Last year, a not-entirely outrageous proposal by urban theorist and Columbia professor Vishaan Chakrabarti was put forward to use landfill to connect Governors Island to Lower Manhattan, creating an entirely new Battery Park City South of sorts. Compared to landfill efforts in Tokyo and other parts of China, the idea is actually incredibly modest. And here is how it could be done. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg likes to talk about the need to stay competitive with the other global cities, like London and Hong Kong and Tokyo. Among the challenges are the cost of development, in which we actually have a competitive edge over many of our rivals. Which is why some of them have taken to filling in the waterways surrounding them. One of The Observer's favorite urban theorists, Vishaan Chakrabarti is proposing the same thing, according to The Times, using landfill to connect Governors Island to the Financial District. It might seem insane, but there are even logistical reasons the proposal makes sense. Read More
Two weeks ago, Port Authority boss Chris Ward declared that one of the biggest projects the city could undertake would be the redevelopment of Red Hook. Not only would it vitalize another corner of the Brooklyn waterfront, but it would also become a critical connection to burgeoning development on Governors Island.
At the time, this sounded like pontification—Mr. Ward fought to keep the container terminal active at his previous job running American Stevedoring—but now it is looking more like prognostication.
Last week, it was revealed that the Port Authority had quietly cancelled its lease with American Stevedoring, which has led a handful of outlets to speculate that Red Hook’s redevelopment is in the near future. According to a highly placed source at the Port Authority, though, it will be at least a decade before the port ships out for good and the BroBos can move in. Read More
Since it opened in 2006, around this time each year, a press release would shoot out from Governor's Island, a torpedo blasting across the harbor, trumpeting the latest attendance numbers. The ice-cream-cone-shaped island, for most of its life an off-limits military compound, had reason to crow. It's visitor's numbers were soaring, putting to rest questions of its viability as a new public park—purchased for all of $1 from the U.S. government in 2005. From 26,000 visitors that first year, attendance jumped to 443,000 last year, 60 percent what it had been the year before.
This year, there has been no press release, no champagne. Read More
When Spider-Man went to Governors Island in issues 415 and 416 of Amazing Spider-Man this past December, it was unexpected. Of all the places you might expect to find New York's homegrown superhero, it has to be near the bottom of the list: You can't get there via web-slinging, for one, and there aren't any Read More
In late 2006, as a set of projects calling for hundreds of millions in funds languished in their planning stages, Dan Doctoroff, then deputy mayor, became frustrated.
Operating under the code name “Project Repo,” aides to Mayor Bloomberg’s right-hand man for development drew up a clandestine list of where the city could seize control of major Read More
Almost indisputably, the mayoral race this year was a desert of big new ideas for New York City. Be it the lack of a competitive Democratic primary, the billions in budget gaps or the challenger's preference for blanket criticism over policy prescription, the incumbent and-at the time of this writing-presumptive winner, Michael Bloomberg, was never Read More
Almost indisputably, the mayoral race this year was a desert of big new ideas for New York City. Be it the lack of a competitive Democratic primary, the billions in budget gaps or the challenger's preference for blanket criticism over policy prescription, the incumbent and-at the time of this writing-presumptive winner, Michael Bloomberg, was never Read More
In the mid-1990s, park advocates and government officials devised and employed what they thought was an innovative, win-win strategy to build a series of new parks: split the cost and control equally between the city and the state. With equal claims for bragging rights by the mayor and the governor, money would stream in from Read More
With Albany broke and distracted, the Bloomberg administration has proposed that the city take over Governor’s Island. It’s a good idea. Albany should graciously relinquish its role in developing the island, because it’s clear that it has no interest in the project.
Governor’s Island, a former Coast Guard base, was turned over to the Read More
--compiled by Azi Paybarah and Jimmy Vielkind
Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland.
As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested Read More
Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland. As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested in Read More
Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland.
As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested in Read More
It was a sea of watery witticisms on the steps of City Hall this afternoon, as supporters of Governors Island, clad in orange lifejackets, gathered to protest the Island’s omission from the state budget. Beneath an inflatable 22-foot curved pink tube, their signs ranged from the predictably maritime -- “Keep the Island Afloat!” “Don’t Let Read More
