Op-ed – What’s The Emergency? Roosevelt Island Residents Ask If Safety Or Real Estate Development Is The Real Reason For Steam Plant Demolition In A Few Days

With demolition of the iconic Roosevelt Island steam plant smokestacks potentially days away, the City appears to be changing its tune on the alleged “emergency” basis for the site’s destruction.

For nearly six months, City agencies have called the demolition an “emergency” proceeding under an “emergency order” to “address potential collapse of the smokestacks.” 

But in an FAQ sheet that was shared in a Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island Committee Meeting Monday night, the agency overseeing demolition (Housing Preservation and Development) said an “emergency order” was issued to fence off and seal the site but not to demolish the building. 

The messaging appears to contradict statements on a joint HPD/Roosevelt Island website about the “emergency” nature of the project. As the first sentence on the steam plant webpage states:

By Emergency Order of the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), New York City Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) has begun demolition of the city’s old steam plant located just south of Firefighters Field.

Anti-demolition residents believe this change in tune supports our suspicions that the City is trying to scare us into believing demolition is necessary to minimize health and safety risks when in reality, demolition is most likely tied to redevelopment plans stemming from the extension of Roosevelt Island’s master lease. Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has an open petroleum contamination spill case at the site, and residents have filed 311 complaints over oily runoff flowing from the site three times in three months.

Residents call on the City to stop the demolition until it performs requisite due diligence and presents its findings through public notification channels mandated by state law.  And, we urge the City to perform a feasibility study for adaptive reuse of the site, also typical for a project of this nature.

WHAT’S THE EMERGENCY?

The “emergency” distinction appears to have been hiding in plain sight. The emergency work order itself — posted on the official website — calls for fencing and sealing off the site, not wholesale demolition. The underlying violations cite a routine maintenance code (§28-301.1, fail to maintain), not the emergency demolition statute (§28-215.1). They are classified as CLASS 2 (major), not CLASS 1 (immediately hazardous) violations. 

And yet, the “emergency” rhetoric persisted and was put to the test at a raucous April 15 town hall on the island. 

Residents hammered DOB Deputy Commissioner Yegal Shamash with the refrain, “what’s the emergency?” Residents repeated longstanding calls for DOB and HPD to release environmental and structural assessments typically required under state law for large-scale projects involving potential environmental impacts, including asbestos contamination.   

At the town hall, Shamash clarified publicly for the first time that the demolition order arose from the multiple DOB violations for failure to maintain the smokestacks by repairing the cracks — not from an immediate hazard. He also pledged to talk with DOB colleagues about potentially publishing parts of the “assessment” that led to the decision to demolish.

AN “URGENT” DEMOLITION

We now have it in writing in the FAQ — demolition was never deemed necessary to address an imminent public safety threat caused by cracks in the smokestacks. The new designation in the FAQ sheet is “urgent,” as in “why is this demolition urgent?” 

The FAQ states: “Collapse of these structures would be immediately hazardous to the community due to the collapse itself and the debris/related contaminants that would be released in an extremely uncontrolled manner.”

Residents agree collapse would be hazardous and catastrophic. We disagree that demolition is the remedy. 

Meanwhile, residents are awaiting the formation of a community advisory group requested by Speaker Menin, AM Seawright, Sen. Kruger, and Rep. Nadler. Were also calling on CB8 to do everything in its power to lobby the mayor, the governor and the speaker to intervene. 

UPDATE 5/7 – Roosevelt Island Connect reports on ArchRI fundraising efforts opposing the Steam Plant demolition.

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