YONKERS, N.Y. — A struggling city is trying to transform a featureless downtown parking lot into an edenic park, principally by uncovering and rechanneling part of a river that had been paved over for nearly a century.
The "daylighting" of the Saw Mill River in Yonkers involves diverting part of its underground flow into a newly dug riverbed carefully designed to teem with fish and vegetation.
Around it will be a tree- and flower-filled park that officials say will pulse with poetry readings, jazz concerts and sculptures that children can climb. It will be dotted with kiosks offering interactive lessons on the environment and will be brightly lit to encourage nighttime use.
"Instead of a parking lot, we'll have this beautiful four acres of greenery, complete with a real river that will suddenly reappear," said Jim Pinto, the city's director of downtown and waterfront development.
"Basically, it's a buried treasure."
Yonkers is hoping the park and river walk, just yards from where the Saw Mill meets the Hudson River, will be a magnet for development, as has been the case for similar though grander projects in San Antonio, Texas, and in Providence, R.I.
In San Antonio, the bustling, miles-long River Walk, which was built in the 1940s along the San Antonio River, is one of Texas' biggest tourist attractions.
"We're not hoping to be San Antonio, really, but we'll be happy if we can capture some of what San Antonio has," Pinto said. "This will help make Yonkers a destination. We're hoping for retail and residential investment and tourism."
In Providence, a three-river junction that had been partially mostly paved over was unearthed, creating a Waterplace Park that opened in the 1990s. The park has sparked more than a billion dollars in retail, residential and tourist development, said Dan Bodewin of the Providence Foundation.
Yonkers can use that kind of help. The city of 200,000 just north of the Bronx struggles annually with budget deficits and school standards and last month saw its credit rating cut two notches by Moody's.
But some residents think the $19 million spent on the Saw Mill project could have been better used.
Saunta Williams, 52, who has custody of four grandchildren, looked at a rendering of the park-to-be last week.
"It's beautiful," she said, "but it won't help the poor."
She said the money is needed in schools.
But Spark Meriwether, 22, said he's hoping for a business boom around the park and some job opportunities.
"They say there'll be restaurants with extra tables outside and new stores, so maybe people can find some work," he said.
Mayor Philip Amicone says the project "was an investment in the future and I think it was well worth it. ... It will pay us back many times, I'm sure."
The river was channeled into its concrete flume in 1920 to fight flooding, make space above — and hide a smelly, polluted waterway, Pinto said.
"At the time, it was an open sewer," he said.
The river, which originates 20 miles north near Chappaqua, had contributed heavily to industrialization, starting with a saw mill in about 1650, according to the Saw Mill River Coalition, which works to revitalize the river.
The river's health has improved since it went underground, but the park project includes funding to keep monitoring it for evidence of sewage leaks, metals and other pollutants, said the coalition's Andrew Boyd.
At one point in the diverted river a submerged screen will block and collect trash that would otherwise drift into the Hudson. Pinto estimated it would stop 175 tons of water bottles, plastic foam and other floatables each year.
The park is expected to be finished next year. But on Dec. 6, a sluice gate will be used to divert some of the river's flow from its underground culvert into the man-made riverbed, which currently holds shallow groundwater.
The riverbed has been lined with river stones and boulders and features a fish ladder and a rocky area that will produce "riffles, not rapids," Pinto said.
Where the greenery will be is still mostly bare soil, packed hard by earth movers. But the view from the park — in certain directions — emphasizes its potential. The cliffs of the Palisades rise sharply from the opposite bank of the Hudson. On the Yonkers side, new apartment buildings herald gentrification. Among the structures surrounding the park are the century-old, but recently restored, beaux arts Yonkers train station; a library branch, in a transformed building that once housed the Otis elevator company; and Philipse Manor Hall, parts of which date to the 17th century.
Until that sluice gate is opened, the Saw Mill will continue flowing only below street level. But it's no longer completely out of view.
During a recent visit, a crane began lifting off the top section of the concrete culvert, allowing daylight to hit that stretch of water for the first time in 91 years.
As the first arch-shaped slice was lifted away, it revealed a rushing torrent, perhaps fed by the previous week's freak snowstorm.
"Look at it sparkle!" exclaimed Ann-Marie Mitroff, river project director for Groundwork Hudson Valley, an affiliate in the project. "This is a jewel!"
Once the waters from the Saw Mill rush into the manmade riverbed, plants will go in, insects will appear and fish including the herring, alewife and American eel are expected to take up residence.
They can feel safe in the new river, Pinto said. Fishing won't be permitted.