Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

Rikers Island could become a key cog for New York’s LaGuardia Airport. At least that’s one vision for the island that's included in a city-sponsored proposal on what to with the notorious island that sits next to the airport.

The report – from the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform – follows last week’s news that New York City will shut down its campus of prisons at Rikers Island.

“New York City has always been better than Rikers Island,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week in announcing the decision. “I am proud to chart a course for our city that lives up to this reality.”

So, once that happens, what should New York do with the land at Rikers Island?

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“The Island offers an unusual opportunity in a dense, highly-populated City: more than 400 acres to redevelop,” the commission says in its 148-page report, which looks primarily at two proposals for the land.

One calls for Rikers Island to be incorporated into the footprint of nearby LaGuardia, permitting a new runway and additional terminal space.

“The Island is uniquely positioned to accommodate an expanded LaGuardia Airport that would reduce delays and could serve as many as 12 million more passengers annually,” the report says.

Incorporating Rikers into LaGuardia could expand flight capacity by 40%, according to calculations in the report.

“Being next door to LaGuardia presents a rare opportunity to improve operations at one of the nation’s most challenged airports and to meet the region’s need for additional flight capacity,” the report says, adding “the same proximity dampens the potential value of other uses.”

The commission’s proposal also comes as an $8 billion (or more) overhaul of LaGuardia is already underway. While it’s not clear how easily a Rikers Island proposal could be incorporated into the existing effort, the idea received a favorable reaction from the Global Gateway Alliance that advocates for improving the New York City-area’s airports.

“For decades, LaGuardia Airport has led the nation in delays, with traffic jams in the sky and on the ground,” Global Gateway Alliance Chairman Joe Sitt says in a statement. “But the proposal to knock down Rikers, and extend LaGuardia’s runways to the island, would be a big piece of the puzzle to change all that. By replacing 1960s radar with ‘NextGen’ GPS technology, and making more room on the ground for incoming and outgoing flights, passengers will finally be able to have on-time flights in New York. That is a vision worth working for."

The 27-member commission that issued the report was put together at the request of New York’s City Council. However, WPIX TV of New York adds “it's still unclear how much the mayor will rely on the recommendations in the report.”

The other recommendation in the report? amNewYork says that’s a green proposal, writing “that option would bring wastewater treatment and composting facilities, a large-scale energy-from-waste facility, a 115-acre solar field, a power storage facility, urban agriculture, a research campus and a public greenway.”

Stay tuned …

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