By Jordan Cosby and Laura Muñoz
New York City has an equity problem. Despite living in a city surrounded by water, many New Yorkers never have the chance to experience the waterways bordering their neighborhoods. With its more than 520 miles of coastline, the city was once home to an incredibly diverse coastal ecosystem. Centuries of steady industrial pollution killed most of this ecosystem. Communities like Mott Haven in the South Bronx are cut off by highways, industrial fencing, and years of neglect. Meanwhile, residents of areas such as Battery Park are granted easy access through parks and promenades. This contrast is not coincidental; it is the product of decades of inequitable urban planning.
As climate change threatens flooding, heatwaves, and severe storms, it is more urgent than ever to give all New Yorkers, especially those most vulnerable, access to resilient infrastructure and equitable waterfronts. Integrating climate-resilient infrastructure, inclusive public spaces, improved transit connections, and community-led planning into waterfront planning and development must prioritize equity, accessibility, resilience, and inclusion, ensuring that the benefits of the city’s shoreline are shared by all New Yorkers.
In this three-part series, we address the current issues facing waterfront neighborhoods in New York, propose solutions, and explain our urban planning approach to fixing them.
Why New York City Residents are Disconnected from the Waterfront
The widespread disconnect between the waterfront and many New York City communities is the result of years of harmful policy decisions and economic prioritization that favored industry over public access and environmental justice. Discriminatory housing practices such as redlining and urban renewal exposed minority communities to climate change hazards while physically separating them from their waterfront. Similarly, the construction of highways such as the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn split neighborhoods and detached them from their waterfront. Understanding these inequities is a critical step for designing future policies and interventions that help create more inclusive and resilient access to the city’s waterfront.
How Waterfront Disconnection Impacts New Yorkers
Waterfront disconnection has a deadly impact. In areas like the South Bronx or Southeast Queens, the absence of an accessible waterfront has a noxious effect on people’s quality of life and climate resiliency. They miss out on green and public spaces where people can engage in recreation, cooling, and community gathering. These spaces are vital for communities because proximity to outdoor spaces that include water, often referred to as “blue spaces”, is proven to benefit people’s mental and physical health.
The disconnect leaves marginalized communities highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This was evident during Hurricane Sandy, when communities living near industrial waterfronts faced severe flooding and were exposed to toxic chemicals in the floodwaters. A proper waterfront connection would have provided these communities with protective infrastructure such as seawalls, marshes, and dunes. Although these neighborhoods are often the most vulnerable to climate-related disasters, they frequently have inadequate or inaccessible emergency evacuation and preparedness resources. Even when such resources exist, communities might not know about them, making outreach and education just as important as the resources themselves.
Urban planners hold the power to restore equitable community access to waterfronts. In Part 2, we leverage our experience and theory to propose solutions to this disastrous issue.
Stay tuned!
