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The image is from the New York panorama created for the Word's Fair 1964 and last updated in 1992. The Queens Museum has left the World Trade Center twin towers in place despite the tragedy of 9/11/2001

Rutgers University-Newark Professor Jason Barr said deadly flooding will happen more often and working-class people will be cut off from jobs if dramatic action isn’t taken. 

He understands the cynicism toward his project, but said the time for design for action is now.

“Doing nothing is much more expensive than doing a big project,” he said.

“In all climate change adaptation, we are going to be weighing the cost of inaction versus the cost of action,” Barr said.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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The image is from the New York panorama created for the Word's Fair 1964 and last updated in 1992. The Queens Museum has left the World Trade Center twin towers in place despite the tragedy of 9/11/2001

“Of course, I want some buildings for billionaires — that would raise the money to help subsidize the affordable housing,” said Rutgers University-Newark Professor Jason Barr. 

“But an authority would own the land and have full control of the long-term leases. That would allow large tracks devoted to middle- or low-income housing.”

When the remnants of Ida dumped heavy rain on greater New York, dozens of people lost their lives and subway lines — the lifeblood of commerce in the city — were heavily damaged by flooding. 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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The image is from the New York panorama created for the Word's Fair 1964 and last updated in 1992. The Queens Museum has left the World Trade Center twin towers in place despite the tragedy of 9/11/2001

New York city has started a major climate resiliency project along Manhattan to help reduce future flood risk.

“If we’re going to spend billions of dollars on this, why not create more of the most valuable real estate in the world?” Rutgers University-Newark Professor Jason Barr asked.

Barr said the value of the new land could leverage a new subway line, parks, infrastructure and most important of all — mixed-use housing with a strong percentage of it affordable.

 Barr has heard much “it can’t be done” skepticism and incorrect claims that the vision would end up as a giveaway to billionaires.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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“New York started in Lower Manhattan and it expanded the shoreline many times there, from the time the British took over. 

Other cities are doing large infill projects. 

Hong Kong, suffering from housing affordability and being land constrained, is doing 2.5 times my suggestion — 1,700 hectares,” said, Rutgers University-Newark Professor Jason Barr, whose vision for New Mannahatta includes absorbing Governor’s Island.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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While some communities’ answer to resiliency will include retreat, Rutgers University-Newark Professor Jason Barr’s answer for New York is a resounding — EXPAND! 

The economist created quite a stir when his January 2022 New York Times Op-Ed urged incoming Mayor Eric Adams to expand Lower Manhattan substantially by reclaiming land — 1,760 acres to be exact — from New York Harbor. 

Barr suggests the city’s housing crisis could be answered with 250,000 new residences — a good chunk affordable.

Barr, who points out that New York has a history of expanding by expanding the shoreline, even has a name for his new city tacked onto the city — New Mannahatta.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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“After years of planning, some 40 homeowners will have the opportunity to move to the new community that they’ve named Audubon Estates,” the Advocate reported, noting many Pecan Acres residents are low- to moderate-income and moved to the area after previously living on nearby sharecropping land.

The new town is about two miles from the oft-deluged Pecan Acres.

Once all residents move from Pecan Acres, the area will be restored to a wetland that could help mitigate regional flooding.The Advocate reported that Pecan Acres was built in the late ‘60s and ‘70s on a parish dumpsite that previously was low-lying swampland, making it vulnerable to floods. 

Many in the neighborhood couldn’t afford flood insurance, which is needed to obtain federal grants for flood repairs.

Efforts to curb flooding in the Baton Rouge-area town by installing pumps and other measures failed.

The inability of pumps and infrastructure to resolve flooding could be a canary in the coal mine warning that retreat could be the only ultimate solution in below or barely above sea level cities in Florida and Louisiana.

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My program, with colleagues David Haight and Wiatt Bowers of Atkins, is No Person Left Behind – Truly Inclusive Design.

We presented a similar program – on Universal Design and a better built environment for people with disabilities – in the grand ballroom at the APA national conference in San Diego this spring.

We also highlighted these issues at the Florida APA conference in 2021.

I spoke about how Universal Design is the most inclusive, durable, flexible, sustainable and cost-effective approach to design and design policy – at the International Making Cities Livable Conference in Paris this year.

My award-winning reporting frequently appears in Planning magazine.

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In addition to keynote and major speeches, I share my passion for design for all via the groundbreaking Universal Design course that I created and teach at a major school of architecture.