On July 15, the City held its second Community Advisory Group meeting on the Steam Plant demolition. We asked one question: who is qualified to bring down these smokestacks in the middle of a residential neighborhood? Here’s what officials said, on the record.
They’ve never done this before. HPD admitted this is “our first” chimney stack. Asked twice whether any engineer or contractor on the job has chimney experience, its demolition director said “I’d have to get back to you” — and never did.
And it’s one of the most dangerous, most specialized kinds of demolition there is. A decades-old, oil-soaked masonry chimney holds a lifetime of soot, heavy metals, and carcinogens — and can collapse if taken down wrong. The law requires a written engineering survey, exclusion zones, and strict dust control before anyone touches it.
No engineer would vouch for the plan. The method: hand-demolish the stack from the top and drop the debris down the inside — feet from where people live. A resident asked HPD and DOB to explain why that’s safe. No one did.
They can’t even agree it’s an emergency. In writing, HPD’s own Q&A calls only the completed order to seal the building an “emergency” — not the demolition. DOB’s First Deputy Commissioner said flatly, “I did not say emergency.” Yet at the meeting, an HPD official again called it “an emergency demolition.” It can’t be both — not on a job ordered in 2024, with the abatement permit running into 2027, on a stack a specialist repaired three years ago.
They promised this wouldn’t happen — then did it anyway. At the first CAG meeting, HPD told us there’d be no chimney work before this meeting. Days later, the base of a stack was cut open — no notice, no site safety manager — and DOB shut it down with a Class 1 “immediately hazardous” violation. The City’s defense? It was only “prep work,” not demolition — the word that lets them skip the notice, the safety manager, and the monitoring.
Who authorized opening a smokestack before the safety plan was shared with the community? Where was the mandatory site safety manager during the “prep work”? Are we safer now than before the “prep work”? Is this the right project “to learn on the job”?
The safeguards are worse. HPD says community air monitoring is “not required,” is voluntary, and won’t start for months. Asked about lead paint, an official said, “I don’t believe lead paint will go airborne.” Public safety can’t rest on what an official believes — it rests on testing, monitoring, and enforced protections. This same job has already drawn three stop-work orders — from DEC, DEP, and DOB — and the City has refused independent testing and won’t share its safety and monitoring plans with the community. On top of that, the contractor has already been cited by OSHA for six serious violations of the federal lead-safety standard in the past.
We’ve seen where this leads. In 2020, Chicago signed off on demolishing a coal-plant smokestack. The dust cloud swallowed a neighborhood; the city’s Inspector General found “negligence and incompetence”; a court approved a $12.25 million settlement for residents. Roosevelt Island is more exposed — a dirtier fuel, homes, a school, and a day nursery within a stone’s throw, an open oil spill on site, and an asbestos stop-work order already on the books.
We are not against building here — we’re against wasting what’s already built. This 1939 building can be affordable housing and community space — decided with this community, not announced to it.
We are against sidestepping the community’s voice while skipping environmental and health safety measures.
Don’t take our word for it — RIOC posted the full July 15 meeting on its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3R8iFqNMlA
Watch what got asked, and what didn’t. Then sign, share, and email RIdemolition@hpd.nyc.gov , info@rioc.ny.gov and info@archrica.org
Support the fundraiser: gofund.me/1e10ac8d3.
Photo Credit – Steam Plant smokestack base, July 16, 2026, photo by a resident. DOB’s own order to the contractor: “Stop All Demo Operation, only allowed to brace all existing holds on tower.” This is the base of that smokestack today. Is this 2 x4 the bracing that’s supposed to keep us safe?
ArchRI
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