The roughly one-story-tall sign, its message written in white paint on a black tarp, urged the mayor from the corner of Centre and Walker Streets to bring the nearby construction of a 16-story jail for up to 1,000 inmates to a halt. The neighborhood has fought the $3.8 billion plan for the jail, one of four being constructed across the city to help replace Rikers Island.
“ZOHRAN!
STOP THE JAIL
PAUSE THE CONSTRUCTION
CHANGE THE DEADLINES
GET CREATIVE FOR CHINATOWN”
Construction of the Chinatown jail — rising on the former site of “The Tombs” on White Street — is expected to be completed by 2032, five years after the mandated closure of Rikers Island in 2027. The city is not expected to meet the closure deadline, which had been established in a 2019 law enacted by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council, largely because the Chinatown jail and three other “community-based” facilities in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens have yet to be completed.
Earlier this year, Mamdani admitted that it was “practically impossible,” at this point, for the city to meet its own 2027 closure mandate.
Locals have vehemently opposed the jail, arguing that construction could damage nearby buildings and accusing the city of treating the marginalized community as a dumping ground.
The banner brought the contentious project back into the spotlight Thursday, with residents once again debating whether the jail belongs in the neighborhood.
“Why do they have to build the jail in such a condensed area, a special area like Chinatown? Chinese people come and live here; they focus on a minority group. It feels kind of insulting,” local resident Lioy Lee told amNewYork.
Lee said she believes it may already be too late to stop the project.
“I think it’s too late already. Look at the construction; it’s been going on for a long time now. It’s water under the bridge,” she said.
Chinatown jail ‘sticks out like a sore thumb,’ local says
Another Chinatown resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said the jail will be an eyesore for the neighborhood.
“This sticks out like a sore thumb and affects the senior citizens who occupy the building that I live in and have been in the neighborhood for many years,” the resident said. “He (Mayor Mamdani) does seem to respond well to social media, but I don’t know if the banner will do anything.”
Wellington Chen of the Chinatown Business Improvement District said demonstrations over the site of the proposed jail are nothing new. Similar protests erupted in the 1980s when the city considered expanding the jail complex there.
“It is the same ask, the same request from 40 years ago, or more, in 1983,” Chen said. “I just think that ultimately there have to be other alternate sites as well.”
Chen said the debate goes beyond the jail itself, raising broader questions about how the city should address incarceration, programming and the needs of Chinatown.
“Even if this jail is built, the amount of population that’s needed, the type of programming and that type of thing — there’s a long way to go between now and if this jail gets built,” he said.
“The overwhelming majority of the community are opposed to the jail, and then the question is, then what, right? And so the city is saying, what do we do? And so that’s the difference between the local issue versus a greater city issue. That’s the dilemma.”
Local Council Member Christopher Marte, a longstanding critic of the megajail, told amNewYork that he continues to advocate for an alternative plan.
“We continue to organize and advocate for the community-supported alternative plan that would move the jail to MCC and build hundreds of affordable homes in the heart of Chinatown instead of the world’s tallest jail,” Marte said. “Our community deserves investment that helps people stay in their neighborhood, and we will keep fighting for a plan that reflects their needs.”
amNewYork reached out to City Hall for comment. A spokesperson stated that the administration is focusing on the closure of Rikers Island, which has seen mounting deaths of detainees over the years.
“Our administration is committed to fulfilling our legal and moral obligation to close Rikers Island and transition to a safer, more humane borough-based jail system as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
