NYC’s Proposal to Extend Manhattan Island

New York City is considering extending Manhattan island two and a half miles south into the New York Harbor with reclaimed land, forming a new neighborhood called New Mannahatta. Based on the Upper West Side, the new neighborhood would have 178 thousand housing units for 247 thousand people. It would have parks, bike and pedestrian paths and subway line extensions for routes 1 and G, helping integrate it with the rest of the city. It would also be elevated and surrounded with wetlands, helping protect against storm surges. While it would provide more housing supply, protect against climate change and generate massive real estate value, it would cost billions of dollars, take decades to complete and increase traffic in the city.

If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to Futurology for more similar content!

Thank you to the following sources!

Information

Video Chapters
0:00-2:00 Introduction
2:00-4:18 New Mannahatta
4:18-6:20 Benefits
6:20-7:53 Problems
7:53-9:06 Current Status

[pauldecoster]

As a New Yorker, I like the idea of protection against storms, but new housing units mean nothing if rents remain staggering.

[manwiththeredface]

Investors would jump on it and hike the prices up all the same. This is the only reason this project would ever be greenlit.

[davida.rodriguez]

If new Manhatta were to be built, it's not going to be directed to affordable housing deficiencies in the city nor middle class income homes which are desperately needed. It's absurd to think so given the last few expansions in the city. This will be another elite playground like Hudson Yards, the Highline, and Domino Park, etc. etc. Who are we kidding? You'd be delusional to think that, and I say this as an Architect who works in the city. Let's deal with the problems we can currently address within the existing confines. I think we'd be better off than these pipe dreams that only serve the developers and elites.

[bscottb]

Cities like Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Binghamton, each with great architecture, are dying for redevelopment. Filling in rivers to make Manhattan even more congested is nuts.

[carlinthomas]

I like the idea, but it would be better to redirect the money into expanding infrastructure instead. Improve the connections to Staten Island and Hudson County, NJ so they're more accessible so people can live further from Manhattan. Build the pedestrian bridge from Manhattan to Jersey City as a start, then build other pedestrian bridges and gondola's across the Hudson for easier access to Manhattan.

[dlmcc]

I unfortunately can’t see any scenario where NYC would actually build low cost housing. The public sector here can’t get anything done and there’s no money in low cost housing to entice the private sector to bother investing in it

[JesusChrist-qssx]

Building all luxury housing on it would actually alleviate the housing prices. Some older "luxury" buildings would empty out. The problem is that it still wouldn't be enough to fix the problem of spiraling rents

[dcss]

This will not solve the housing shortage problem. Throughout the existing city of New York there are hundreds of thousands of empty properties, belonging to speculators and renters. When the new neighborhood is built, the new homes will certainly end up in the hands of these same guys, who will continue to charge unaffordable prices, making the problem of housing shortages persist.

[deedeeumondak]

Look's like what's happening in Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos is reclaiming and expanding its size through the Eko Atlantic project. It started as a project to protect Lagos islands and Victoria Island in Lagos against flooding and erosion of its coast line from the Atlantic ocean then they went further to reclaim about 25km² of land from the ocean to build a new city on it. The project is still on going and worth talking about.

[jjohnson]

It would take decades for New York State to get this done but the Chinese communist party would have this completed by New Year

[blugaming]

This looks like pure tone-deaf hubris in action. The rising water level is threatening to put a lot of lower Manhattan underwater in 100 years and now they want to extend the insanely expensive burden of keeping a below sea-level city dry by expanding it even further. Just develop the parts of NY and NJ that look like a post-industrial hellscape. If you want to sink huge sums of money into something: just spend it on high density housing in other parts of the city that are further inland, maybe even Fort Lee in NJ since it's above a cliff.

To be honest, it sounds like an idea some coked-up Wall St guy hatched up while looking out of his office. Just improve what you have.

[kszatmary]

If such a southward extension of Manhattan island were developed, would not incoming storm surges simply be forcibly channeled up the Hudson and East Rivers? Wouldn't that additional massive volume of surge waters then flood low lying areas of Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx to a far greater extent than the degree to which they're currently at risk?

[xCODFATHERx]

As a video editor here on youtube, I have to toss my hat to the amount of effort put into this vdeo. I can literally feel the pain of the amount of effort put in this video. Incredible job!

[marquessman]

Your brother could move to Brooklyn, or Queens, and pay significantly less in rent; but that reduces the "Cool" factor of living in Manhattan, so he'll probably continue to pay astronomical rent. Let's face it: he could be paying less for a mortgage somewhere else, and have the benefits of ownership.

[sussy_]

3700 US for 2 people in a 500 square meter apartment is just craaazy 💀💀

[xghpyk]

As someone who lives on the opposite side of the Hudson River in New Jersey, I'm disappointed that nothing was discussed about what a project would do to the nearby surrounding areas outside of Manhattan

[eric]

*I am revising my previous comment after looking at the shape of the proposal - that's not a storm barrier, that's a storm channel straight into Midtown, Brooklyn Queens and the East River Islands.*
You'd need to build barrier islands and wetlands in the Outer Harbor first. They you could put housing on New Manahatta

[richland]

It takes years to complete environmental impact studies for a simple bridge in NYC.

[Rhgeyer]

Creating wealth and financial freedom isn't as tough as many people believe.
Building wealth and remaining financially stable indefinitely is a lot easier with the appropriate information. Participating in financial programs and products is the only true approach to make a high income and remain affluent indefinitely...

[ramenmcminecraft]

Honestly, before you can even go into the longer-term problems of if it would actually help, funding imo as a nyer is the main problem. As you said, if private companies fund it, they would just create a rich paradise and not help actual nyers, while in no way does ny or NYC have the money to pay for it. Besides, it makes a lot more sense to develop underdeveloped land in and around the city. Its a cool concept, but it will remain like as just that for a long time, maybe ven forever.