Thursday, June 24, 2010

Governors Island Transfer Official By Eliot Brown - The New York Observer

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A bit more than two months after the Bloomberg administration and the state agreed to transfer Governors Island to the control of the city, the move is official.

Today the board that oversees the island, which was jointly owned by the state and city, voted to transfer it, a final step, with another coming tomorrow when the board of the Empire State Development Corporation is expected to rubber stamp the move.

Thus ends another chapter of the (apparently) failed experiment of joint city/state development of new parkland. While one of these structures—Hudson River Park—is still intact, without tremendous catastrophe (it's mostly built-out, but lacks a long-term funding source, or any realistic idea of how to get one), there seems to be a consensus that things are easier with one body in control (Brooklyn Bridge Park is also being transferred to the city).

For anyone actually wanting to watch, the video of today's board meeting for Governors Island is here.