A brand new 30-page report launched by the Regional Plan Affiliation (RPA) presents a restorative, sewage remedy plant–anchored imaginative and prescient of redemption and renewal for an island lengthy populated by—and synonymous with—New York Metropolis’s troubled fundamental jail advanced.
Responding to a bigger (and never with out controversy) decarceration plan through which mentioned troubled jail advanced, Rikers Island, shall be shuttered and changed with a community of “fashionable, smaller, humane” detention amenities unfold throughout all 5 borough save for Staten Island by 2027, the RPA teamed with the Rhode Island Faculty of Design (RISD) to reimagine the 413-acre island within the East River as a citywide hub for inexperienced vitality manufacturing. As envisioned by the RPA and RISD group, the island’s “noxious infrastructure” would get replaced with sprawling photovoltaic installations, a composting and recycling hub, and wastewater remedy facility.
Heralded by Costa Constantinides, former New York Metropolis Councilmember and sponsor the Renewable Rikers Act, as an “thrilling step ahead in envisioning a simply transition for the way forward for the island,” RPA’s and RISD’s A Plan For Renewable Rikers report additionally proposes a “analysis and coaching institute” that might assist to arrange earlier incarcerated New Yorkers most affected by the disgraceful, dysfunctional legacy of Rikers Island for jobs within the clear vitality sector and associated fields.
“RPA is proud to construct on the work of environmental and prison justice advocates in presenting a plan to reimagine Rikers’ 400 acres as a inexperienced vitality hub that strengthens town’s resilience to local weather change and delivers substantial group advantages—particularly for the Black, Brown and poor New Yorkers who’ve borne the brunt of mass criminalization and noxious vitality amenities,” mentioned Moses Gates, the RPA’s Vice President For Housing and Neighborhood Planning in an announcement.
“Following by on the imaginative and prescient for a renewable Rikers is a can’t miss alternative for the Metropolis to succeed in its decarbonization targets whereas serving as a nationwide mannequin for climate-focused redistributive justice,” Gates added.
The report was commissioned by RPA as a part of its 2022 Richard Kaplan Chairs for City Design Fellowship. The resultant design relies on an preliminary imaginative and prescient of the Renewable Rikers coalition, an alliance of greater than 40 organizations representing folks previously incarcerated on Rikers Island and their households together with communities impacted by environmental racism and allied nonprofit teams targeted on environmental and social justice causes.
New York Metropolis Council voted to completely shut the Division of Correction (DOC)-operated Rikers Island in 2019. Its varied amenities, together with a complete of 10 main jails, are legally mandated to stop operations by August 2027 as possession of the island shifts from the DOC to the Division of Citywide Administration Providers. For a lot of, 2027 (a delay from the unique 2026-aiming closure) couldn’t come quickly sufficient because the already-grim scenario on Rikers, lengthy recognized for its violence and inhumane situations, continues to devolve day-to-day, week by week. Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander spoke of the wide-ranging impacts—financial, environmental, religious—{that a} transformation just like the one outlined within the newly launched report may yield, noting that “re-envisioning the island as a spot for renewable vitality infrastructure is the embodiment of a simply transition—the place environmental justice prevails.”
As detailed within the RPA’s roadmap for a post-carceral Rikers Island, the plan presents a chance to shutter blighted, ageing waste and vitality infrastructure surrounding the island in neighborhoods on the Bronx and Queens waterfronts and construct out new, cleaner amenities on the island itself. In flip, giant tracts of land at the moment dominated by such infrastructure can be freed up for group use, doubtlessly as future parkland. Particularly, a complete of 4 neighborhood-based wastewater vegetation within the Bronx and Queens can be decommissioned and changed with a single, state-of-the-art facility on Rikers Island. This transfer would liberate 182 acres of actual property for “group decided priorities and cleansing up native waterways,” a press announcement detailed.
As for renewable vitality, the new Rikers Island would allow the phasing out of close by peaker energy vegetation because of a photo voltaic manufacturing facility able to producing 1,500 MW of vitality storage and 275 MW of solar energy. The island’s composting and recycling middle, as outlined within the plan, can be strong sufficient to course of 34 p.c of New York Metropolis’s waste stream—or about 365,000 tons of natural waste yearly.
“The fastidiously thought out designs we’ve offered on this report present how the whole island could be activated as an vitality hub for all of New York Metropolis, whereas releasing giant swathes of neighboring boroughs from ageing vitality infrastructure,” mentioned Andrea Johnson, Assistant Professor within the Grasp of Panorama Structure program at RISD.
You’ll be able to learn A Plan For Renewable Rikers in full right here.
