Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

ature to explore the diverse ways Pier 55 is discussed, instrumentalized, and contested through newly emerg- ing urban environmental partnerships and greenspa- ces. In early conceptualizations, resilience was a way to broadly characterize a system that can experience a shock but retain its original form (Walker and Salt 2006, 2012; Folke 2006). Over time, the application of resilience strategies has evolved to be more adap- tive and acknowledges the inextricable links between the human and nonhuman world (Walker et al. 2004; Adger 2000). ese socio-ecological links and systems are clearly demonstrated by, for example, cities (Evans 2011) and the need to expand approaches within resil- ience strategies that specifically attend to unaccounted for environmental injustices (Saha and Paterson 2008; Ziervogel et al. 2017). More recent literature notes the importance of acknowledging the challenges of poli- tics and governance when developing resilience strat- egies (Meerow and Newell 2016; Lebel et al. 2006), as well as the contested character of resilience when it is operationalized (Welsh 2014). Harris et al. (2017) introduced the concept of "negotiated resilience," in which resilience is seen as a complex and continuous process, rather than a "sin- gular definable goal" (p. 6). An important aspect of negotiated resilience is the nature of the process itself, which should have an "explicit focus on inclusivity and participation" (p. 5) rather than result in a particular outcome. In other words, different groups understand resilience in different ways. Resilience on the one hand can be seen as a rigid adherence to the status quo de- spite changes in the external environment. On the other hand, resilience can be seen as adaptability to change. Either way, all parties should have a seat at the table when designing resilience practice. Framing resilience as a game is tempting to journalists. Game frames focus on the personalities involved and the conflicts among them. However, the tendency of journalists to use game frames more than issue-based frames poses challenges for coverage of resilience. Game frames presuppose that personalities in the story are competing for a particular well-de- fined goal—for instance, to win an election or pass leg- islation—providing little background on the reasons conflicts exist. is view of resilience oen imagines "win-win" scenarios when "the reality is that these decisions are seldom based on consensus" (Harris et al. 2017,p. 4). In the case of Pier 55, we suggest that the pro- posal and subsequent issue-based coverage created a more inclusive platform for discussions about resil- ience. However, a lawsuit marked a turning point in coverage, when game framing began to dominate. e shi in framing subsumed substantive discussions as they were overshadowed by a legal dispute between two powerful, politically-connected businessmen. When issues become subjugated to stories of who is winning and losing, complex conversations about re- silience can become more divisive and fall apart. e urban political ecology literature is also useful here, which explicitly acknowledges the po- litical incongruities, conflicts, and inequities of ur- ban environmental systems (Gabriel 2014). In this view, we consider waterfront development as a site of contestation (Hagerman 2007; Lehrer and Laidley 2008), where values and material outcomes associated with urban natures reflect specific normative approach- es for achieving resilience (Aalto and Ernstson 2017; Curran and Hamilton 2012) that oen result in unequal impacts to diverse communities (Quastel 2009; Gould and Lewis 2016). Critics of outcome-based approaches to resilience—like the park itself—note that the "win- ners" in such approaches are oen those who already hold positions of power, while vulnerable populations are oen further marginalized. We contend that issues such as urban inequality are, at best, le unexamined when coverage is dominated by game framing. Based on a content analysis of 211 news arti- cles written from November 2014 to September 2017, we find that issue based frames, including those related to resilience, recreation, public-private partnerships, design, and transparency, were used in half of initial news coverage of Pier 55. Aer a lawsuit was filed against the project, however, stories were much more likely to use a game frame that focused on the legal dispute rather than public issues. ese findings suggest that Pier 55 became more rigidly game framed over time, wresting control of the Pier 55 narrative from those who wanted to debate its merits, and ulti- mately dooming the proposal in its original form. We take a broad view of resilience in these conversations precisely because of the diverse ways it is constructed and negotiated. Although the word "resilience" was not necessarily uttered in each news article, its tenets certainly were. For example, one arti- cle quoted a Chelsea resident who expressed concerns about how resilient Pier 55 would be in a hurricane. "'Is it right to put 5,000 people on an island in a hurri- cane?' she asked. 'Katrina picked up projects like this and hurled them inland'" (Amateau 2014). Diverse notions of resilience embody the ways proponents and opponents might differently frame environmental 59

• Cover