Fascinating infographics from the New York Times illustrating the revitalisation of that great metropolis under Mayor Bloomberg:
Showing new buildings, areas where re-zoning has help spur development [below]
And of course the 450 miles of bike lanes added by repurposing traffic lanes:
It also briefly mentions concern around rising property values, a complex issue which is of course on one hand a sign of success but that also creates exclusion some sections of community.
A nice piece of work by the Times and a good illustration of how much and what ways cities are changing this century. Hat tip to regular reader George D for the link, be sure to check it out.
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Can’t forget all the great pedestrian priority projects, best of all pedestrianisation of Times Square. Of course alot of this is down to the amazing Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.
Especially exciting news is that she is coming to Auckland next year for an Auckland Conversations talk.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-janette-sadik-khan-has-improved-nyc-2013-4?op=1
She is? Fantastic. Get your name in quick for that talk.
Paul Steely White from Transportation Alternatives (http://www.transalt.org/newsroom/media/556) is also coming to speak in Auckland soon. He has been invited by Cycle Action Auckland with half his airfare paid for by NZTA – which is a great initiative.
Transportation Alternatives has been really great at focussing on the cyle initiatives but no doubt it wouldnt have happened without a guy like Bloomberg at the helm as Mayor. Amazing to see the improved performance of retail where cycle paths have been installed. A lesson Ponsonby will soon profit from.
Let’s also not forget that Bloomberg is a republican and he – along with Boris Johnson in London – help to show that a focus on improving transport by means other than just putting more cars on the roads shouldn’t be a left or right issue. Both mayors have had a noticeably big focus on cycling.
Bloomberg is and always has been a Democrat.
?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg
He clearly is an opportunist, having been Democrat, Republican, and now Independent.
I don’t know his other policies, but he clearly was also opportunist about cycling – he saw an opportunity to change his city and took it.
Well indeed, but there is much to be said for paddling your waka with the current instead of pretending it’s still flowing the other way just because that’s what it was doing when your opinions were first formed…. You probably don’t get to amass that many billions without having a keen sense of the zeitgeist, but the challenge always is staying alive to changes and not clinging to your first success…. That seems to me to be Bloomberg’s real achievement, or I suppose you could call him an opportunist.
Meh, I don’t expect politicians to be bedrocks of perfection and unchanging strength. I am not one myself. I am more curious about the fact that he survived politically with that behaviour. In the US, such kind of moves can be pretty deadly. But he obviously did survive.
Great post thanks, Patrick. And thanks for the link on Janette Sadik-Khan, Luke. She is certainly doing some great things foy NYC. Times square has been turned into a people place, not a car place! Would be nice to see more art work and sculpture in Auckland central. It’s civilising.
I also think we could do with more street tables for people like me to have my coffee. Maybe this is more of a summer thing. Not for Queen Street, but places like Elliot Street could do with more. We’ve got the great shared space environment but it’s mostly people walking, could do with more people sitting.
On Elliot, I think maybe some of those LOOK footpath signs could be a good idea. I love walking around there but I’m always looking over my shoulder for cars coming. It would only take one or two incidents for our authorities to push for a road again.
Looking forward to hearing when Janette is appearing here. I’d love to hear her talk.
Just noting that Paul Steely-White, the president of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives* is also coming to Auckland (in a few months, this year).
*Transportation advice is similar to Campaign for Better Transport, Cycle Action, Walk Auckland combined, and writ large…
Meanwhile in Auckland – http://caa.org.nz/auckland-transport/always-follow-the-money
Very good discussion in the comments at that CAA post, Ta.
Thanks for the hat-tip. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”, said Henry Ford, and he was right.
New York is an interesting mix of deregulation and guided development. Amanda Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission, appears to have quite clear powers in directing the way in which major developments are allowed to spring forth, so that they work well with their social environment. That’s important, but it’s a quite different way of doing things to the restrictionist outlook the anti-plan anti-urbanists in Auckland are trying to foist on us. The alternative is a city that allows people to build the houses they need and the business and recreation facilities we desire, in ways that improve the quality of life of all of us. We’ll get there, if we allow ourselves to.
Yeah that’s a classic Fordism. Yet there’s a way that even that is an understatement of the risk of not changing actions. Consider this from Francis Bacon:
“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for Time is the greatest innovator”
So spending on transport now like it’s still the 60s can’t even give us 60s outcomes; those conditions are gone.
Ford also transformed the motor industry from coachbuilt one-offs and limited lines to mass-produced vehicle models. “Any colour you want, so long as it’s black”. Nowadays there’s nothing preventing people from buying hand-built cars and limited runs, but few do, because of the cost and complication, and increasingly safety regulation which prevents us from riding in death-traps.
In all the debate about “housing prices”, there has been little examination of one of the key drivers of housing cost, and that is the actual cost of building houses themselves. There are few people producing housing using modular technologies, and I wonder what factors cause this. Just as a car manufacturer isn’t required to test every single vehicle, so manufacturers of houses should be able to certify their designs under certain conditions. We could probably make other reasonable concessions, while maintaining quality standards.