{"id":305809,"date":"2025-10-15T16:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305809\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:39:17","slug":"op-ed-rebuild-rikers-the-right-way-and-use-the-borough-jail-sites-for-homes-new-yorkers-can-afford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/305809\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed | Rebuild Rikers the right way \u2014 and use the borough jail sites for homes New Yorkers can afford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Former\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Andrew Cuomo Campaign<\/p>\n

New York is at a crossroads. We can either double-down on a broken plan that is years late, billions over budget, and already obsolete, or we can fix the problem with competence and common sense.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the truth: Rikers Island as it exists today is a human-rights failure\u2014outdated, unsafe, unacceptable. It must be closed as we know it. But the City\u2019s \u201cborough-based jails\u201d scheme is the wrong cure. It is fast becoming New York\u2019s next Big Dig: a $16 billion boondoggle that would drop massive towers in the middle of residential neighborhoods, harm small businesses and schools, divide communities, and still fail to deliver a safer, fairer system.<\/p>\n

We need a plan that works for safety, and for taxpayers. My proposal does exactly that: rebuild modern, humane facilities on Rikers Island in phases while converting the four borough jail sites into affordable housing and mixed-use development that will improve our neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Why this is necessary<\/b><\/p>\n

Start with the facts. The City\u2019s 2019 plan under Bill de Blasio projected $8 billion in costs and closing Rikers by 2027. Today, the price tag has ballooned to $15\u201316 billion and the City\u2019s own Budget Director has admitted the 2027 mandate won\u2019t be met. Major contracts for\u00a0 Queens ($3.9B) and the Bronx ($2.9B) alone already exceed $7 billion. Brooklyn is two years behind schedule. Manhattan isn\u2019t projected to finish until 2032\u2014five years after the legal deadline to shutter Rikers. And the original plan\u2019s total capacity\u20143,300 beds\u2014is less than half of Rikers\u2019 population as recently as March 2025 (over 7,000).<\/p>\n

My opponent, Zohran Mamdani, wants to continue down the path of the failed de Blasio plan that is years late, billions over budget, and disdained by local communities that would be saddled with housing the borough-based jails.\u00a0 That\u2019s ideology over competence. It\u2019s government promising what it can\u2019t deliver and sending taxpayers the bill.<\/p>\n

The better way<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Phased rebuild on Rikers.<\/b> Replace decrepit buildings with state-of-the-art, light-filled housing designed for rehabilitation, safety, and mental-health treatment\u2014one building at a time\u2014so operations continue without disruption. This is the same strategy we used at LaGuardia Airport: build new, keep running, open on time. We did it. It worked.<\/li>\n
  2. Accountability and efficiency.<\/b> Focus construction on one secured site to avoid redundant costs and years of neighborhood litigation and logistics nightmares. Use design-build and disciplined project management\u2014the tools we used for LaGuardia, Moynihan Train Hall, the Kosciuszko Bridge, and the L-Train fix\u2014to deliver on time and on budget. Even before the City\u2019s costs exploded, a Manhattan Institute analysis suggested a Rikers-rebuild approach could save hundreds of millions versus the original borough-jail estimates. Today, the savings vs. the swollen $15\u201316 billion plan would be measured in billions.<\/li>\n
  3. Redevelop the borough sites for housing and community use.<\/b> New York needs homes. The cleared jail parcels are massive, transit-accessible, and ready. Working with local leaders, we can deliver affordable housing, childcare, retail, open space, and job-creating mixed-use projects tailored to each borough\u2019s needs. Instead of erecting four fortress-jails in residential blocks, let\u2019s build neighborhood assets that families welcome.<\/li>\n
  4. Guarantee visitation access.<\/b> The one supposed advantage of borough-based jails (closer visitation) can be achieved with direct express buses from each borough to Rikers for families and attorneys.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Humane and safe at the same time<\/b><\/p>\n

    This is not a choice between humanity and public safety.\u00a0 A modern Rikers campus can do both: safe, secure facilities with expanded mental-health services, addiction treatment, education, and work programs, as well as the staffing, design, and technology to protect people in custody and the officers who serve them. End the status quo and build a system that actually rehabilitates and reduces recidivism, rather than repeating the mistakes of the past.<\/p>\n

    Competence matters<\/b><\/p>\n

    We\u2019ve done the \u201cimpossible\u201d before. When the MTA announced an L-Train shutdown that would cripple the city for 15 to 20 months, I questioned the premise, brought in experts, changed the plan\u2014and kept the trains running. When naysayers said LaGuardia couldn\u2019t be rebuilt without shutting it down, we proved them wrong.\u00a0 The lesson is simple: when you get the management right, New York wins.<\/p>\n

    A city that works for everyone<\/b><\/p>\n

    New Yorkers don\u2019t want slogans. They want results. They want a justice system that is humane and a city that is affordable. My plan delivers both: close Rikers as we know it by rebuilding it the right way, and turn four controversial jail sites into tens of thousands of homes and real neighborhood renewal. That\u2019s how you improve lives now \u2013 not five or ten years from now after billions have been wasted and deadlines blown through.<\/p>\n

    New Yorkers rise again and again because we match imagination with competence. Let\u2019s stop the Big dig and start building the future. Rebuild Rikers the right way. Build housing our families can afford. And let\u2019s prove, once more, that when New York leads with common sense and courage, we set the standard for the world\u2019s greatest city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Photo Credit: Andrew Cuomo Campaign New York is at a crossroads. We can either…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,5706,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,3586,1269,74350,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-305809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-cuomo","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-op-ed","18":"tag-opinion","19":"tag-rikers-island","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115379173422452910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}