Community Partnership

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

Source: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/statenislandcb1/about/district-map.page

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY FOR NORTH SHRE OF STATEN ISLAND INTRODUCTION The area that I will be working on is the North Shore of Staten Island. In spite of being part one of the biggest borough (acres of land mass) of the City of New York, it is many years behind in terms of development than other parts of the city.

Very appropriately, it is termed as the forgotten borough by various writers. Also, the mere physical separation from the main city paves way for a set of distinct challenges. For instance, the limited option of public transportation in order to reach Staten Island is one of the biggest challenges. As part of resiliency studio, we are studying, Industrial waterfront in North Shore of Staten Island. This industrial waterfront is one of the six SMIAs (significant maritime industrial area) in New York City.

Image 01: view of industries from water _United Gypsum plant

Graphic 01: Existing Conditions

Image 02: view of industries from Richmond Terrace : May ship repair

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM 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 lot of potentials. In spite of this array of opportunities, Richmond terrace road remains isolated. 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 of communities from SMIA are the different kinds of fences with sign-boards such, as trespassers will be prosecuted, private property etc. SMIA has not only created a thick barrier between waterfront and communities but also created urban fabric for self-decay. 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

GOAL The goal is 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 supports each other.

Create a “Resilient working waterfront” that builds innovative partnership through sustainable practices and community involvement while maintaining a strong economic position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMUNITY Our group had a chance to have a face-to-face conversation with the Staten Island Borough president as well as people from the active community organizations such as El Centro and Make the road. Surprisingly, there was a stark difference in the way they imagined the future of Staten Island. The Borough President’s office was all excited about the new developments such as the New York Wheel. According to them, these infrastructure projects would attract tourists to Staten Island and create a branding for the borough. In my personal opinion, this false cookie-cutter identity did not represent the real essence of this borough and will instead make North Shore of Staten island dependent on the tourist population and possibly lead to gentrification Image of the NY Wheel Community organizations working in the vicinity had a very different set of concerns. Staten Island has a huge number of documented as well as the undocumented workforce. These organizations help immigrants by providing workforce training; help them in learning the English language, get certifications etc.

This population is mostly employed in the construction industry, work as house help and similar low wage jobs. They are trying very hard to survive in the city; also one can sense the fear of gentrification.

Image 03: Proposed NY Wheel (source: http://newyorkwheel.com/gallery.html?zoombox=0)

STAKEHOLDERS ANALYSIS In order to create middle ground and get people to consensus, it is essential to identify every stakeholder in the project area. Also, It is essential to identify the benefits they will derive from the partnership. The major stakeholders of North Shore of Staten Island are industries, community organizations, institutes and city agencies. But, there are many other stakeholders who are equally important in order to go ahead with the development plan.

1. Industry/Business owners The Community Board no. 01 of Staten Island houses one of the six SMIAs in The City of New York. The SMIA comprises 40% industries related to Maritime businesses, 40% comprise of auto parts related shops and other 20% comprised of a variety of industries such as scrap dealing, waste carter etc. Though some of these businesses are deteriorating, they have been part of the SMIA for over 50 years and are part of the identity of the Staten Island. There are around 40 to 50 different business owners and there is extremely less or absolutely no interaction between them. It is important to have communication amongst them in order to get any blanket idea executed. For Instance, incase of repairing the entire bulkhead for attaining coastal resiliency. Even if one business owner on the waterfront is not in approval of this idea, it will not get implemented. They are one of the

important stakeholders and are also economy generators of the region.

2. People who only work on Staten Island There is a certain set of worker population that only comes to Staten Island for working in the industries located in SMIA. Even if they just work here, they spend a maximum number of active hours of the day in this region; they use the ferry and the public transport and benefit the grocery shops and cafes in the region. Any changes to the land use, transportation etc. will affect their means of income directly.

3. CafĂŠ/Restaurants/bar owners The north shore of Staten Island has many family owned, authentic small bars and restaurants.

Their business depends mostly on people working in the SMIA and the floating tourist population. Changes in this area will affect these small cafes, restaurants and bar owners.

4. Community organizations As mentioned earlier in the paper, community organizations in this area are fighting hard for rights of the immigrant population. They organize skill workshops at lower prices, such that they can get employed. According to the organizations, mother immigrants are most difficult to reach, because they are unable to attend any programs, as they have to take care of their kids.

5.

Educational Institutes

The statistical data suggests that there are multiple schools in the vicinity and yet all of them are highly overcrowded. There is clear lack of education spaces. Any new development should take into account this scarcity of educational spaces and address this issue. Also, noise from construction sites can affect the quality of study in these schools.

It is important to get these institutes on board so that the development is planned in conjunction with demands of educational facilities.

6. Religious Institutes Religious institutes are rich community interaction spaces. These institutes can become a medium through which information is communicated to the masses.

7. City Agencies The city agencies and borough president are one of the main stakeholders as they are decision makers at the higher level. It is important that authentic information and needs of people reach them in an unbiased way. That is why their presence is important while the negotiations are in progress.

8. Legal Residents of Community board no. 01 Residents of this area have suffered due to isolation as well as lack of public transportation.

Families living here have to depend on private transportation in spite of paying the percentage of tax as paid by any other borough City of New York. On an average, every family has 3

cars. They are breathing the contaminated air coming out of the factories. Most of them live in the 100-year or 500-year floodplain and yet do not have an emergency preparedness plan.

Their participation can address issues that are explicit to their group.

9. Illegal Immigrant workforce Immigrants get drawn to Staten Island because of the low monthly rents and free ferry to Manhattan. It is very difficult to reach this population as they do not have appropriate paperwork and end up getting exploited by working for an extremely low wage. Therefore it is important to find ways to legalize them and figure out of the box strategy to get them on board. They are already an important resource for the city and legalizing them will curb exploitation against them.

10. Tourist The tourist population enjoys the free ferry ride that the city has to offer. But, they have no place to go except the plaza on the ferry terminal.

Tourist population is a great resource and the new plan should tap on this resource. go through post sandy retrofits with their own funds.

THE STAKEHOLDER INVENTORY In order to achieve the desired participation, every stakeholder has to be motivated by assigning them a role and generate benefit that will create self-interest. It was understood that the outlined goal will not only generate individual benefits but will also create co-benefits within stakeholders. Many stakeholders will benefit if industries flourish and this interdependency to is identified in the next section.

Motivating self-interest and role: 1. Industry/Business owners Currently, due to the isolation, industries are deteriorating. The plan of the resilient working waterfront will incur social support to the industries. Also, the advent of tourism due to punctured and distinct recreation area will generate revenue. Industries can rent out their residual or additional spaces for exhibitions, social gatherings and generate additional revenue. For a business to be stable, it is important to have sustainable revenue cycle and a strong support of social fabric. For instance, a shop located in Times Square will generate more revenue than any other isolated area. Thus, industries have many benefits and motivation from collaboration. The major roadblock in collaborating with industries in this area is that there are around 40-50 owners and it is difficult to get their consensus. This problem

can be taken care of by creating a coalition of industries. Every type of industry can be grouped together and can have an elected representative that attends meetings and puts forward views of their industry type. Most of the maritime industries have difficulty in getting their insurance and currently are self-insured.

The resiliency plan can make it easier for them to get a flood risk insurance. Industries have an important role as they are at the forefront of climate change and sea level rise and this is their opportunity to protect their business.

2. People who only work on Staten Island The collaboration will benefit the group of people that work on Staten Island in multiple ways. Secure industries will result in secure jobs and sufficient salaries. The development will catalyze improvement of transportation, which currently is a weak link in this area. The ideal way to collaborate will be to create a workers union and elect representatives from each type of industries who attend periodical meetings. Their role will be to maintain a niche for themselves while the plan promotes local employment.

3. Café/Restaurants/bar owners Cafes, restaurants, and bars are strong cultural spaces and will benefit from the influx of people that will result from the goal of the project. As the resiliency plan will attempt to activate the isolated spaces, it can potentially result in the expansion of cafes and bars. Their role will be

providing authentic and distinct services to the tourist as well as the working population.

For instance, few cafes in Brooklyn have a vibe that is associated with its uniqueness and authenticity.

4. Community organizations Community organizations will be able to understand the worker requirements of the industries and will know which direction to lead the immigrant’s worker population. They will play an important role in creating ‘a walk to the work’ environment. They can also play an instrumental role in avoiding gentrification.

5. Educational Institutes The educational institutes can talk about lack of space and negotiate for expansion. The timing of construction can be negotiated before and after the school hours. During the construction phase, students can be taken to an alternative playground. Educational institutes can play a vital role in communicating benefits of resiliency strategies to students as well as parents.

6. Religious Institutes Religious Institutes will also benefit from the influx of people into the area. Their role will be to create awareness and spread knowledge about the history of this region and specify how communities of different background have coexisted in this region.

7.

City Agencies

It will be easier for city agencies to understand the demands of the community and invest in right schemes. There will be no resistance or opposition from the locals. Therefore it will be easy to implement the appropriate plan that can avoid gentrification. Their role will be to listen to every group without biases and work out a plan that is beneficial to every stakeholder.

8. Legal Residents of Community board no. 01 The development will benefit residents in many ways. One of them will be sufficient public transportation. They will have more accessible park spaces and can have clean air because of the upgraded regional standards. Their role will be to attract attention to the betterment and equal development of local residents while the plan focuses on the Industries.

9. Illegal Immigrant workforce It will open doors to ethical work options. Their role will be to put forth their distinct ideas in terms of living as well as working in this vicinity.

10. Tourist Even though depending on floating tourist population is detrimental to resiliency, tourists help generate revenue and are one of the major parts of New York City’s revenue. The city of New York has a huge tourist population. Most of them enjoy the free ride to Staten Island while enjoying the views of the statue of Liberty.

They are difficult to get on board, as they are not constant. In order to understand the plan

through the lenses of tourist population, we can recruit tourist guides living on the Island.

11. Unidentified gatekeepers People from communities who have lived in the vicinity for years have a very different understanding of this area. Understanding views from older as well as younger generations will definitely give important insights for developing a resilient waterfront. Staten Island has immigrants from various backgrounds.

Their role will be to recreate the pride in living and visiting the only maritime area that allows post-Panamax ships in the City of New York.

Interdependency: Benefits from Partnership between city and industries: The federal, state and city agencies had to invest huge amounts in various areas for post sandy reconstruction programs. The resiliency of industries will benefit the city in terms of avoided losses. In turn, it will help industries create an 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 Caldwell 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. The industries, in turn, will employ local workforce and create “walk to work” model. Staten Island has a rich art background. One can observe vibrant graffiti while walking through the streets of Staten Island. Art is one of the mediums to express the wealth of maritime character in this area.

The “Staten Island Arts” is an organization that brings artists together and provides exhibition spaces. One of the major issues in Staten Island is death due to opioid overdose. H.O.P.E. is an organization that helps opioid victims.

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.

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

The person in charge of the meetings can create excitement and positive tension within all stakeholders. The strategy will be instrumental in specifying self-interest while creating

mutual interest. Therefore the plan will become instrumental in creating a social, economic and environmentally responsible ‘Resilient working waterfront plan.’

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https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/staten-island/staten-islandhttp://newyorkwheel.com/about.html https://statenislandarts.org/ http://abc7ny.com/13-overdose-deaths-reported-on-staten-island-in-3-weeks/2289891/ http://www.silive.com/news/2017/03/hope_drug_treatment_program_li.html