Thursday, December 14, 2006

Translocating the Green Lady

More on the 2030 population prediction is printed in today's New York Post.

Number of residents expected to live in each borough by the year 2030:

Brooklyn - 2.72 million
Queens - 2.57 million
Manhattan - 1.83 million
Bronx - 1.46 million
Staten Island - 552,000

This is only counting people living in legal units. The city doesn't know how many illegal units we have and quite frankly, they don't care. It's clear that Queens and our sister borough, Brooklyn, are earmarked to be the areas reserved for those who can no longer fit in or afford Manhattan. We are sure to see a surge in historic districts designated in Manhattan so that the neighborhoods of the wealthy are spared while the neighborhoods of the working class in outer boroughs are inundated with barracks.

In the 1880's, Emma Lazarus penned the poem, "The New Colossus," which appears on the Statue of Libery's pedestal, welcoming the throngs of immigrants from overseas to the City of New York. Perhaps the Statue should be moved to Hunter's Point...and face Manhattan, for the poem is now more applicable to people migrating across the river:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, if they built a 12 story building under it the statue would make money for the government.

Those Views!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mayor, it is an honor to have you as a visitor to a website about Queens. We realized you were serious when you said that the city needs to come up with creative ideas for placement of housing, but we didn't think you were that ingenious. I can one-up you, though. Why not close the statue off completely and make it reachable only via private boat? Think of how many luxury condos you could build inside her shell!