When Did New York Become The Planning Capital Of The U.S.?

As New York's civic and business leaders tried to ensure the city didn't slip as the global financial capital -- though, obviously, that's not a title of distinction these days -- it successfully became the U.S. planning capital. Typically, such a feat doesn't receive much attention, but the Times has recently hopped on the urban planning beat with an appreciated, relative vengeance.

Not only is Times Square only open to pedestrians and mildly tacky furniture now, as shown in the above photo, but Broadway, one of Manhattan's and by extension, the country's, most renowned streets, is losing travel lanes as people overtake cars on the totem pole. As Michael Grynbaum reports, in the past two years three-and-a-half miles of travel lanes have been eliminated, as have many parking spaces, replaced by bicycle lanes and picnic tables. At the same time, the city is creating two "aging-improvement" districts in East Harlem and the Upper West Side, which means more benches, better lighting and better drainage, among other simple but important things that makes seniors' mobility easier. The city has also closed long stretches of streets on weekends for recreation and devoted lanes to buses, so they travel faster.

These are not simple things to accomplish. The first time the Bloomberg administration tried to demote the car, with congestion pricing, it stalled spectacularly in the New York Legislature. Saying no to cars, when everyone seems to ride in them, even if they do so much less in Manhattan than in the rest of the country, is bold. Emphasizing walkers, bicyclists and quality streetscapes is difficult to accomplish because they can be expensive endeavors that don't create the kinds of benefits the immediate-to-react demand, i.e. jobs. Jobs matter, of course, but so does a place's desirability and safety. The aging districts might actually be more important because with them, the Bloomberg administration realizes that U.S. cities haven't been well designed or governed for anyone but the postgraduate, approximately ages 22 to 35, for at least the previous 30 years. The districts openly acknowledge that cities only function at their peak when people of all ages and backgrounds can live there comfortably.

Mayor Bloomberg sure deserves credit for having the vision to implement this, as he does for many other things (which I've written often about), but so does the city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Kahn, and the countless number of planners on her staff who come up with these don't stand behind the microphone at press conferences.