NEW YORK CITY-Though it's been in the works for several years, a plan unveiled Thursday by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer—in his final state of the borough address—should ease the minds of residents and workers in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan who fear being struck by any more monster storms. The forthcoming plan creates new fortifications and infrastructure to protect the borough against the next big weather event, as well a way to promote greater access to the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 38th Street, according to an announcement of the plan.
Developed in partnership with Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, the plan first was created in 2010, long before Hurricane Sandy devastated many homes and businesses. Stringer's office is allocating $3.5 million to help launch the plan, called the East River Blueway Project, which he calls “a model of community engagement for rebuilding other storm-damaged areas,” according to the announcement.
“What we have created here is a model that not only helps communities to re-imagine their waterfronts, but also helps to safeguard them at the same time,” Stringer said. “In the end, this is a roadmap to recovery built by the community and for the community.”
The plan's formal release is slated for later this month but the borough president shared some details on the project. Where there is now a thin concrete bulkhead beneath the FDR Drive from the Brooklyn Bridge to Rutgers Slip, the plan would extend protective wetlands from the shore and add drainage under the highway to absorb and re-direct the next great surge. Similar wetlands are proposed in Stuyvesant Cove, around East 14th Street.
“In the face of the ravages of Sandy that we experienced so recently and are still recovering from, the Blueway Plan that I join Borough President Stringer in announcing today presents an incredibly important vision of the East Side as a vibrant, sustainable riverfront community,” says assemblyman Kavanagh, who commissioned the plan with the Borough President and helped secure funding for it.
The plan sets out to take advantage of the nearby water and ecology while having community input in developing the project, notes Kavanaugh. “We have engaged our community in a focused conversation to identify a comprehensive set of ecological improvements and infrastructure projects that recognize the river as a source of real risks to be managed but also as a great asset for recreation and open space.”
The area below the Brooklyn Bridge that is currently a narrow, inaccessible beach would become an active waterfront destination that would carry the side benefit of fortifying the shoreline. A new, green pedestrian bridge—that also could serve as a sturdy flood wall—would replaced the Con Ed plant that currently stands exposed at East 14th Street, right at the water's edge.
“As we now look to rebuild Red Hook and Coney Island in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway in Queens and the devastated shores of Staten Island, the Blueway offers a model of regional planning and engagement,” Stringer said.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
