Samuel Zipp explains in his Manhattan’s Project’s: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York, the ideas and motivations for remodeling and redeveloping New York’s Manhattan in the early 20th century.

What I found insightful was actually mainly Levi-Strauss’s comments, especially the one mentioning how the red brick buildings were completely empty and ready to be demolished. Whenever I take the 7 train to get into Manhattan, right before the train heads underground, I can always see these old brick buildings near 5 Pointz. However, right on the other side of the train was Long Island City, the new, modern, up and coming neighborhood. Seeing this, you can say that urbanization has not been fully achieved yet, especially in Queens.

I can’t speak for other boroughs, but I can say that Queens in also following in the footsteps of modernizing like Manhattan did. Looking back on the last ten years, there has been a lot of new buildings that have popped up in the neighborhood of Flushing. Many many hotels have popped up, but among these newer taller buildings are contemporary, modern luxury apartment complexes. Similar to how the landscape of Manhattan today looks nothing like it did half a century ago, the upcoming years for Queens will have a large impact on its scenery. This impending changes makes me wondering if this modernization will take away any essential cultural part of the neighborhood. A possible side effect of appearing more modern would be the lose of a neighborhood’s cultural roots.