Ruppert Park's Big Renovation On UES Gets $8.9M Boost

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A push to reconstruct Ruppert Park, the beloved but aging green space on the Upper East Side, has gained steam after the city's latest budget allocated millions of dollars toward the renovation.

The 2021-2022 capital budget, passed by the City Council in late June, includes $8.1 million devoted to the one-acre park, which spans Second Avenue between East 90th and 91st streets.

Allocated by East Side Councilmembers Ben Kallos and Keith Powers, as well as Speaker Corey Johnson, the funding package is much larger than the $2.4 million that Kallos promised when he first previewed the renovations in May. (Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also kicked in some funds, bringing the total to $8.9 million.)

The money means that work may begin as soon as Fall 2022 and wrap up the following year — once plans have been presented to Community Board 8 and the Public Design Commission later this year.

The park occupies the former site of the Jacob Ruppert & Company brewery, which closed in 1965 and was replaced by the Ruppert Towers apartment complex — as well as the park, which opened in 1979.

Though well-loved by East Side families, Ruppert has "a very '70s design," as Kallos described it. Its four-leaf clover shape divides the park into four quadrants, including a little-used grassless area that has been repurposed as a dog run.

Other problems include an excess of vegetation that blocks sunlight and attracts insects, as well as a dearth of sitting areas, rat infestations, outdated play equipment and hilly areas that pose accessibility challenges.

"Ruppert Park has needed an overhaul since I was kid and no one wanted to play there," Kallos said in a statement. "I can’t believe it took my lifetime, but Ruppert Park is going to get a complete redesign to become a destination park in the neighborhood that everyone will want to go to."

The final design will be influenced by public comments submitted online and in a May 20 scoping meeting that Kallos's office hosted with the Parks Department, which yielded dozens of suggestions from neighbors.

Others credited with working to improve the park include Nancy Ploeger, former president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce; Rita Popper, president of the Knickerbocker Plaza tenants association; and the Muslim Volunteers for New York, who led quarterly clean-ups at Ruppert starting in 2017 and now host concerts there.

The new funding also means that the renovations can be carried out in a single phase, rather than the two-part proposal first unveiled this spring.

"Despite providing an essential open public space for our neighborhood, Ruppert Park's design shortcomings have resulted in the majority of the space to be unusable," said Tricia Shimamura and Barry Schneider, co-chairs of Community Board 8's parks and waterfront committee.

"Our community needs every inch of parkspace possible and it is long overdue for Ruppert to be turned into a park that is safe, welcoming, and functional."

Previous coverage:

• Upper East Side's Ruppert Park To Get Major Renovation
• Still Time To Weigh In On The Future Of This Upper East Side Park
• Upper East Side Got Millions In NYC's 2022 Budget: Here's Where