Demolition of jails is paused for two weeks

The demolition of 124 White Street, one of the two jails the city plans to use as the Manhattan location of the borough based jail plan, has been paused for a couple weeks at the request of state and city elected officials.

At CB1’s Quality of Life Committee meeting last week, everyone was shocked to hear that the city was proceeding with the demolition of the two jails on White and Centre. (The plaza and bridge between them had already been demolished.) According to the electeds, the three city agencies involved in the process had previously agreed to discuss the potential for adaptive reuse, following a meeting in early March, but they jumped the gun with this announcement.

Late Friday night City Hall notified the electeds (Senator Brian Kavanagh, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Congressman Daniel Goldman, Assemblymember Grace Lee and Councilmember Chris Marte) that it would commit to a pause of at least two weeks on any action that would be in conflict with adaptive reuse of the existing structure at 124 White Street until a meeting is arranged at City Hall to continue the conversation that was begun on March 2, 2023, on adaptive reuse as an alternative to demolition.

Given the current legislative session schedules, the meeting will take place within the coming week.

Sadly, I think they are just kicking the can down the road. But wouldn’t it be exciting if someone actually applied some thought to this whole plan? My latest fantasy: adaptive reuse for affordable housing on White Street and at the other sites the city has secured in the three other boroughs; rebuild Rikers with the progressive prison construction plans on the island, where it can be done in stages over time; add a couple procedural courthouses there too; add a ferry service for visitors using the existing NYC Ferry system.

Any of that sounds like a better investment in the city than the plan we’ve got today.