Mayor meets stakeholders (no press) on jail
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
After outrage from Chinatown
residents over the plans to locate
a “community jail” in Lower
Manhattan, Mayor Bill de Blasio met
with neighborhood stakeholders and
Downtown politicians on Tues., Dec. 18.
The new Lower Manhattan jail is
a part of de Blasio’s larger project to
close Rikers Island by 2027 and open
four smaller jails to reduce the jail population
to 5,000 from 8,200 to work
toward ending mass incarceration and
creating a more humane jail system.
“People in the city unquestionably
want the era of mass incarceration to
end,” de Blasio said Tuesday. “We cannot
make the reforms we need if we
keep a broken place at the center of the
system.”
“Rikers Island was not built for rehabilitation,”
he said. “It will not work for
the future.”
But Downtowners have been blindsided
by the plans, most recently during
a back-and-forth on the jail’s location.
The latest plan is to demolish the
Manhattan Detention Complex at 125
White St. and build a 500-foot-tall jail
for 1,500 beds, according to city offi -
cials. The city is currently looking for
ways to reduce the building’s height.
De Blasio met with stakeholders, including
representatives of Community
A handful of demonstrators, including Chinatown activist and “close
Rikers” opponent Karlin Chan, right, staged a counterprotest outside
the American Legion Post 1291 when the mayor met with local stakeholders
this week.
Boards 1 and 3, as well as members
of Chatham Green Cooperative and
Neighbors United Below Canal, among
other nonprofi t leaders in Chinatown.
Shortly after the mayor’s remarks,
the press were shooed out. Stakeholders
in the room said they felt encouraged
the mayor came to Chinatown,
despite the “closed doors” appearance
of the meeting.
“I think we made such a ruckus that
he felt pressure to come to Chinatown,”
said Nancy Kong, president of Chatham
PHOTO BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
Green Cooperative and a member of
Neighbors United Below Canal. “I was
disappointed that he pretty much shut
down many of the requests that we had
made,” she added.
Kong told the mayor of how residents
have already been living with “armed
guards, with bomb-sniffi ng dogs, with
cameras and with checkpoints at every
other corner,” especially after 9/11. She
requested the city fi nd a fi fth site for a
jail to reduce Manhattan’s proposed
jail’s population — which is what the
commission that created the plan to
close Rikers had originally suggested.
She asked for analysis of other alternatives
and to restart the review process
with an additional scoping meeting.
“This isn’t just an area where you
just have court systems,” Kong said,
referring to the city’s argument that a
Lower Manhattan jail would reduce
detainees’ travel time due to its proximity
to courthouses.
A handful of protesters stood outside,
including C.B. 3 member Karlin
Chan, who said the “closed door meeting”
only exacerbates lack of transparency
and community distrust.
“This is not acceptable to the community,”
said Chan, who opposes closing
Rikers Island in its entirety.
Community Board 1 Chairperson
Anthony Notaro would like Tuesday’s
meeting to become a regular thing.
The public review process known
as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
will begin sometime before
spring. Councilmember Margaret Chin
supports closing Rikers, but has previously
kept the focus on leveraging community
benefi ts through the ULURP
process.
Notaro said community benefi ts C.B.
1 would support would largely depend
on the desires of Chinatown, which is
mostly in Board 3’s district and would
actually be more impacted than C.B. 1.
30/2-4/1
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JUMP continued from p. 16
Bolshoi Theater soloists Anna Aglatova, Stanislav Mostovoy, and Vasiliy Laduk sing with Yurlov Capella Choir and
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16 December 20, 2018 TVG Schneps Media