Lower Manhattan just landed another $176 million in federal funds for flood protection. This round of funding would go for proposed development from Battery Park City on the west to Montgomery Street on the east, linking up with the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project on the East River from Montgomery to 23rd Street.

Last year, the de Blasio administration pledged $100 million for downtown protection, and other city and state pledges of up to $15 million had already been made, bringing the funding for this second phase of flood barriers close to $300 million.

$335 million in federal funds is already allocated for the ESCRP. Preliminary designs for berms and flood walls have received public vetting, and the official scoping project is now underway that will lead to an official environmental review.

It’s clear the devastation of Sandy in 2012 woke up New Yorkers to the threat rising sea levels will have on the city. In the next decade, these large environmental projects will completely change our city’s relationship to the waterfront. East River Coop will have a front row seat to this transformation.