Did You Hear What They Want To Do With Blackwell’s Island?

Department of Corrections officials announced that they identified a site for a new jail in the Bronx. They just don’t want to say where:

A South Bronx industrial lot is to become the site for the city’s new $375 million jail, officials said yesterday.

John Antonelli, a deputy commissioner of the Department of Correction, told the City Council that the facility would have space for 2,000 inmates and be just two miles away from the courthouse.

“We have identified a site in the Oak Point section that is in reasonable proximity to the courts, appropriately zoned and large enough to accommodate a 2,000-bed facility,” Antonelli testified before the council’s Fire & Criminal Justice Committee.

The proposed site is in an area with garbage dumps, a sewage-treatment facility and power plants.

The site’s prior owners were investigated for possible ties to reputed crime boss John Gotti and declared bankruptcy, leaving behind $60 million in unpaid taxes.

“I would anticipate opposition to this, but I think that your agency is going to have to come forth with a more detailed plan than what we have today,” warned Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx).

Where, you say, is the “Oak Point” section of the Bronx? It’s not in the Encyclopedia of New York City? Neither Lloyd Ultan nor John McNamara (see here) has written the definitive history of the neighborhood? Maybe that’s because Corrections officials are really talking about Hunts Point, but then we would have known where they were talking about . . .

Next thing you know, they’ll be putting a jail in the Winfield section of Queens, and over in Vandewater’s Heights in Manhattan, one within walking distance of Punkiesberg (uh, scratch that example!), or maybe one in Kreischerville.

For extra credit.