City Hall Agrees to Pause Jail Demolition for Two Weeks
The administration of Mayor Eric Adams has responded to widespread outrage among community leaders and elected officials over its sudden decision to proceed with demolition of the Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC) by agreeing to put the project on hold at least through May 5.
The controversy erupted on April 19 when officials from the City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) appeared before the Quality of Life Committee of Community Board 1. These officials provided updates about a range of other ongoing projects in Lower Manhattan. It was not until they were directly asked by CB1 members about the status of the MDC project that the DDC team acknowledged a permit to begin dismantling the facility had been issued two days earlier by the Department of Buildings (DOB) two days earlier.
This move effectively precluded the “adaptive reuse” proposal for the existing structure, which has been championed by CB1 and a coalition of elected officials representing Lower Manhattan, for more than a year. Such a plan would aim bring MDC into compliance with current laws, codes, and standards in less time than a new structure could be built, and at a fraction of the cost.
“There was a ground swell of surprise, dismay and outrage at the lack of transparency and communication in learning of the issuing of the DOB demolition permit and great concern that the City had again failed to provide any documentation to prove their assertion that the adaptive reuse of the two existing MDC towers was not feasible,” notes a CB1 resolution that was enacted on Tuesday evening.
Two days after the Quality of Life Committee revelation, State Senator Brian Kavanagh informed CB1 that “Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi committed to ‘pause for the next two weeks on any action that would be in conflict with adaptive reuse of the existing structure… and to a meeting at City Hall in the coming week to continue the conversation,’” according to the CB1 resolution enacted on Tuesday.
The same measure notes, “CB1 believes this upcoming meeting and the current two-week pause is insufficient as a response to the community’s clear interest and commitment to ensure the adaptive reuse of the existing MDC,” and concludes, “CB1 demands that the City put a pause on the demolition of the Manhattan Detention Center… until a Request for Proposals to determine the feasibility of adaptive reuse… is completed and reviewed by all stakeholders… and the community.”
Local leaders feel betrayed by City Hall, based on promises made by then-candidate Eric Adams, who attended one of their rallies in fall of 2021 and said, “I know how much this community has endured. Let’s stop the institutionalization of hate that we are seeing in government. We can do a better job. The problems we are facing can’t be solved with incarceration and the destruction of communities. So I am here with you, standing side by side. No new jail! No building up a jail at this location!”
A spokesman for the Mayor’s office responded, “this administration will always follow the law, and the law says the jails on Rikers Island must close on time. To follow the law and protect the safety of the community and all involved in this project, this work is proceeding. We have engaged deeply with the community every step of the way, and we are committed to continuing to work with them to limit the disruption of this project.”
This MDC initiative is a component of the larger “borough-based jail” program, launched in 2017 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who committed to closing the scandal-plagued Rikers Island (the City’s centralized detention facility) within a decade, and replacing it with four new jails—one in each borough except Staten Island. For Lower Manhattan, this will mean years of demolition and construction as MDC is razed, and then replaced with the world’s tallest correctional facility.
Among Downtown residents, the plan to demolish and rebuild MDC (which is officially priced at $9 billion, although skeptics predict it will likely cost many billions more) has become a flashpoint, largely because of the environmental and health hazards that years of demolition and construction could impose on the surrounding community. Once the project is complete, critics also anticipate decades of crowding on local streets as thousands of staff and support personnel report to the new facility each day.
Hopes for the adaptive-reuse option were raised by a March 2 meeting at which Senator Kavanagh, State Assembly member Grace Lee, and City Council member Christopher Marte all urged senior officials in the administration of Mayor Eric Adams to pause their demolish-and-rebuild plan and instead give further study to the plan advocated by community leaders. (Indirect encouragement was also derived from the fact that the Adams administration, after 15 months in office, had—up to that point—not yet signed off on the formal permits that would allow demolition to start.) The March 2 meeting ended with an informal agreement that City officials would provide documentation about their internal deliberations regarding the MDC project, following which the same stakeholders would meet again.
That subsequent meeting never took place, and supporters of adaptive reuse content that the Adams administration reneged on its promise to provide the relevant documents. Whether these commitments will be honored during the current two-week pause (or beyond) remains unclear.