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Recent Editorials |
On Crow Eating, Madonna Dissing & Kindred-Spirit Sightingsby Sandy Ikeda
OK, I was wrong. In my penultimate post on Mayor Bloomberg's congestion-pricing proposal, I asserted, based on my reading of the political tea leaves, that its passage by the State Assembly should be "a done deal." Well, I wasn't close (unless you're willing to let "not getting to a floor vote" count as close). I usually try really hard to avoid making economic predictions except in very general terms, so why I thought I could do better in the political realm I can't say. So I've learned my lesson … again. (But for how long?) *** Madonna's interview in Vanity Fair where she disses New York has gotten a lot of publicity. In it she says about Our Incomparable City: It's not the exciting place it used to be. It still has great energy; I still put my finger in the socket. But it doesn't feel alive, cracking with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion world that was happening in the '80s.Speaking up for NYC, Amy Poehler of "Saturday Night Live" retorted in last weekend's "Weekend Update" segment: "Right back at you, Madonna!" Nice! *** I've just happened across the work of Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Here's the archive of her writings for the Sun. As you can see her range of interests is quite broad: from urban policy to the best boutique health clubs. Please have a look. To take one example, I agree with her analysis of the controversial rezoning of 125th Street in Harlem in "Dismissed by Jane Jacobs, Harlem Reinventing Itself as a Mixed-Use Haven." In describing how the Harriet Tubman Gardens, a mixed-use development on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, has reinvigorated the neighborhood she writes: One consequence of the new residential development is that the commercial corridor has sprung to life, with work — new and old — "stirred alongside and among the stretches of dwellings," as [Jane] Jacobs urged.My two cents: Basically, there are two kinds of zoning policy. There's "disabling zoning," such as the traditional approach of segregating land uses by function that hampers the kinds of diverse interactions that produce entrepreneurial discoveries, and then there's "enabling policy" that encourages entrepreneurship by allowing innovators with different visions to share social space. What the city plans to do for the Columbia University area seems more like the latter. A word of caution: The sources of genuine economic vitality are unpredictable. She's also written for the New York Post on "To Save Moynihan Station" and I agree with her take here as well. First of all, what began as the Senator's nice idea quickly swelled to mega-proportions. Moynihan's simple proposal would have retained the post office's façade while completely remaking the interior. Government officials gradually transformed that into a far more expansive plan that would match profits from private development with government subsidies to pay for the station construction.Her suggestion for what to do now — namely start moving the Penn Station over to there while the Empire State Corporation ponders the Dolans' threat to pull Madison Square Garden out of the deal — is spot on: "In the meantime, though, why not take [former governor] Pataki's advice — and start the work on Farley?" Right! And who needs MSG in there anyway? It's always nice to stumble upon a fellow traveler like this – and writing for the same newspaper! *** And in the same spirit, fellow blogger of things urban David Sucher points in his interesting blog City Comforts to an article by Elizabeth Farrelly in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, called "Congestion is What Urban Life is Really All About" in which she says apropos congestion pricing: Cities, unlike hearts, are not improved by zero congestion. Pretty much the whole of Australia has zero congestion (unless you count the flies). Cities are designed to concentrate — or congest — human energy. They are less about moving through than being there; they thrive on bustle, busy-ness and friction, creative and otherwise.Very well said. Culture emerges from congestion.
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