Building the “NEW” New York

| October 30, 2009

NEW YORK City, A vertical city famous as a Major Financial center of the world, Fashion district is actually a Forest full of Concrete trees with different mass, color, texture. A Forest surrounded by water almost all sides, was a major port once upon a time is now massive island.
Global cities- where banks, corporate headquarters and other command functions and high level producer-service firms such as law firms and advertising agencies oriented to world markets are concentrated- have emerged as strategic sites in world economy. Apparently decisions made in such cities will have global effects. As of the results, such cities have become more, not less dense over the time along with their incredible growth of wealth & power. New York is a great example of such cities at the center of the world economy, where economic globalization had contributed to a new geography of centrality and marginality. This new geography assumes many forms and operates in many terrains, from the distribution of telecommunications facilities to the structure of the economy and of employment. New York has become the site of immense concentration of economic power, where highly educated people see their incomes rise to unusually high levels, while low or medium skilled workers see theirs sink. Financial services produce super-profits while industrial services barely survive. One particular concern here is to understand how new forms of inequality actually are constituted into new social forms. We see an interesting correspondence between great concentrations of corporate power and large concentrations of ‘others’, such as Chinatown, little Italy, etc. It invites us to see that globalization is not only constituted in terms of capital and the new international corporate culture (international finance, telecommunications, information flows) but also in terms of people and non-corporate cultures. The larger proportion of women to men, greater percentage of youth and middle aged, higher ratio of foreign born, the increased heterogeneity of occupation increase with the growth of the city and profoundly alter its social structure.

We are a city of 8 million people, give or take a few hundred thousand. But we are building a city for 9 million. Literally. Right now. That will be New York City’s total population just a couple of decades hence, and politicians, bureaucrats, developers, architects, and engineers are, as you read these words, figuring out how to fit another million people onto the collection of islands and peninsulas we call home. We can’t just bulldoze and slap up some towers—we’ve learned some lessons from the sixties—and it isn’t just half a million new homes that we need. Those million need offices, factories, labs to work in. They need subways, buses (and ferries and trams) to commute in. They need places to park and places to play, plus the power to light their homes. All in a city that can’t sprawl.

This is Tomorrow land—a new city, a city larger than San Francisco, built on top of the city we know. In ten years, New York City will be transformed in ways we can only guess at. But in the pages that follow, you will explore our best guess, based on the plans, the dreams, the cornerstones, and the rising steel in nine city neighborhoods, spread over all five boroughs. In 2016, we won’t be able to be so parochial anymore—one Times Square isn’t going to be enough to fulfill the entertainment needs of that bigger, younger, more diverse population, and you’ll be talking about the lights on 125th Street. Fresh Kills will be three times the size of Central Park. If you imagine the city as a play—every neighborhood has a role—a lot of understudies are finally going to be called onstage.

New challenges emerge from today’s trends – A region-wide consensus for growth. NYC population will grow to over 9 million. The larger proportion of women to men, greater percentage of youth and middle aged, higher ratio of foreign born, the increased heterogeneity of occupation will increase with the growth of the city and profoundly alter its social structure. As of current value, 27 percent of New York’s more than 8 million residents are below the age of 19, and that 10 percent of that subset are between the ages of 12 and 19. While these youths “make intensive use of the public spaces, businesses, and parks and playgrounds in their own neighborhoods and in neighborhoods where they attend school plays significant role in developing their own as well as city’s future. To compete and remain relevant in the 21st century with other major cities around the world is its biggest challenge. Updating its antiquated infrastructure, continuing to attract talented citizens, connecting them to each other and the world, investing in new industries, becoming green, and creating a new generation of enlightened political leadership. The economy will demand more flexible transit service -
1. Non-traditional travel patterns will continue and intensify
2. Travel to non-Manhattan CBD destinations will grow, including reverse peak travel from NYC to suburbs
3. Intra-suburban travel will grow
4. Population will continue to grow in the outer reaches of the MTA service area, driven by the search for affordable housing

OK.. apart from all this fiction or non-fiction stories, another top line is - Is New York City dying? What this topic suggests is not that New York will disappear, but that its role as showcase of the world’s best and brightest could diminish over time. Well, thinking of hurricane/tornado/heavy flood which might be possibilities, but apart from that, if we envision the city 50 years later, will there be any fresh air to breath? will there be enough public park or gardens to stroll (except central park, and IF we do not destroy or convert existing parks) ?
How I would like to see the ‘NEW’ New York City, is more of amalgamation of nature with man-made nature. To achieve those criteria, I would prefer to pass a Law to prohibit the new construction/ development at least 50% ( more if possible) and establish new ‘Green Open Spaces’ instead of creating new ones after demolishing old ones. Another law is to promote Sustainable development, only as part of new construction, encouragement of planting new trees along all the avenues & streets. It is very understandable that Urban and infrastructure development depends on the zoning system. But If we are looking at the future of New York City, it is very hard to imagine the urban structure with green/open spaces except Central Park. I would like to make each and every building producing it’s own energy ( at least some portion of it, if not entire) in any form. Another major contribution of the city is ‘Subway’ lines. Can we make them as clean and nice as in Washington DC ? I suspect there are enough possibilities of having ecofriendly subway lines which ‘are’ actually clean and help saving environment as well.

ERW_PII_collage - east river waterfront
Many Urban schemes today are under construction, ‘East River Waterfront’ is one of those example that is promoting new ‘Urban Public Park’, public friendly water front area that includes recreational facilities, marina, small to med size retail markets. Basically the notion is to bring all ages of people to the water front and make it family friendly environment. The current situation is more like c rowdy spaces become more c rowdy while empty spaces remain empty even if both goes along. One of the changes in that scheme I would like to make is to continue the underground highway ( which ends at maritime museum near the tip of the island, and becomes fly-over then), so it allows us more open space to deal with and looks far better aesthetically. To control the traffic scenario taxi rents, parking fees should be increased. City should be offering new modes of pedestrian access, having bicycle tracks along roads. If even business class people in china/japan can go office using bicycle, why can’t we do over here? It just need have designated bicycle tracks between roads & pedestrian lines. There should be new bicycle storage/parking structure which might also renting bikes at low fix rates (it definitely consumes less space compare to car parking) and help people using subway lines.
So, having 3 main points for building the ‘NEW’ New York City -
1. More trees along roads and open green spaces
2. Promoting ONLY sustainable development
3. Control current and future traffic and encourage bicycle tracks
Can we make our city much fresh, much Green, more livable ??