Rivergate developer closed park during renovations

City calls for reopening of Kips Bay public space currently used as garbage dump

401 East 34th Street
401 East 34th Street

The city’s Parks Department plans to reopen the Joseph Slifka Park, which developer UDR Rivergate shuttered while its Rivergate rental tower underwent renovations.

For more than a year, the 23,700-square-foot Kips Bay park at 34th Street and First Avenue has been closed, as a result of the developer using it to dump garbage, city officials said. The park is now teeming with trash bins, piles of wood and metal, and garbage bags. The city said UDR Rivergate is responsible for cleaning the area so that the basketball courts and playground can be reopened.

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“They have a Restrictive Declaration with the City of New York which states that the property is required to be kept open to the public,” Philip Abramson, a spokesperson with the Parks Department, told DNAinfo. [DNAinfo]Mark Maurer