If Another Superstorm Hits, This Dirt Barricade Will Protect NYC

Everyone — but especially New Yorkers — remember Superstorm Sandy’s seemingly endless destruction back in 2012. Costing the region billions of dollars, it was an example of what nature could do to our infrastructure and our society.
Preventing damage like what occurred is crucial — and a big part of what needs to be done to prepare for the future. That’s what the winning project of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design contest aims to do. And there’s no better way to do it than to also make some beautiful public space in the process.
The Bridging Berm is a new project on Manhattan’s lower east side. While there’s no timeline for completion, once it is finished, it will shelter 150,000 residents and a power sub-station from the effects of storms and rising sea levels.
The 2.19 miles along the East River that the Bridging Berm will occupy is currently a public park, though it has few entrances and is very isolated from the city. The Bridging Berm will change that — improving both access and the public space itself. Even more importantly, it will raise the riverbank to nine feet above its current level. Had this been around during Sandy, there still would have been four feet to spare.
Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox Architecture tells Next City that “the strength of the proposal is in the way they have addressed both the vertical and the horizontal through a series of programmed berms and bridges that mediate the boundary between the waterfront and the edge of the city — defining a place for community gathering and a way to inhabit the in-between.”
And a defining place it will be, with bike paths along the water, boating and fishing areas, as well as athletic fields. Clearly, there will something for everybody.
This multipurpose space is just one of three components to the larger “BIG U” proposal in the Rebuild By Design contest; roll-down storm gates on the FDR bridge as well as a berm-and-educational facility in lower Manhattan are also part of the plan.
The Bridging Berm could have the largest impact, though. With such a dense population and the power station in the area, not to mention the improved public space, it is an exceptional urban planning vision.
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Civic Crowdfunding: The Future of Paying for Community Projects

When we think of fundraising, most of us probably think of individuals and a private organization, but what about residents and their local government?
Well, Kickstarter-esque campaigns are getting a little kick themselves with the introduction of civic crowdfunding, a joint venture between citizens and the local government to benefit their town or city. Sites like Citizinvestor, Neighbor.ly and IOBY are providing a platform for governments and citizens to suggest community projects for the town and then raise the money to fund it.
The process is simple. Like ordinary crowdfunding, an idea is posted to one of the sites by either the government or an individual. People can then donate funds to the project online, assisting the government with the cost.
MIT’s Center for Civic Media’s Rodrigo Davies has been studying the growth and trends of civic crowdfunding over the past four years and has recently released his report, which focused on seven geographical areas: four in the U.S. and one each in the U.K., Spain and Brazil. Through his research, Davies discovered trends as well as questions that will need to be resolved as civic crowdfunding continues to evolve.
So far, Davies found that civic crowdfunding has been operating on a small scale, but nonetheless, it has been executed with great success. He reports that between 2010 and March 2014 there were 1,224 civic campaigns with a total of $10.74 million raised averaging about $6,357 per project. The greatest success though is that on Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding website, 81 percent of projects labeled “civic” were fully funded.
Generally, the most common projects are gardens and parks because, Davies reports, they are usually volunteer-based, fast to build, and uncontroversial. And while civic crowdfunding has been limited to a few big cities such as New York and San Francisco, there’s no reason why they cannot spread to small towns and other cities.
The big question, though, is the role of governments in this endeavor. Davies points out that local leadership has three options: It can use the familiar platforms to promote projects, it can organize and execute its own campaigns, or (and this is Davies’s pick) it can adopt a “facilitator” role, in which it will help with financing but will indirectly be responsible. Ultimately, it’s about the government finding a balance between beings supportive and active all the while not overstepping its boundaries.
The bottom line? Citizens will benefit from these projects, even if it takes some time to figure out exactly how civic crowdfunding works best.
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