The multi-year debate over the future of Governor's Island may finally be reaching its conclusion with an innovative plan set out by Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to transfer branches of The City University of New York to the former Coast Guard base.
The plan would grant the many of the newly vacant classrooms to the overcrowded New York City public school system, which is desperately trying to reduce class size.
In early April, President George Bush made good on a promise first advanced in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton to return the island to New York. New York was given until 2002 to decide how to develop Governor's Island, a process that was held up by both disagreement between Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over its proposed use as well as Congressional objection to selling the island to the state far below fair market value, instead of sale to the highest bidder.
Clinton had offered to sell the island, which has remained in federal control for 200 years and whose forts once protected the harbor, back to the city for one dollar. Although Bush has not echoed this suggestion, his administration has promised to only charge a nominal amount.
In late 1999, Columbia University was engaged in a dialogue about development plans for Governor's Island, which lies half a mile off the southern tip of Manhattan, a lengthy distance from Morningside Heights. Columbia and New York University were considering a joint venture of classroom and conference space, graduate housing and athletic fields. The Guggenheim was also considering taking a stake in the project.
Columbia, however, reduced its role after determining that the cost of maintaining facilities on Governor's Island would be too high. There was also a general consensus among the school's divisions that none of them wished to relocate its programs downtown.
In February of 2000, Executive Vice President for Administration Emily Lloyd said the University was going to have access to the proposed conference space that would presumably have been developed by NYU, at discounted rates.
According to Lauren Marshall, a public affairs officer for the University, it is too early to tell what Columbia's involvement might be with regard to conference space or any other uses in the CUNY plan for Governor's Island.
"The University has not given up on trying to address its need for additional classroom and office space with something closer to campus," Marshall said.
CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein told The New York Times on April 25, that he envisioned building a graduate-level science park on Governor's Island, with a focus on biotechnology and computational science. Goldstein said he would like to partner with private institutions such as Columbia, NYU or Rockefeller University on this venture.
According to an April 2 press release, NYU, which had expressed interest in Governor's Island up until Spring 2001, does not expect to be part of the CUNY plan. The school dearly wanted space on Governor's Island for athletic fields and has since leased space at a state park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
"If we had been asked, or were we to be asked in the future, there might be a role for the University in some sort of partnership," said John Beckman, NYU spokesman, in the press release.
It is estimated that annual operations on the island will cost anywhere from $20 to $30 million. The May 1 issue of The New York Times reported on a plan to build a 2000-foot-tall broadcasting tower modeled on the Space Needle in Seattle and complete with a restaurant and observation deck. The Manhattan architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox have drafted sketches of the proposed tower. Broadcasting companies say that they need new antennae to replace the ones lost when the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11.
CUNY officials have expressed interest in the plan that they believe will not only restore television service to New Yorkers, but will help pay for the cost of maintenance of the island and could aid in the creation of a journalism or broadcasting school on the island.
Edward Skyler, Bloomberg's press secretary, told the Times that the tower was inconsistent with the mayor's plans for the island. Nevertheless, CUNY officials appear to be open to the idea, according to vice chancellor and spokesperson Jay Hershenson, as does Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.
"The bottom line is that if we go with the proposal for an educational institution, as the governor and mayor have suggested, we have to have some kind of revenue to pay for it and this could be it," Fields told the Times.
Fields does not want to risk ceding the tower--and the jobs and tourism revenue it will bring--to neighboring New Jersey's Liberty State Park, an alternative site.
The coming weeks will bring the formation of a 15-to-20 person steering committee composed of city and state representatives as well as members of the CUNY community--students, faculty, and members of the board of trustees. Bloomberg has already appointed Joshua Sirefman, chief operating officer of the Economic Development Corporation. Goldstein's appointments are expected soon.
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