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Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1
I doubt that. Staten Island has not access to mass transit, has narrow streets, has only one bridge that would shut down during storms, has a ferry that could easily shut down, and no pedestrian/bike access. How can a place develop when it is basically isolated from the outside world of large buildings. Unless Staten Island has a large mass transit construction plan in the future I highly doubt that. The other two places I can see development like this in the next 10-20 years would be Queens, and the Bronx, and that is because they aren't isolated from the world of large buildings.
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It seems you don't know very much about Staten Island. First off, most of our streets are much less narrow than most streets in Manhattan. Also, we don't have a connection to the subway but we have our own rail line that closely resembles the subway and connects directly to the ferry, in addition to several local and commuter bus lines.
The ferry is more reliable than almost every other form of transit in the city, and is the most ridden commuter ferry in the world, not to mention the amount of tourists it attracts yearly. I'd be shocked if it ever shut down.
We have four bridges, but only one of them connects to another part of NYC (the other three connect with New Jersey), and I have never heard of the Verrazano Bridge, or any of them for that matter, shutting down during storms...and I've lived here for almost 20 years and grown up here.
As far as mass transit plans, the city currently has plans for a Select Bus Service line on Hylan Boulevard, a major avenue on the East Shore. In addition, our local politicians are campaigning for fast-ferry service to other parts of the island, to reactivate the abandoned North Shore rail line, and construct a West Shore line, which would effectively link more than 50% of the island to the ferry via rail.
And you'd be surprised how much semi-urban development is already on the table for the North Shore specifically. The Stapleton Home Port redevelopment is planned to bring something like 800 new units of housing to the waterfront and construction is supposed to begin next year. St. George (our downtown district) was recently rezoned to allow for taller buildings to be constructed, and the City Planning Dept is drafting a detailed plan on how to centralize and urbanize the North Shore as well as enhance waterfront access.
In fact, we might see some shorter high-rises sooner than 2065 haha, I mean St. George could serve as an excellent commuter neighborhood like Long Island City or Downtown Brooklyn. It is, after all, just a quick 25-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhatthan.