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New York’s Future

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I found these proposals to re-reengineer New York City pretty interesting. Essentially there are 3–create marshlands on the edge of Manhattan to serve as a buffer against rising sea levels and big storms while also placing permeable roads that would allow storms to seep into the soil, create oyster beds which do the same and also help with water quality, and a storm barrier/drawbridge to protect Staten Island. Not sure about the last one, but the first two provide some very good ideas. Marshlands, managed retreat from the lowest lying areas, oysters, permeable streets–these are plans that make a lot of sense. Huge engineering projects like building barriers in the ocean are not only ungodly expensive but also are not likely to work over the long term–and it only takes one failure for a complete disaster to strike. Blending the big and small makes a lot of sense on a number–likelihood of success, aesthetics, ecology, and cost. Oyster beds and marshlands might not seem very New York what with its Empire State Building and Museum of Modern Art and hub of world modernity, but a move away from futuristic modernist thinking is in order to deal with climate change realistically.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of political will out there to pay for any reasonable kind of public works to protect our low-lying cities. If there were, we would first allow the Mississippi to flood naturally and rebuild the marshlands that protect New Orleans, but since Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, there’s been only the tiniest of progress on this while more of the swamps turn into open water, leaving New Orleans more vulnerable than ever.

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