Elected Officials Demand Community Input on New Jail Design
With the former Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC) on White Street now partially demolished, but no designer yet hired, nor a specific plan for its replacement (slated to be the world’s tallest prison) yet announced, concerns are growing more acute about the impact of this controversial, multi-billion dollar project on the Lower Manhattan community. An emerging focus of this dissatisfaction is the degree of local input on the evolving designs for the new complex.
Against this backdrop, the City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) hosted a contentious public engagement meeting on November 29, in the auditorium of Transfiguration Church on Mott Street, while hundreds of demonstrators opposed to the project gathered outside.
State Senator Brian Kavanagh said, “the administration often was not open to the level of input that this community has a right to expect. There’s frustration and anger that have built up over the last few years.”
City Council member Christopher Marte acknowledged the crowd outside, saying, “thanks to the protestors—their frustration is the voice of this community. This City doesn’t have money, with five percent cuts at every agency. How do we know what the reality is going to be two, four, five years from now?”
State Assembly member Grace Lee, who was arrested at a rally protesting the start of demolition at MDC in April, 2022, said, “we need community representation in the design selection committee, and an independent environmental engineer.”
Community Board 1 (CB1) chair Tammy Meltzer said to DDC representatives, “the public does not know where we are today, because of the lack of public trust that this project has.” She noted that CB1 identified inconsistencies in legally required documents outlining the scope of the project, and added, “it was unconscionable that community volunteers should have to chase that.”
Architect Bill Bialosky said, “we should define the community engagement process for the design-build team, rather than waiting until they are hired before we figure out what that process is. We should be dictating it, like a roadmap.”
These concerns were also enshrined in a resolution enacted by CB1 at its November 28 meeting. This measure observed of the Mayoral panel that incubated the plan, “a critical omission from the original Commission’s membership was representation of any community leadership from the Community Districts where the proposed new jails were to be located,” in spite of the fact that this task force “emphasized the importance of local community engagement in the locations of the jails, and stated that ‘the City must ensure that the process is as fair, transparent and responsive to community concerns as possible.’”
MDC’s demolition and replacement 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.
Among Downtown residents, the plan to replace MDC (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.
A fresh opportunity for communities to have a voice in the development of the borough-based jails that appear likely to be built in their midst may spring from the October announcement that a new commission will soon be empaneled to guide the design process. “Leaders who live and work in the communities where the jails are proposed are best positioned to provide the requisite knowledge and experience to assist with the Commission’s mission in creating four new community-based jails,” CB1’s November resolution notes, urging that, “a minimum of two members from Community Board 1 and two members from two neighborhood nonprofit groups representing Chinatown and the Civic Center—the location of the existing and proposed new Manhattan Detention Center—be appointed immediately.”