I have to admit a small love affair with geography. But in recent years, I’ve viewed the concept of geography in a more “micro” sense. Instead of looking at the Iberian Peninsula or the Caspian Sea, I’m finding the artificial geography within cities more interesting. There are numerous analogies to describe a city to make it seem like a form of wilderness. But the truth is, once streets are laid down, the land will never be the same again. We’ve paved asphalt over what was once wilderness.
But instead of looking for analogies to define city scenes in nature terms, maybe we should redefine (perhaps, pervert) our notion of geography to encompass the physical elements of our artificial environments. And once we do that, we can look at public space in a completely different light. (more…)
Charles Wang, owner of the New York Islanders, has been taking some major losses trying to keep the franchise afloat. The team’s viability in Long Island hinges on Wang’s ability to build a new stadium/shopping/condo/hotel megaplex.
Wang ran into some problems, though. Kate Murray, the Hempstead Town Supervisor who oversees the re-zoning necessary for the project to go through, had no support for the project up until recently. Wang was threatening to bail on Long Island all together if he didn’t get the project. It’s hard to blame him, and even harder to understand Murray’s opposition. Who wouldn’t want to keep a team that won 4 Stanley Cups in the 1980’s, in a county with an otherwise stagnant economy?
But tucked in the supporter’s push for this project is a vision for a new suburban model. (more…)
My old employers (internship) over at the BEH look like they’re on to something with this study:
Advocates for New Urbanism or “active living” often identify zoning as a policy strategy to make cities more walkable. Because zoning regulates both building size and land use, changes in zoning can affect both population density and the availability of shops and restaurants within a walkable distance. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability plan, PlaNYC, advocates rezoning city neighborhoods to allow higher-density development near subway stops, allowing more New Yorkers to use public transit instead of private automobiles.
However, zoning change can be a politically complicated process. Some communities resist “upzoning” because of concern about gentrification and displacement of low-income families, or about the loss of a distinctive neighborhood character. In fact, population growth in New York City has been accompanied by a wave of “downzoning,” in which neighborhoods seek to limit new, higher-density development.
With summer high school interns Alexa Nichols and Carolyn Ruvkun, BEH is studying zoning change in New York City between 2003 and 2007, with a focus on the more extensive rezonings required to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) application process. Using ULURP applications as well as parcel-level data on zoning characteristics, this project will show whether recent zoning change has made the city more or less walkable.
But I’m not so sure they are. (more…)
