Tuesday 4 October 2022 09:00 PM Adams moves planned migrant camp to Randalls Island over flooding - as FIVE ... trends now
Less than two weeks after setting up massive tents in a parking lot near Orchard Beach in the Bronx, New York City Mayor Eric Adams' 'tent city' for migrants is being moved to Randalls Island.
Late Monday evening, Adams announced that the complex, meant to give temporary housing to migrants, would move due to flooding concerns.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson had previously said of tent site that it was 'not the ideal location' and was prone to flooding, according to the Daily News.
Adams also said Monday that the new location would provide better access to public transportation, another concern brought up by Gibson in September.
This is the site where the new 'tent city' for migrants proposed by Mayor Eric Adams will be set up on Randalls Island
Birds were seen Tuesday submerged in the flooding water at the Orchard Beach parking lot where NYC Mayor Eric Adams planned to create a 'tent city' for migrants
Set up just days ago, crews were seen taking down the large tents in a parking lot near Orchard Beach
'This new location is less prone to flooding, is closer to public transportation, and will provide temporary respite to 500 asylum seekers,' Adams said in a statement.
'Moving to Randalls Island will be more cost efficient than staying at Orchard Beach and installing the needed flood-mitigation measures to make the site fully viable,' said mayoral representative Fabien Levy.
Over the weekend, the Orchard Beach location began flooding due to heavy rain.
Over the weekend, the Orchard Beach location began flooding due to heavy rain.
That location was slated to accommodate as many as 1,000 migrants at a time.
The tents will now move nearly 12 miles closer to Manhattan.
Randalls Island is located between Manhattan, Astoria, and the Bronx and is mostly home to a sewage treatment plant and recreational fields.
It's a quick turnaround as workers were seen on Monday continuing to set up the tents in the rain.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams recently announced the planned tent accommodations, which are expected to take two weeks to complete, as a way for the city manage needing to provide some sort of shelter to the large number of migrants being bused north by Republicans
The new location will be a scaled down version of the original plan for Orchard Beach, according to officials familiar with the site.
'This has the ability to scale if needed, but we're going to start out with 500,' Levy told the Daily News.
Previous estimates placed the bigger Orchard Beach site's cost at around $150 million, but no word has been provided on how that total will change due to the move.
3,000 new migrants have arrived in the last week, according to the mayor's office.
The total now stands at just over 16,000.
Democratic Councilwoman for Randalls Island, Diana Ayala, told the Daily News that she has concerns about this location, as well.
'I'd like to go out to see the area prior to taking a position, but I do have concerns,' said Ayala, noting that there could be flooding in this location, too.
An aerial photo taken with a drone shows workers assemble emergency tents to house some of the many migrants arriving to the city in the parking lot of Orchard Beach, with the skyline of Manhattan in the background
New York City shelters are currently at capacity leaving little room for the migrant community that continues to arrive in the city weekly
'This is not an everyday homelessness crisis, but a humanitarian crisis that requires a different approach,' Mayor Adams said in a statement a few weeks ago.
Once completed, officials say the tents will be heated and cots will be lined up in rows.
Even before the building began, however, immigration advocates have said
