Funding Uncertainty Looms in FiDi-Seaport Climate Plan, Last Link in Lower Manhattan Flood Protection Projects
Picture a park stretching all the way from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery. It’s raised 15 to 18 feet above the current shoreline, and armed with nearly eight acres of green space, resilient ferry hubs, flood walls, deployable flood gates, and a multilevel esplanade projecting 90 to 200 feet into the East River.
If all goes well in the next decade, that’s what the waterfront along the South Street Seaport and Financial District could look like, once the neighborhood’s Climate Resilience Master Plan is complete. The challenge now is securing $5-7 billion to build it.
“[It’s] such a significant project, both in its location and its scale, that it raises issues we haven’t always had to grapple with on other projects,” said Jordan Salinger, the deputy director of adaptation strategies at the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice.
