Pink 2024 cherry blossoms have been blooming for a few weeks now, but that’s all along the East Promenade. The big show on the Manhattan side is on the verge, coming soon – sooner every year. Are we ready?
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Predictions: The 2024 Cherry Blossoms
After a few weeks of east-side cherry blossoms opening the season with a pink to white splash, the main show starts where the row of trees dives north into the West Promenade across from Starbucks. The most popular groves below the Queensboro Bridge come later.
For reference, here’s a video our friend Jim Luce recorded in 2018…
Keep in mind, that was taken on April 23rd, 2018. By 2023, we saw this on April 1st:
On April 5th, we saw this…
Opening day moved up almost three weeks over five years, and it looks like it’s coming even earlier this time. The kickoff grove is already pink with buds, seeming ready to burst any day, possibly blossoming in March for the first time.
How long before climate change lets us celebrate New Year’s Day with pink buds?
Are we ready?
Back in 2019, the last Cherry Blossom Festival, for which we unfortunately were not ready, happened in mid-April. Although upwards of 80,000 expressed Facebook interest for a show in FDR Four Freedoms Park and CEO Susan Rosenthal participated, RIOC relaxed.
The crowds weren’t kidding, though. 80,000 didn’t show up, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 did. Nobody really knows how many because nobody was warned early enough to start a count.
A jam created by subway escalators pushing exiting riders into escaping visitors nearly went tragic before the MTA rushed in crowd control personnel. Every vendor – from the Café @ Cornell Tech through Duane Reade to Bread & Butter Market – ran out of water on a hot day.
The food was all gone too. There was more than enough critical press coverage, social media bashing and all the traditional finger-pointing of blame.
Since then, mention cherry blossoms to RIOC managers and the instant response is, “We’re not having a festival this year.”
Who can blame them?
But the facts are, as we’ve explained to the current executives: “You can’t stop the cherry blossoms, and you can’t stop the tourists. You need a plan.”
The 2024 cherry blossoms…
Is RIOC ready? No, it appears, they are not. There is no plan, and those suggested by outsiders have been rejected.
Even though warned, RIOC did not act quickly. An advisory group addressing the problem has been formed, but the first meeting won’t happen until this week, much too late for the early burst of blossoms.
RIOC’s interim leaders are neither fools nor shirkers hiding in Blackwell House, but the bureaucratic curse of governing by meetings and emails isn’t helping. Someone has to step up with a decision and do it fast.
As the Dust Settles
The way the wind cuts across the river this time of year. The way older buildings hold heat but never quite hold air. I told myself that was why my chest felt tight again on certain mornings. Age, perhaps.
