Resilience Studio

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

STATEN ISLAND MARITIME INDUSTRY COALITION - SIMIC SIMIC is a management system for Staten Island SMIA that facilitates industries as well as communities. Builds a platform for partnership between them for creating a resilient working waterfront in the City of New York.

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

INTRODUCTION :

This project explains needs as well as advantages of creating a management entity for Staten Island SMIA (significant maritime industrial area). SIMIC (Staten Island Maritime Industrial Coalition) is a management system for Staten Island SMIA that facilitates stakeholders and builds a platform for partnership between them for creating a future resilient working waterfront of New York City.

The major goal of this organization is to create a vision for resilient waterfront of 2050, work towards strengthening the bonds between the industrial areas and adjoining communities in North shore of Staten Island. SIMIC will work with Community Board no. 01 of Staten Island. It will represent the partnership between communities and industries at two different levels: with respect to the city and with respect to Staten Island SMIA. The project is developed to layout the organizational structure and it’s anticipated expansion over the period of the first decade.

The management system will have a dynamic funding strategy where the NY rising funds will be used as a startup fund. Simultaneously, the organization will create options to generate its own funds that will be used to continue the operations of the organization. SIMIC will layout the sub goals required to acquire its final goal of resilient waterfront.

EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS

The City of New York is a collage of distinct vibrant neighborhoods. The communities that dwell within the area create the identity of that neighborhood.

North Shore of Staten Island remains forgotten neighborhood of the forgotten borough as the uniqueness of the neighborhood i.e. the Maritime character does not interact with its surroundings and context.

The Richmond Terrace road is the physical spine that runs between Staten Island SMIA and the residential-commercial neighborhood.

The length of the road is around 6 miles,which makes it suitable for walking as well as biking.

It is connected to the Saint George terminal.

This connection gives it a potential for being used by the tourist population, who take a ferry ride to Staten Island. In spite of this array of opportunities, Richmond terrace road remains isolated.

Graphic 01: Existing site conditions (Source: FEMA Preliminary Map data)

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

Depending on the immediate conditions, this road can serve as the connector as well as the separator for industries and communities.

A quick walk on Richmond terrace is enough to sense the isolation caused by physical and social barriers between industries, waterfront, and communities. Most of the industries in SMIA are related to the waterfront, they look outwards towards the water; they have no interaction with the community. The most obvious and physical forms of separation are the different kinds of fences with signboards such, as Trespassers will be prosecuted, private property, security cameras in use, etc. SMIA has not only created a thick barrier between waterfront and communities but also created urban fabric for self-decay. Currently, there are few abandoned factories and infrastructures. E.g. United Gypsum Plant, abandoned lite rail system etc.

One can follow the desire of the community to access the waterfront by observing that people informally make their way to the waterfront through abandoned infrastructure for fishing, kayaking or just enjoying the views of the working waterfront. All access points to the abandoned light rail platforms have been cordoned off for safety reasons. But, they also depict the strong desire of the community to access that piece of infrastructure. Currently, spaces like Faber Park create spots that formally allow the community to penetrate to the SMIA boundary and have visual connect to the waterfront. One can observe more park patrons in the area that offers a view to the waterfront as compared to

other parts of the park. It allows visual access to the waterfront where one can observe the scale of container ships and fleet traffic through the Kill Van Kull. The entire SMIA is under 100-year floodplain. It is speculated that the climate change and rising sea levels will add to the existing challenges and accelerate the deterioration of the SMIA. The industries are major economic generators for the city. Staten Island SMIA houses unique type of industries

such as Caddel dry dock, May ship repair industry, etc.

Image 01: view of industries from water _United Gypsum plant

Image 03: view of industries from Richmond Terrace : May ship repair

Image 02: view of industries from water _Caddell dry docks

Image 04: view of industries from Richmond Terrace : Auto part repair shop

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

CASE STUDY 01:

Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI): Delatlinqs

Security, Entrepreneurial climate, Infrastructure and accessibility, Innovation platforms,

Environmental sustainability and Education and labor market.

Rotterdam is a successful port city. The city is successful in terms of managing the balance between maritime industries, public access, and sustainability initiatives. Rotterdam’s port has evolved from East to West. The port towards the east was abandoned and the main port activities moved westward, away from the main city. To maintain the character of the maritime industrial area in abandoned parts, Rotterdam developed projects like RDM (An institute that works on innovations that fuel smart port), MH4 (MH4, is known as a former fruit port. The old warehouses are getting used for Clean Tech Medical and Food clusters).

Rotterdam has three-pronged climate Initiative which gives equal importance to the City, Port, and Industries. They are of the strong opinion that City, Port, and Industries are closely linked. The case study focuses on the Industry section of RCI. The umbrella organization that implements the goals of RCI for the Industrial sector is called as “Deltalinqs.” Deltalinqs is a coalition, which consists of 700 companies from 14 different sectors. Only industries related to port are given membership. Member industries are divided according to their type.

Each type has a manager that represents their respective industry. This Manager is the point of contact between core staff of Deltalinqs and the Industries. Delatlinqs has six primary goals:

Image 05: RDM Campus (source: https://www.rdmrotterdam.nl/campus/)

Image 06: Rotterdam Port development (source: https://www.rdmrotterdam.nl/

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

CITYWIDE STRATEGY

The City of New York has six SMIAs, including Staten Island SMIA. They are important economy generators and are essential for smooth functioning of the city. These SMIAs have similar types of industries; all six SMIAs are at the edge of the waterfront and at the forefront of climate change and sea level rise. Though there are localized attempts at achieving resiliency (E.g.

Auto part toolkit in South Bronx. ) As of now, there is neither a sustainability agenda nor an emergency protocol for these industrial areas.

The idea is to create or identify a management system for each SMIA that turns in information to the umbrella organization. The attributes of the umbrella organization are derived from the case study of Deltalinqs, Rotterdam. The organization will define the Future Working Waterfront in City of New York. The organization will create a structure that facilitates communication at different scales and becomes a platform for knowledge and resource sharing, which will turn into a support system for SMIAs in New York City. The three scales of interaction will be: •Knowledge and resource sharing between different locations of SMIAs •Sharing resources with different types of industries within a SMIA. •Facilitating interactions between Industries and other stakeholders.

Each SMIA will have its own coalition that will be part of the umbrella organization called as NYC-MIC (New York City Maritime

Industrial Coalition). For instance, each SMIA has industries related to Transportation and Warehousing. Every SMIA will have their own constrains and strengths regarding this sector which can be shared during NYCMIC’s meeting. The main role of NYC-MIC is to ensure that Industries not only survive but also become resilient to withstand climate change and sea level rise. This organization will draft the “Resilient Industrial Waterfront plan 2050.”

The duty to implement this plan in their own

unique way will be handed over to the coalition or organizations working in each SMIA. This project will detail out the coalition for Staten Island SMIA, termed as Staten Island’s Maritime Industrial Coalition (SIMIC).

Graphic 02: NYC-MIC: (source: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning )

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

SIMIC: GOALS ORGANIZATION

AND

STAKEHOLDER involvement

The isolation of the Staten Island SMIA was outlined in the introduction section. In order to reverse this situation it is extremely important to understand players within the SMIA.In order to create and maintain the position of SIMIC, it is important to identify the benefits it will provide to the stakeholders. The major stakeholders of SIMIC are industries, community organizations, institutes and city agencies.

Staten Island SMIA houses many types of industries; every type will require specific resiliency strategy. An on-site study was conducted regarding, type of industries that require waterfront and type of industries that do not require waterfront. Around 60% of industries in Staten Island SMIA do not require waterfront.

But they have their business in the SMIA over years and relocation of these industries will not only strip off the SMIA of its character but also reduce the number of jobs. The remaining 40% of industries require waterfront for functioning.

Every type of industry will have their set of challenges. So it is important to have at least one represent from each type of industry.

The industry representative will convey their challenges and demands to SIMIC. Goal: The goal is to create a “Resilient working waterfront” that builds innovative partnership through sustainable practices & community

while maintaining a strong economic position. SIMIC will achieve this goal by strengthening the position of industries and community individually and managing relationships amongst diverse stakeholders such as city agencies and educational institutions.

Benefits from Partnership between city and industries The federal, state and city agencies had to invest dollars in various areas for post sandy reconstruction programs. Resiliency of industries will benefit the city in terms of avoided losses. In turn, it will help industries create infrastructure that protects their assets. Industries will be able to formulate their demands in terms of required policy reforms that are conducive to their growth. It will also make it easier for industries to acquire a stable flood insurance. Currently, even major industries like Caddell dry dock are self-insured. They had no insurance against flood protection and had to go through post sandy retrofits with their own funds.

Benefits from Partnership between Communities and Industries As mentioned earlier, the separation of industries and community has created a fabric that is not socially sustainable. Collaboration with communities will result in social sustainability.

People from communities who have lived in vicinity for years have a very different understanding of this area. Understanding their

views from older generations will definitely give important insights for developing a resilient waterfront. The industries in turn will employ local workforce and create “walk to work” model.

Benefits from Partnership between educational institutes and Industries Students and researchers will get a unique opportunity to gain on-site experience and understand the needs of SMIA. The SMIA will benefit from the technology and innovations generated by students and researchers.

This collaboration will also create awareness about the maritime industrial character of Staten Island within educational institutes throughout the city.

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

Graphic 03: System diagram of SIMIC

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

CASE STUDY:02

BNYDC (Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation) BNYDC is an industrial Park on Brooklyn Waterfront. It is situated on a city-owned land. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) is the not-for-profit corporation that serves as the real estate developer and property manager of the Yard on behalf of its owner, the City of New York. It houses 300 businesses and creates 7000 jobs. Their aim is to create jobs and maintain a strong economic position. In

order to achieve that they develop commercial projects and lease spaces to business owners.

As their main goal is to creat economic stability by creating eployment oppotunities, they make sure that the spaces are not leased for storage or godowns.

ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDING

STRUCTURE

AND

In case of BNYDC it was comparatively easier to create a corporation as it operates on a city owned land and the business owners lease the spaces. The major roadblock to creating an organization that manages industrial uses in Staten Island SMIA is that they have multiple private owners.Currently, organization such as SIEDC (Staten Island Economic Development Corporation) is working closely with industries in the entire Staten Island. SIEDC’s mission is to enhance Staten Island’s economy by promoting public and private investment, and encouraging a responsible and sustainable development.

But, there is no organization that manages multiple stakeholders and work towards overall resiliency of the North shore of Staten Island.

SIMIC will address social, economic and climate resiliency of the north shore of Staten Island Organizational Structure SIMIC will have a three tier organizational structure. The president will solely occupy Tier 01. Tier 02 will consist of executive vice president (EVP) of the department. Tier 03 will have members working closely for specific goals.

Image 07: BNYDC : (source - https://ny.curbed.com/2016/3/7/11175212/brooklyn-navy-yard-new-renderings)

President The president will head the organization. The job of the president will be to ensure the dialogue between industries and immediate communities.

His/her job will also include working on the

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

final document of city-wide Resilient Industrial Waterfront plan 2050. President has to report to the citywide organization i.e. NYC-MIC. Attend meetings with presidents of other maritime industrial organizations in New York City and present vision for North shore of Staten Island.

Executive Vice President There will be four EVP (Executive Vice Presidents) who will work in conjunction with the president. The four EVPs will be working for different departments such as: 1.EVP Communities: This department will organize community meetings. Ask communities about their demands and expectations from the SMIA and understand their vision for SMIA. Create awareness within the community regarding effects of sea level rise and climate change. Create strategies that support local development.It is speculated that in few years this department will have sub departments such as: a.

Rentals for exhibition and b.

Workforce development Rentals for exhibition The Staten Island community has a rich art based culture. Currently, Staten Island houses an organization called Staten Island Arts that provide exhibition spaces to local artists. It will support organizations like cheaper, quicker and light installations that are effective in creating a brand for North shore of Staten Island. The abandoned and the less used spaces on North

shore SMIA can be developed into art spaces and rented to the local organizations.The branding will tap on the essence of the area, rather than falling back on cookie cutter identity mechanism such as The New York wheel.

Workforce development This department will offer attention to local workforce development. The plan is to have a workforce-training center that will provide a skilled workforce to industries and employment opportunities to the communities. Primarily, The idea is to create “walk to work� environment.

The appointments of the employment center will not stay limited to the industrial area in Staten Island. They will connect individuals to employment opportunities from other SMIAs in New York City.

2.EVP industries: This department will work for making the position of the existing industries stronger. As mentioned earlier in the report, Staten Island has a wide range of industries and each industry will have representatives. This department will work closely with the industry representatives.

This department will branch out in three departments: a. Policy b.

Safety and Security c.

Innovation and technology Policy Department: It is important for industries to have a strong

revenue to maintain its position in the New York City. Every year city releases various programs that are beneficial for the development of the business. It is difficult for business owners to keep up with the new policies while working on their establishment. This department will help industries to get through their legal paperwork and connect industries to appropriate incentives and development programs. This department will work closely with SIEDC. Safety and Security: This department will create guidelines for ensuring safety of the industrial area. It will also look at the emergency preparedness plan for industries, the residents and employees of the industries. The department will work closely with the fire department and create protocols for various emergency situations. It will also create robust guidelines for storage of hazardous materials.

Innovation and technology: This department is speculated to kick in once; Industries reach a certain level of economic stability and safety measures. This department will collaborate with educational and research institutes and come up with innovations that will help these industries grow sustainably.

3.EVP C-I Overlap (Community Industry Overlap) This department is the backbone of this organization. It will work as the link between

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

Graphic 04: Organization and Funding Diagram

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

communities and industries. The projects created by this department will result from community and industry collaborations.

The two sub-departments are: a.

Planning and b. Sustainability.

Planning: This is one of the most important departments of SIMIC. It will work on creating community spaces within the SMIA. Such that the stark line that exists between these two entities currently will be blurred. This department will support projects such as revitalization of Mariner’s Marsh park, Staten Island sky way, restoration of the edge, wind energy and adaptive reuse of vacant spaces.

Sustainability This department will explicitly look into Environmental sustainability. It will encourage industries to take up energy retrofits. Create a sustainable waste disposal plan. Plan energy micro grids with solar and wind energy.

4.EVP Organization This department will look into the overall working of SIMIC. It will work on the administration and arrange meetings. This department will keep track of the funding and work closely with FEMA (Federal Emergency management Agency), IDA (Industrial Development Association) AND NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation).

FUNDING MODEL:

SIMIC will require $2 million as startup fund.

This amount will be acquired partly by NY rising Funds and partly by IDA (Industrial development association) grants. The total amount of $2 million will be spent in building an office space and salaries of the employees for the first two years. The base salary for every tier varies. The base (including benefits) salary for Tier 01 employee is the highest with $100,000/ pa, Tier 02 employees receive $80,000/pa and Tier 03 employees receive $60,000/pa. Inflation rate of 2% is added every year over the previous year’s salary.

revenue.

Year 04 – 06 In fourth year, two EVPs Community-Industry overlap and industry will be introduced. Also, Departments like Sustainability, Work force and Safety-security will join the team.

From Year 07 In seventh year SIMIC will add Space rental department and Innovation-technology department.

The complete structure of SIMIC will be build gradually over the span of 7 years.

Year 01 – 03: First year SIMIC will start off with 6 employees, the president, EVP of Communities department, EVP of Organization, two employees in planning department and one employee in policy department.

Community department will start building relationships with community organizations and start arranging meetings while planning department start working on possible projects.

The policy department will understand current situation of industries and link them to available fundings and grants, which will make their position economically stronger. The organization department will do the administration work of SIMIC and focus on projects that can generate

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

STATEN ISLAND – NORTH RESILIENCY PLAN 2050:

SHORE within the flood zone. It will not only be

The Resiliency Plan will follow SIMICs Goal i.e. to create a “Resilient working waterfront” that builds innovative partnership through sustainable practices and community involvement while maintaining a strong economic position.

The idea is adapting to climate change by terminating the stark divide between industries and community and converting it into a system that support each other.

SIMIC will check the positive development towards this plan every 4 fours. Additional projects and agendas can be added every 4 years. The sub goals required to achieve the main goal are as follows: 1.

Recreational spaces: Even though Staten Island borough is know for parks. Currently, there are limited spaces on the North Shore of Staten Island that allow views to the working waterfront. There are multiple opportunities for turning defunct spaces into recreation areas that can be used by communities as well as the tourists. Possible project proposals are developing Mariner’s Marsh Park, developing the dysfunctional railway track, etc.

2.

Renewable Energy: Staten Island SMIA has 3-4 power substations

economically beneficial to have a micro grid that works on renewable energy but also be SMIA’s bold step towards environmental sustainability.

One of the immediate projects is wind energy feasibility study.

3.

Edge Conditions: Develop the water edge in a way that protects industries, create multifunctional spaces, has ecological value and is able to withstand/absorb the flooding. SIMIC will partner with SINS-WA for implementing this project.

4.

Adaptive reuse This project leverages on the fact that North Shore of Staten Island has dysfunctional infrastructure that can be converted into valued spaces and can generate revenue by becoming part of the larger system of community and industry.

5.

Circular Economy Connecting industries and commercial establishments in a way that they co-exist.

Waste from one business can be supplied to other business as a resource. For instance, metal from old cars and metal from ships can be supplied to the scrap dealers within North shore of Staten Island.

6.

Local Employment Connect local experts and skilled craftsmen to the SMIA.

7.

Emergency Preparedness The Entire SMIA of Staten Island is under 100year flood plain. The industries located in the SMIA are vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise. These industries will incur huge economic loss in the event of coastal or inland flooding. Under such conditions, it is important to have a protocol that would facilitate the evacuation.

8.

Technology and Innovation: This will be an opportunity to implement latest technological advances for achieving the resiliency goals. a) Electrification of Howland hook Electrification of the port is one of the mammoth tasks in creating a environmentally responsible industrial area.

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

Graphic 05: Staten Island North Shore Resiliency Plan 2050 (source: Bloomingdale trail, Chicago river walk, Big’s Container house, Bronx river alliance, RDM, rotterdam)

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NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

http://www.deltalinqs.nl/en http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/regions_pdf/autotoolkit16.pdf https://brooklynnavyyard.org/the-navy-yard/bnydc-mission/ http://siedc.org/about-us/ https://statenislandarts.org/artspace/

IMAGES AND GRAPHICS • Graphic no 01 : Existing site conditions (Source: FEMA Preliminary Map data) • Graphic 02: NYC-MIC: (source: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning ) • Graphic 05: Staten Island North Shore Resiliency Plan 2050 (source: Bloomingdale trail, Chicago river walk, Big’s Container house, Bronx river alliance, RDM, rotterdam) • Image 05: RDM Campus (source: https://www.rdmrotterdam.nl/campus/) • Image 06: Rotterdam Port development (source: https://www.rdmrotterdam.nl/ • Image 07: BNYDC : (source - https://ny.curbed. com/2016/3/7/11175212/brooklyn-navy-yard-new-renderings)

NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program, North Shore

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