<aside> 💡 You have all day Saturday, 4/16, from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm to solve your first Climathon. Upload your Junto’s solution (only one person from group) to your dev post here. You must meet with your Climate Guide for at least 45 min to 1 hour for consultation and questions before submission.
[CRITICAL FIRST STEP] Watch this video first and/or read this article for the background story.
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NYC was shocked in 2012 by Superstorm Sandy that overwhelmed New York City with tens of billions of dollars in property damage and economic loss, dozens of deaths, and yet, local officials took an opportunity to think about a better climate-risk and mitigation plan. In 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a $10 billion project to extend Manhattan into the East River by 500 ft (financed by a combination of city, federal, and possibly private investment). This was not the first time, Manhattan had expanded. From 1800 to today, small land extensions, mostly artificial and constructed from thousands of tons of bedrock to build and extend the subway system, have been slowly added to the main island. The last great landfill project in Manhattan utilized the excavated rock from the construction of the World Trade Center to fill in the area a few blocks to the west, forming what is now known as Battery Park City.The picture below shows a comparison of lower Manhattan from 1954 to today with the inclusion of battery park:
Despite past success of land expansion progress, the proposal was never passed before Mayor Eric Adams succeeded Mayor de Blasio for the Mayor’s seat. Fast forward to 2022, Mayor Adams along with Rutgers Economics Professor, Jason Barr, introduced a plan to extend lower Manhattan into the New York Harbor by 1,760 acres for a new area to be named, “New Manhattan.” This expansion is meant to help accelerate climate change goals, improve affordable housing, alleviate congestion, and lessen NYC’s vulnerability to climate-change induced risk and disasters.
When asked about his vision for the artificial area, Barr responded that he envisions New Manhattan to be 'a diverse neighborhood that contains housing in all shapes and sizes, from traditional brownstones to five-story apartment buildings to high-rise towers.” The plan, which would completely surround Governor’s Island, includes 180,000 affordable housing units, the shoreline expansion would house an extension of the city's 1 and G subway lines, as well as a 35-acre park, called the 'Main Square.’
With the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy still present in this new plan, the expansion of an artificial island would move vulnerable places like Wall and Broad Streets further inland, and would create the opportunity to make the peninsula designed with specific protections around its coastline to buffer itself and the remainder of the city from flooding. In essence, the construction would ensure that wetlands ecologies around the shorelines would absorb storm surges. Building the land at a higher elevation would further improve Manhattan’s protective ability. To make the project socially and politically more appealing, the Mayor’s office announced that New Manhattan could recreate historic ecologies and erect environmental and ecological research centers dedicated to improving the quality of New York’s natural world.
Proposed Extension:
<aside> 💡 Despite the hesitancy and somewhat politically controversial decision (Contrary what the critics thought would happen) NYC passed and adopted the bill suggesting Manhattan to extend Manhattan into New York Harbor by 1,760 acres.
The NYC Mayor’s Office calls your Junto as a third-party contractor for advice. This is what Mayor Adams wants you to present to him:
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A working plan on the types of buildings NYC needs to build in New Manhattan. Specifically Mayor Adams wants you to focus on: