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A few years ago, all eyes were on Governors Island as the area underwent updates to rapidly became a destination of its own right. Today, New Yorkers flock to the 172-acre island to spend the day at the European luxury spa QC NY, to go glamping and to visit beach club Gitano Island, among plenty of other things to do. Can Staten Island now follow suit?
Officials hope for that to be the case, as demonstrated by recent announcements about potential projects affecting the borough, including a $400 million facelift that would completely revamp the waterfront, bringing along with it a ton of new business opportunities and jobs, housing units and much more.
Even more specifically, the four-year plan would give birth to a 2-mile-long waterfront park spanning from the Bayonne Bridge to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge while also including the redevelopment of Pier 1 (closed since 2017) as a space with public waterfront access, the reactivation of the terminal on Bank Street (that’s where that famous New York Wheel was planning to go) and the restoration of the St. George Esplanade.
“When people come down here and see how beautiful the waterfront is, builders are going to realize that people are coming here and they’re going to build,” Mayor Eric Adams, a major proponent of the plans, said during an official press conference last week. “For so long, Staten Island has been denied and ignored and they had the title of the forgotten borough. I have made it clear on all my visits here: You are not forgotten in this administration.”
Forgotten or not, the area is in need of an update. Do, however, consider this our plea to leave the Enoteca Maria, the famous restaurant run by a roster of international grandmothers, untouched.
If all goes according to the schedule laid out in the “Staten Island North Shore Action Plan: Building a Vibrant, Mixed-Use Waterfront Community,” construction will kick off on the walkway this fall and the dozen smaller projects that are part of the proposal will be completed by 2027.
It's time for Staten Island to get the attention that any New York borough deserves.