A Community Board Wish List

By Catherine McVay Hughes, Community Board 1 Chair

As 2013 ends, we reflect on how hard work, persistence and working together has accomplished so much, especially with recovery after Superstorm Sandy and reaching the homestretch of the completion of the World Trade Center site. However, we must keep the momentum going. Community Board 1 has an ambitious to-do-list for 2014 and looks forward to working with everyone to:

1. Ensure that Community Board 1 is an active partner in the planning process for all future development proposals in the district

2. Locate a site for the new K-8 School in CB1 and work to secure additional school seats

3. Increase open and active recreational space by completing the Battery Green and bikeway, two ball fields and 30 acres of park and hills at Governor's Island

4. Finalize plans to complete Hudson River Park's Pier 26

5. Minimize construction impacts from more than 90 public and private large construction projects in CB1 in light of the closing of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, which sunsets on 12/31/13 and has been the central agency coordinating all construction projects

6. Ensure that neighborhood character and quality are preserved. For example, by finding a more appropriate location for the Department of Probations office currently being relocated from the sale of 346 Broadway to 66 John Street

7. Guarantee that any proposed development for the South Street Seaport maintains its historic character, preserves the South Street Seaport Museum and vessels, and market is in context with the existing community

8. Harden infrastructure and plans to protect vulnerable populations to withstand extreme weather events

9. Open the National September 11th Memorial Museum and remove the fence surrounding it

10. Assure that that the WTC Campus Security Plan does not negatively affect the public realm

We look forward to your participation in keeping downtown a premiere place to live, to work, to visit and to play.