 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Residents Suing NYPD Over Proposed Counter-Terrorism Bunker
The Civic Center Residents Coalition—consisting primarily of Southbridge Towers, Chatham Towers and Chatham Green residents—filed a lawsuit Aug. 28 against the New York City Police Department, claiming the department unlawfully sidestepped review processes for its proposed Joint Operations Command Bunker at 109 Park Row. Standing at the corner of Worth Street, where police have had Park Row closed to thru-traffic since 2001, Chatham Towers resident and board member Jeanie Chin said Chinatown residents are fed up with the department’s slow, but steady encroachment on their neighborhood. “We’ve lived here long before Police Headquarters was even built, and we plan to be here for a long time,” said Chin, who was flanked by state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Community Board 1 chairwoman Julie Menin and state Senator Martin Connor at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 3. “We’re not going to sit still while [the Police Department] builds a paramilitary fortress in front of our doors.” According to the lawsuit, the coalition claims the NYPD, and the city’s Departments of Design and Construction and City Planning fast-tracked plans for a 22,000-square-foot bunker on Park Row, on the site of a former fire department communications center. The suit claims the city never required the Police Department to submit its plans to a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, nor was it required to submit to city and state environmental impact studies. Since the bunker would be built using $13.8 million in city taxpayer money—which, residents claim, the NYPD initially denied, “to avoid public scrutiny”—Chatham Green resident and coalition member Jan Lee said the bunker should have to go through the same approval process required of any other capital project.
In a statement released following the press conference, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said the department is not required to go through a review process because the plans would not change the footprint of the existing building. “It wouldn’t make sense to conduct [a review],” Browne said. “Contrary to descriptions at the press conference, this is not a new facility. This involves two floors of existing space at 1 Police Plaza and there is no underground bunker. There’s no change to the exterior or its existing footprint.” The coalition has taken issue with virtually every aspect of the department’s plan for the bunker. Beyond exacerbating an already-maddening traffic problem and all but ensuring more street closures, Chin said the addition of a counter-intelligence and anti-terrorism bunker, which would be run jointly with the FBI, to the Police Plaza campus only makes the area a more attractive target for terrorism. “If they were smart, that bunker would go without much fanfare to a quiet location where they could do their work,” Chin said. “They are broadcasting that they are putting a high-tech bunker [in Lower Manhattan], and they’re going to make themselves an increased target.” “Let’s face it, Police Headquarters and the Brooklyn Bridge are treated as targets,” Silver added. “Why would you put a facility that’s designed to respond to such emergencies next to the potential [targets] of terrorism?” The lawsuit over the NYPD’s proposed bunker opens the latest chapter of Chinatown residents’ ongoing struggle against the city since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Coalition sued the Police Department in 2004 in an attempt to force the reopening of Park Row to public traffic, claiming that its closure was killing local businesses. “Because of the shut-downs here, at least 35 businesses just within a block or two of Park Row have changed hands since 9/11,” Chin said. “The impact is severe, and the concern is great that this new facility will add an additional risk to our neighborhood.”
[Home][Back][Search][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
