<div>On April 15, dozens of Roosevelt Island residents packed a town hall to ask New York City officials one simple question: Where is the evidence that justifies demolishing our historic steam plant?
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<div>The city’s answer? Nothing. No structural report, environmental analysis, or feasibility study. No community air monitoring plan. No clear answers on an open toxic spill case. No commitment to pause.
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<div>When pressed, the city’s Department of Buildings First Deputy Commissioner, Yegal Shamash, said out loud what the documents already showed: “I did not say emergency.”
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<div>But the debris trucks keep rolling.
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<div>We’re a group of Roosevelt Island residents working with ArchRIca — the Architectural Community Alliance of Roosevelt Island — and we’re raising funds to take legal action, demand transparency, and make sure our community has a real say before a piece of New York’s history is gone for good. We don’t just want to stop a demolition. We have a vision for what this building could be, and we’re ready to fight for it.
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<div><strong>WHAT’S HAPPENING</strong> The Roosevelt Island Steam Plant — a 1939 steel-frame industrial structure with two smokestacks more than 200 feet tall — is being torn down by City agencies under what they first called an “emergency.” But the city’s own documents tell a different story.
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<div>HPD’s own written Q&amp;A — handed to elected officials shortly before a public meeting — draws a line between the emergency order to secure the building and a separate, non-emergency decision to demolish it. When that document was written, the full demolition permit hadn’t been obtained. Asbestos abatement hadn’t begun. Air monitoring hadn’t started.
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<div>Meanwhile, state environmental records show an open petroleum spill on the site (DEC Spill #2508914). Residents have documented three separate contaminated-runoff events — with photographs — since February.
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<div>Asbestos cleanup began in May, but the discovery of more potentially contaminated areas brought work to an abrupt halt — or so it seemed. Weeks later in June, the project was hit with a $10,000 fine and another stop-work order amid findings that work involving was being performed on the smokestacks without the legally required safety inspectors onsite.
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<div>No one told the community that work had resumed — or that workers had begun dismantling the smokestacks. Residents shouldn’t have to monitor public record databases for urgent safety updates.
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<div><strong>WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND ROOSEVELT ISLAND</strong> This isn’t just about one building. It’s about whether city agencies can skip environmental review, ignore community boards, bypass elected officials, and tear down public assets — all under the cover of an emergency the city now admits wasn’t one.
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<div>Consider the contrast. A few hundred yards away, on this same island, when the Cornell Tech campus was built on the old Goldwater Hospital site — land with its own contamination — that project went through a full public environmental review with a detailed cleanup plan and continuous air monitoring held to strict limits. The steam plant demolition, with more potential contamination and two 200-foot chimneys full of residue, has had none of that. Same island. Two completely different standards.
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<div>The same agencies tearing this building down publicly champion preservation, reuse, and cutting carbon everywhere else in the city. Their own design and sustainability guidelines say the greenest building is the one that already exists. That’s the opposite of what’s happening here. If this can happen on Roosevelt Island — with no review, no transparency, and no accountability — it can happen anywhere.
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<div><strong>THE COMMUNITY RESPONSE HAS BEEN EXTRAORDINARY</strong> Look at what Roosevelt Island residents have built in just a few months, with almost no resources:
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<li>More than 2,000 petition signatures and counting.
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<li>Community Board 8 voted unanimously to pause the demolition on February 18.
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<li>A Community Advisory Group was formed at the request of four elected officials, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Council Speaker Jule Menin, Senator Liz Krueger, and Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright. The group meets monthly to discuss updates on the project.
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<li>Borough President Hoylman-Sigal publicly vouched for independent air monitoring and the release of the structural report.
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<li>City news coverage — including WNYC/Gothamist, the New York Post, and amNewYork — plus 18 articles in the Roosevelt Islander spanning 14 years of broken promises.
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<div>Every one of these accomplishments was done by volunteers. The next phase takes resources.
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<div><strong>HOW YOUR DONATION WILL BE USED: </strong>We’re past the petition phase. We are preparing to challenge the City’s actions through legal channels. This is the single largest cost and the most urgent need. Your donations will support:
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<li><strong>Legal assistance and filing fees</strong>
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<li><strong>Independent experts </strong>to walk the site and offer fair and impartial assessments for the site’s future.
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<div>(No funds will be used for personal income. If any funds remain after the campaign, they’ll be donated to ArchRIca for ongoing community advocacy on Roosevelt Island.)
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<div><strong>THIS IS URGENT — SMOKESTACK DEMOLITION COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME:</strong> Asbestos abatement is underway. The City claims there is no asbestos in the smokestacks, suggesting workers could bring them down at any moment. This is alarming because:
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<li><strong>People are in the fall zone: </strong>The western smokestack is across the street from a daycare within a residential tower. It looms over an active tennis bubble. A falling brick hits the ground at roughly 85 miles per hour — enough to puncture the bubble and trap those inside.
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<li><strong>Proximity risks:</strong> The Roosevelt Island tram runs about 50 feet away, and the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian path is only 40 feet away.
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<li><strong>Toxic legacy:</strong> The smokestacks are coated in decades of hardened #6 fuel oil residue. Taking them down risks breaking this residue into fine dust and carrying it across the island over playgrounds, schools, and homes.
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<div><strong>WHAT THIS COULD BECOME</strong> The city says it has no use for this building. We do. The steam plant could hold affordable and mixed-income homes and much-needed community and cultural space. The smokestacks could be assets — imagine a glass elevator carrying visitors 200 feet up for unmatched views, or a bicycle-and-pedestrian elevator connecting to the Queensboro Bridge.
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<div>Cities like London (Battersea Power Station/Tate Modern), Barcelona (Tres Xemeneies), and Brooklyn (Domino Sugar) have proven that adaptive reuse creates world-class landmarks. An independent specialist found these stacks can be repaired for about $700,000 — almost identical to the city’s $750,000 demolition cost.
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<div>We deserve a real process that respects our voice and takes adaptive reuse seriously. But only if the building is still standing.
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<div class="youtube-replace">Every dollar helps us slow this down, demand answers, and hold New York City accountable. Please give what you can, and share this page.
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The City Says It Has No Use for This Building. We Do.

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The City Says It Has No Use for This Building. We Do.

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