Manhattan’s Super-Jail Is Already Swallowing Chinatown

Grub Street, March 8, 2023: Manhattan’s Super-Jail Is Already Swallowing Chinatown

“‘That was my store over there,’ Chi Vy Ngo says, pointing to a gutted storefront at 94 Baxter Street. His father, Bo, and his mother, Ky, first opened their restaurant, Bo Ky, in 1986, around the corner on Bayard Street. Ngo had managed it, but after his parents’ deaths and a subsequent sibling dispute, he struck out on his own. He found this space next to the Manhattan Detention Complex, better known as the Tombs, which he liked: right off Canal and a manageable size at 50 seats. He signed a ten-year lease with the city and began renovating in May of 2019. Right away, the restaurant was a hit, beloved by regulars who knew his cooking from the first location and new customers alike. Then came the pandemic, but the death knell arrived soon after when the city expedited construction of the megajail there. ‘We were open less than a year and they wanted us to move out,’ Ngo says. ‘I had no choice.’

“Bo Ky was one of three restaurants — including Nha Trang Center and Jaya 888 — that were direct casualties of Mayor de Blasio’s $8.3 billion plan to close down Rikers in favor of expanding jails across four of the five boroughs (everywhere except Staten Island). For Manhattan, that means expanding the Tombs, which were once shut down because of inhumane conditions only to be expanded nine years later to vigorous community protest. The current proposal would demolish the two existing towers and erect in their place what could become the world’s tallest jail. History repeats itself, and neighborhood opposition has been wide, vocal, and constant. The price tag continues to rise (current estimates have gone up ‘astronomically,’ according to Mayor Eric Adams, to $10 billion) and the timeline promises for this to go on until 2027 at the earliest. While Adams yelled ‘no new jail’ as a mayoral candidate, demolition of the current jails began late last year.”

Additional reading:

Hyperallergic, January 22, 2023: Empty Chinatown Storefront Becomes a Community Tribute

Democracy Now!, December 5, 2022: The Jailscraper vs. Chinatown: NYC Residents Fight Construction of World’s Tallest Jail

The Village Sun, April 12, 2022: Protesters decry Chinatown ‘megajail’ as Adams goes all in on disruptive project he vowed to oppose