1760 Acres More For Manhattan

[David Goldsmith]

This is an interesting proposal which could potentially solve multiple problems at once. I wish the financial figures were better/more fleshed out

Opinion | 1,760 Acres. That’s How Much More of Manhattan We Need. (Published 2022)

Extending the borough into New York Harbor would help the city confront housing and climate crises.

www.nytimes.com

1,760 Acres. That’s How Much More of Manhattan We Need.​

Mr. Barr is the author of “Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers.”
On Jan. 1, 2022, Eric Adams was sworn in as New York’s 110th mayor. He is now in charge of the city’s response to big, and growing, problems. One is a housing affordability crisis. Another concerns the ravages of climate change: sea level rise, flooding and storm surges.
There is a way to help tackle both issues in one bold policy stroke: expand Manhattan Island into the harbor.
Last September, after witnessing unprecedented flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, Mr. Adams said that it was “a real wake-up call to all of us how we must understand how this climate change is impacting us.” This realization should spur him to pursue aggressive measures to mitigate climate change’s devastation.
Both Mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg offered climate-change plans that included extending the shoreline along the East River in Lower Manhattan. But these proposals, while admirable, would be small steps and would hardly make a dent with problems of such big scale.

This new proposal offers significant protection against surges while also creating new housing. To do this, it extends Manhattan into New York Harbor by 1,760 acres. This landfill development, like many others in the city’s past, would reshape the southern Manhattan shoreline. We can call the created area New Mannahatta (referring to the name the Lenape gave to Manhattan).

Room for Almost 250,000 More New Yorkers​

One idea for more housing, parks and storm resilience: “New Mannahatta.”

Hudson R.
N.J.
MANHATTAN
CANAL ST.
Wetlands
Bike and
pedestrian
paths
MANHATTAN BR.
1
East R.
BROOKLYN BR.
South
Ferry
station
GOVERNORS
ISLAND
1
Subway
extension
BROOKLYN
New stations
Carroll St. Sta.
G
RED HOOK
Subway rerouting
and extension
Upper
New York
Harbor
Comparing Old and
New Neighborhoods
NEW JERSEY
Upper
West
Side
UPPER
WEST SIDE
“NEW
MANNAHATTA”
POPULATION
Hudson
River
179,682
247,455
TOTAL AREA
1,220 acres
1.9 sq. mi.
1,760 acres
2.75 sq. mi.
MANHATTAN
PARKS
300 acres
241 acres
East
River
WETLANDS
0
250 acres
DENSITY
195 people
/acre (excl.
park areas)
195
BROOKLYN
Manhattan
extension
HOUSING UNITS
129,431
178,282
| New Mannahatta Plan conceived of by Jason M. Barr.
A neighborhood of that size is bigger than the Upper West Side (Community District 7), which comprises 1,220 acres. Imagine replicating from scratch a diverse neighborhood that contains housing in all shapes and sizes, from traditional brownstones to five-story apartment buildings to high-rise towers. If New Mannahatta is built with a density and style similar to the Upper West Side’s, it could have nearly 180,000 new housing units.

In 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced an affordable housing plan that would build or preserve 200,000 affordable units. Despite this, rents continued to rise because construction did not keep pace with population and income growth. To give a sense of the scale, from 2010 to 2018, 171,000 units of housing were constructed, enough to accommodate about 417,000 people. Yet in the same period, the city’s population grew by nearly 500,000.

The Covid pandemic put a temporary damper on New York City real estate, but its impact is waning, and the affordability crisis has renewed itself. Rents are returning to their prepandemic levels. Mayor Adams has provided his vision for affordable housing, which includes incentivizing more construction throughout the five boroughs. New Mannahatta offers the possibility to realize the goal of adding a significant number of new units, many of which can be made affordable for low-income households.

Storm Surges​

Creating land in the harbor would also help New York City fortify itself against climate change. The new community would push currently vulnerable places like Wall and Broad Streets further inland, and the peninsula can be designed with specific protections around its coastline to buffer itself and the rest of the city from flooding. In particular, wetlands ecologies around the shorelines would absorb surges. Building the land at a higher elevation would further improve its protective ability, and the new peninsula could recreate historic ecologies and erect environmental and ecological research centers dedicated to improving the quality of New York’s natural world.

Economic Feasibility​

One of the benefits of creating this new neighborhood is that it can pay for itself through sales or long-term land leases. Using the Upper West Side as a model, in 2019, average building sales were around $1,500 per square foot, while average citywide building construction costs were about $500 per square foot. That leaves the rest for producing the land and infrastructure, including expanded subway lines. New ferry routes can be created along the shorelines, which would aid in the city’s broader plan of increasing ferry usage. If managed wisely, the project could even turn a profit, especially if money comes from the new federal infrastructure bill. Once the properties were completed, the city would receive new real estate tax income. In 2017, the Upper West Side, for example, contributed about $1.4 billion to the city coffers.

Big Thinking in the Big Apple​

New York was once a city of big projects like the Brooklyn Bridge, the subway system and the 92-acre Battery Park City (largely spared the flooding from Hurricane Sandy in 2012). In these times of peril, big thinking is necessary.

Mayor Adams has a chance to create a legacy of making New York safer and more affordable. New Mannahatta can help ensure that the city thrives in the 21st century.

 

[David Goldsmith]

However, we don't seem to have what it takes to hold our already existing, but aging infrastructure together.

Water Main Break in Midtown Manhattan Floods Subway System

Service on the 1, 2 and 3 lines resumed with delays hours after a water main broke in Times Square, sending water pouring down onto the tracks and snarling rush hour commutes for 300,000 people.

www.nytimes.com

Water Main Break in Midtown Manhattan Floods Subway System​

Service on the 1, 2 and 3 lines resumed with delays hours after a water main broke in Times Square, sending water pouring down onto the tracks and snarling rush hour commutes for 300,000 people.

A 120-year-old water main in Times Square burst early Tuesday morning, sending an estimated 1.8 million gallons of water flooding into the subway system and upending the morning commute, officials said.
The 20-inch water main gave way just before 3 a.m. on Seventh Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets, Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit, said during a news conference. An estimated 300,000 people had their morning commute affected by subsequent disruptions to the 1, 2 and 3 lines.
By late morning, trains on those lines were running with delays in both directions, Mr. Davey said.
“The main impact, of course, has been on the subways, because the water main is above the subway station here,” Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said earlier on Tuesday.

Mr. Davey said the subway system’s old age and location underground made it prone to flooding, but that New York City Transit and the Department of Environmental Protection needed to work together to ensure future water main breaks would not affect train service so severely.

Crews were still investigating what could have caused the break, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said.
Several streets in the heart of Midtown that had been closed as crews worked to repair the water main had reopened by midmorning. Only the intersection of 40th Street and 7th Avenue remained blocked off, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, and it was expected to stay closed for at least the rest of the day.
Mr. Davey said that more subway repairs were needed and would be completed during off hours, adding that Tuesday evening’s rush hour commute should not be affected.
Erin Nolan is a reporter for the Metro desk and a member of the 2023-2024 New York Times Fellowship class. More about Erin Nolan