Discussions about the factors that affect development in New York City tend to cluster around ideas of zoning and demographics and, to a lesser extent, the demand for quality of life factors such as access to transportation, public school systems, and access to essential services. The belief in developers as motivated by changes to the market – e.g. zoning changes in downtown Manhattan will create a new market for developers – seems to obscure cause/effect relationships between supply/demand as well as emerging factors that may force both developers, local cities, and residents to reconsider why and what changes need to be made.
NYMag
For example, recall the readings and discussions this semester and come up with some general characteristics of development (or gentrification) in a neighborhood and attributed causes and effects of development. And now …
- What if the local mall is known as The Schwarma? Henry Grabar, “The Meat Stick on 34th Street,” Slate
- What if the Next Big Thing for the community never happens? Alexander Sammen, The Rise and Fall of the New York Wheel,” The New Republic
- What if Silicon Valley never produces something for existing urban infrastructure? Aaron Gordan, “‘It’s a Car in a Very Small Tunnel’: Actual Transportation Professionals Unimpressed With Musk’s Boring Company,” Jalopnik
- What if it really is about less land use regulations? New Geography review of Alain Bertou’s Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities?
- What if it really is about more regulation? Zach Williams, “How Rent Regulation Depends on Closing LLC Loophole,” City and State NY
- What if there’s more land? Bill de Blasio, “My New Plan to Climate-Proof Lower Manhattan, NYMag.com
- What if there’s no land at all? NPR Review of the science fiction novel New York 2140 by Kim Stanley-Robinson (nominated for Hugo Award’s Best Novel in 2018)
