Tear Down FDR South of Brooklyn Bridge, Urges Borough Pres. Levine

Manhattan Borough president Mark Levine is urging that the city tear down the southern portion of the FDR below the Brooklyn Bridge.

”We have a chance to do something spectacular on the East side as well in lower Manhattan, around the seaport if we tear down the FDR Drive south of the Brooklyn Bridge” Levine said in delivering a wide ranging state of the borough address at Hunter College on March 3.

“Yes you heard that right,” he said. “The extension that Robert Moses built south of the bridge in the 1930s, is the least heavily used part of the FDR and it has created a noisy uglier barrier between the people of lower Manhattan and their waterfront,” he said.

“It’s also nearing the end of its useful life. So now is the time to tear down the FDR south of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Levine calls the FDR viaduct, “a relic from the Robert Moses era” which he says “no longer embodies our city’s values and vision for the future. By integrating modern transit designs, public spaces, and enhanced waterfront access, we have an unparalleled opportunity to change the face of Lower Manhattan.”

The call seems to come at a particularly fraught time during the congestion pricing debate. Levine is a supporter of the controversial plan because he said the MTA needs an additional source of financing to undertake all the overhauls it needs to make to modernize.

As it stands now, cars along the FDR, as well as the West Side Highway, will not get charged the proposed $15 toll for vehicles entering the zone during the peak hours unless they depart from the highway.

“In it’s place, let’s build a grand green multi-use park,” Levine said. And he says he is not alone in supporting the move to raze the FDR viaduct. The proposal has been met with broad approval from various elected officials, civic organizations and community leaders, including Senator Brian Kavanagh (D-NY), Council Member Chris Marte (D-NY), Assembly member Grace Lee (D-NY), Transportation Alternatives, the Seaport Museum, Gotham Park, Financial District Neighborhood Association and the Regional Plan Association.

If it comes to pass, he’d be reversing the work of one his predecessors. It was the then-Manhattan borough president Julius Miller who first proposed a 3.5 mile shorefront parkway along the East River from South Street to 54th Street in 1929. It fell to master builder Robert Moses to design the first sections which opened in the 1930s.

Today, the lower portion of the FDR Drive that Levine wants to tear down is a three lane highway that starts at the intersection of South and Water Streets in the Financial District and continues along an elevated viaduct toward Exit 2 at the Brooklyn Bridge and beyond.