July 2023 Update from Metro Area Governors Island Coalition (M.A.G.I.C.)
Please Help spread the word regarding the issues and our efforts. More info and social media links on our homepage.
In this post:
1) Community Board 1 – 7/18/23 Public Climate Center presentation
2) Legal Update
3) Climate Solutions Piloting Program/Amazon
4) Chains and surveillance
1) Tues, 7-18-23, 6:00 PM
Manhattan Community Board 1 Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee
Climate Center Governors Island Trust update – with the Stonybrook design team
– In person:
Manhattan Community Board Office – Conference Room
1 Centre Street, 2202A-North
– Live Remote Access and written comment form (day of meeting):
https://live.mcb1.nyc
The community is encouraged to attend through remote.
Reminder that the “Center for Climate Solutions” is planned to take up only 25% of the designated “development zones” on GI. The rest?
Our heart goes out to victims of recent extreme climate crisis conditions. With the heat waves, record flooding, and wildfires in mind, you don’t build the 2021 rezoning’s high rise, high density development with 200 parking spaces on a small traffic free island that is classified as a wildlife preserve and serves as a unique parkland refuge for families city-wide and justify it with a project that replicates work already done elsewhere and displaces long time climate work already in place (GrowNYC, Earth Matter, NYC Audubon, Billion Oyster Project, Bee Conservancy, Harbor School …) Just say’n …
Repost: Report Regarding the Trust’s Fall 2022 “Climate Center” Briefing
2) M.A.G.I.C. Legal Update
The date has been pushed back a bit for completing our appeal brief in the lawsuit to overturn the 2021 Governors Island rezoning. More news on that in a few weeks. Our aim is to nullify a rezoning that would undermine the purpose and protections agreed upon and outlined in the 2003 Deed. M.A.G.I.C. is working to establish zoning that supports low rise, non-speculative development while maintaining Governors Island as the uniquely open and natural public resource that has benefited millions of New Yorkers since it was thoughtfully established in 2003.
As Community Board 1 pointed out in their Dec 2020 resolution, the development allowed by the rezoning is nearly three times larger than the public’s original understanding of what it would be, “and the drastic increase in scale of development is unacceptable.”
Lawsuit and legal fund info HERE
3) Climate Solutions Piloting Program on Governors Island – Amazon and GI?
This program is intended as a prelude to the planned “Center for Climate Solutions” on GI. In part it is part of the effort to justify GI as a location for these projects. Of note is the last line in the information document:
“The program is made possible with the generous support of our funders, including Amazon, Con Edison, Deutsche Bank, LISC, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, and New York Community Trust.”
Amazon? Is this the beginning of a bad romance?
Download the info PDF HERE. There are upcoming webinars and in-person tours. Register HERE
4) One of most treasured public space features on GI, the porches of Nolan Park and Colonels Row, are now infinitely less welcoming.
