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| Outside a restaurant at 14th and Gansevoort Streets, NYC |
Recent news articles have been focusing on new studies which find that New York City is sinking under the collective weight of all of its buildings. According to researchers’ estimates at the United States Geological Survey, 762 million tons (1.68 trillion pounds) of concrete, glass, and steel sit on the 300 square miles that comprise NYC. This does not include the number of people who live in the city. The Big Apple may be the city that never sleeps but it is a city that sinks, subsiding an average of 1-2 millimeters each year.
This gradual process could spell trouble for a city where the sea level has been rising more than twice as fast as the global rate and is projected to rise between 8 inches and 30 inches by 2050. The Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan is a blueprint for flood defense infrastructure to protect Lower Manhattan from the threat of climate change. The $5 to $7 billion plan reimagines the shoreline of Lower Manhattan to create a 21st Century resilient waterfront to withstand severe coastal storms and rising sea levels. This is intended to protect the low-lying Financial District and South Street Seaport neighborhoods where close to a million people work, live, and commute through this area.
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