Duggal Greenhouse Hosts Bloomberg's Announcement of NYC Storm Defense Proposal
06/12/2013
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The Duggal Greenhouse was chosen by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to unveil a nearly $20 billion proposal to protect the city from the impact of future superstorms. The Greenhouse was selected as a prime representation of waterfront development and the social and economic opportunities of a protected urban coastline.
Duggal’s brand new eco-friendly 35,000-square foot Brooklyn Navy Yard spectacle has become a highly sought after venue, hosting Nike, Heineken and several international superstar recording artists in the past four months since its opening. The Greenhouse provided a backdrop of stunning city and bridge views as the mayor addressed the crowd.
Bloomberg's massive plan, which he called “incredibly ambitious,” includes giant removable floodwalls around lower Manhattan and a 15-to-20-foot levee around part of Staten Island. Various gates, levees, dunes and bulkheads would also be constructed in flood-prone areas along the city’s 520 miles of coastline.
Acknowledging that much of the work would be left to his successor, Bloomberg insisted the project begin now.
“Piece by piece, over many years and even decades, we can build a city that’s capable of preparing better, withstanding more and overcoming anything,” Bloomberg said.
While Superstorm Sandy exposed New York’s vulnerability, updated predictions from the New York City Panel on Climate Change further increased the urgency for a citywide flood defense system. According to the New York Post, the panel projects the average day in NYC to be 4 to 7 degrees warmer by mid-century, causing local waters to rise up to 2 ½ feet higher than they are now. In that case, 8 percent of the city’s coastline would see flooding from high tides alone, and another superstorm could create a swamping tide 5 feet higher than Sandy’s record 14-foot surge that swallowed lower Manhattan.
According to the Post, Bloomberg said Sandy-allocated city and federal money would provide $10 billion for the project, and the city believes it could retrieve at least $5 billion more in federal money.
caption id="attachment_10867" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Superstorm Sandy Flooding in Lower Manhattan. (Photo by Andrew Burton, Getty Images)"/caption