De Blasio wants to spend $10B to make Manhattan bigger

New York City is about to get a little bigger.

Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to spend $10 billion to “climate proof” lower Manhattan by building out the coastline by two blocks into the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery.

“It will be one of the most complex environmental and engineering challenges our city has ever undertaken and it will, literally, alter the shape of the island of Manhattan,” the mayor wrote in a New York Magazine op-ed.

The buildout will include a half-billion dollars for “grassy berms in parks and removable barriers that can be anchored in place as storms approach,” according to the mayor.

The eastern edge of Lower Manhattan — South Street Seaport and the Financial District — is just 8 feet above the waterline and packed with utilities, sewers and subway lines. So that area will be buttressed by 500 feet, or up to two city blocks, of new land.

“When we complete the coastal extension, which could cost $10 billion, Lower Manhattan will be secure from rising seas through 2100,” de Blasio wrote.

He also took a swing at the commander-in-chief, saying, “Nowhere in the $4.75 trillion budget President Trump just proposed is there anything approaching a plan to protect our coastal cities from rising seas.”

De Blasio notes that Hurricane Sandy wrecked 17,000 homes and took 44 lives when it flooded the city with 51 square miles of water in 2012.

“We’re going to protect Lower Manhattan, which includes the Financial District, home to a half-million jobs, 90,000 residents, and the nexus of almost all our subway lines,” he wrote.

He is scheduled to announce the massive project Thursday with a group of climate scientists.


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