Today, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum spoke before the Institute of Real Estate Management. Excerpts from the remarks she delivered are below:
"New York City’s population is predicted to climb from 8.2 million in 2006 to 9.1 million by 2030, nearly a million additional New Yorkers in just under 25 years. With so many people moving here, we have to be especially thoughtful about planning for growth.
There is no doubt that Mayor Bloomberg has been a development-friendly mayor. And there’s no doubt development done responsibly is a good thing for the city. Development brings jobs and ideally more affordable housing. It certainly brings vitality to a city.
But development must be balanced, smart and safe. And development requires a vision.
Like the vision just beginning to take shape across the country to build green. Green building is the future of development and we need to be doing as much of it as possible here.
As I see it, there are 4 main issues though with development right now in New York:
1. It is lacking vision.
2. Infrastructure improvements are not keeping pace with new development.
3. Too few New Yorkers are benefiting from it.
4. Individual buildings are being erected without proper regard for safety."
Thank goodness that someone in this City will speak 'truth to power' concerning planning for the future development of NYC! The planning field and developers have been lulled into passivity on this issue since the former mayor [who will remain nameless] was such a tyrant whose mean-spiritedness terrorized everyone.
The Public Advocate is correct that there is 'NO VISON' as evident by the multitude of mega plans that have been fostered by the administration or private applications approved by the Planning Department. The City of NY has no comprehensive plan for the future, and only a few of the Community Boards have been successful in getting 197-A plans completed and approved by the City as required by the City Charter.
There have been a rash of down-zonings of neighborhoods that had been assaulted with 'out of scale' structures and overdevelopment created by the economic and real estate boom of the last decade. However, we immediately need a pro-active,comprehensive, city-wide plan for the future. This work should protect other areas from this plight as well as to identify areas for up-zoning to accomodate future population growth and the critical need for affordable housing. Where is Ms. Gotbaum's own housing study that identified potential areas for increases in housing density?
Posted by: anonomous | September 10, 2008 at 07:19 PM