferry terminals, including the Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal; a boat launch to the Statue of Liberty National Monument ; and a boat launch to Governors Island.
Between 1947 and 1977, General Electric polluted the Hudson River by discharging polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) causing a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from the river. Other kinds of pollution, including mercury contamination and cities discharging untreated sewage, have also caused problems in the river.
Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza is a public park in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. formed by the triangular junction of Trinity Place, Greenwich Street and Edgar Street. It faces the Manhattan exit ramp from the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. Formerly known as the Edgar Street Greenstreet, this park honors civic advocate Elizabeth H. Berger (1960-2013). In her role as president of the Downtown Alliance, she advocated for the fusion of two traffic triangles at this location into an expanded park. The park is located on the site of a former neighborhood known as Little Syria, a bustling immigrant community displaced by the construction of the tunnel in 1953.
The expansion of the land area of Lower Manhattan in New York City by land reclamation has, over time, greatly altered Manhattan Island's shorelines on the Hudson and East rivers as well as those of the Upper New York Bay. The extension of the island began with European colonialization and continued in the 20th century. Incremental encroachment, landfill, as well as major infrastructure have added acreage to the island. Since the passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 all projects which extend into navigable waterways follow federal regulation and are overseen by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Harlem River Park is a portion of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway that runs along the Harlem River from 145th Street south to 135th Street near the 369th Regiment Armory. In 1997, under Rudy Giuliani and NYC Parks Commissioner Stern, the mayor's office provided approximately $380,000 to explore the park's creation and construction began in 2001 to extend the East River Greenway north from the 125th Street terminus in what was, by 2017, called the Harlem Greenway Link.